LIV's Leftovers Find a Side Door: Pieters, Ortiz and La Sasso Get Invites to the DP World Tour Opener

LIV Golf is being wound down in a New Jersey bankruptcy court. Its players still need somewhere to tee it up, and the DP World Tour just started handing out keys.

Thomas Pieters, Carlos Ortiz and Michael La Sasso have received invitations to the BMW Australian PGA Championship, the first event of the DP World Tour's 2027 season, Golf Monthly reported (opens in a new tab) after the entry list was confirmed. None of the three holds a DP World Tour card. All three are in under Category 5a, the slot for professional tournament invitations, at The Lakes Golf Club in Sydney from Nov. 26 to 29.

Three Different Roads to Sydney

Each invite tells its own story. Pieters is a six-time DP World Tour winner who resigned his membership to join LIV in 2023, and he came up short of regaining his card at the Final Stage of Qualifying School, per Golf Monthly. For a player with his résumé, a sponsor exemption is a lifeline, not a courtesy.

Ortiz won the 2020 Vivint Houston Open on the PGA TOUR before jumping to LIV in 2022, according to Golf Monthly. The PGA TOUR's own recap of that win still reads like a breakthrough: a closing 65 at Memorial Park for his first TOUR title (opens in a new tab). Six years later he is starting over on someone else's invitation list.

La Sasso is the newest name of the three. He won LIV Golf Indianapolis, but he failed to get through Second Stage of Q-School in his first try for a DP World Tour card, per Golf Monthly. Sydney gives him a start he could not earn through the usual route.

Sydney Will Look Like a LIV Reunion

The three invitees will have plenty of familiar faces. Cameron Smith, Harold Varner III and Elvis Smylie are in the field as former winners of the event, Golf Monthly reported. Defending champion David Puig gets in under Category 4. Marc Leishman and Lucas Herbert are playing at home under Category 8, the national professionals slot, and Jose Luis Ballester qualified with a top 15 and ties finish at Q-School's Final Stage.

That is a lot of LIV DNA for one event, and it comes alongside Adam Scott, Min Woo Lee and Alex Noren. The plans of several of those players are still unsettled. Herbert has said he will play the DP World Tour, while Smith and Leishman had not declared their 2027 plans as of this week, per Golf Australia (opens in a new tab).

Why the Door Opened

This was not always the plan. In October, Golfweek (opens in a new tab) reported that the DP World Tour would bar players who committed to LIV in 2027 from its events and membership, with chief executive Guy Kinnings telling BBC Sport that players had to pick a side. Golfweek also reported a Nov. 16 deadline for players to commit to the DP World Tour for 2027.

That threat helped shake the tree. French pro Victor Perez, who joined LIV's Cleeks GC for 2026, said the possible ban had ruffled feathers and forced players to make decisions earlier than planned, per GolfMagic (opens in a new tab). Then LIV collapsed altogether, and the choice made itself. With LIV's parent pursuing a wind-down plan and the PGA TOUR still sorting out how and when former LIV players can return, Europe is the open market.

LIV Alumni Are Already Running the Board

If anyone wonders whether these players can still compete, look at Dubai this weekend. Tyrrell Hatton, whom Golf Digest (opens in a new tab) called a LIV Golf alum, leads the DP World Tour Championship at 9 under through 54 holes. Perez is one shot back.

The season-long race has the same flavor. Eugenio Chacarra, who joined LIV at its 2022 launch and played three seasons there, entered the week No. 1 in the Race to Dubai, per Golf Digest and GOLF.com (opens in a new tab). Patrick Reed, who left LIV in January, has spent 2026 on the DP World Tour chasing one of the 10 PGA TOUR cards that go to the top of the standings, per GOLF.com. Jon Rahm won in Abu Dhabi in his first start after leaving LIV.

So the invites are not charity. They are the tour recognizing that the former LIV crowd sells tickets and fills leaderboards, especially in Australia, where Smith, Leishman and Herbert are national names.

The Bigger Picture

Invitations are not membership, and that distinction matters. Category 5a gets Pieters, Ortiz and La Sasso into one tournament. To build a full season, they will need more invites, strong finishes or another crack at Q-School. The star tier plays by different rules: major champions such as Bryson DeChambeau can apply for full status, and DeChambeau, who just unveiled a course design project in his hometown, has not yet announced his decision.

Still, Sydney is the first concrete sign of what the post-LIV landscape looks like for the rank and file. It is not a red carpet. It is a side door, propped open one tournament at a time, and three players just walked through it.

Sources: Golf Monthly, Golf Digest, GOLF.com, Golfweek, Golf Australia, GolfMagic, PGA TOUR. More golf coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: PGA TOUR.