There could be one former LIV Golf pro at PGA Tour's flagship event after all...
Laurie Canter, who has played LIV Golf League events, has qualified for the 2025 Players Championship - but will the PGA Tour allow him to play?
European Ryder Cup hopeful Laurie Canter could become the first former LIV pro to make an official start on the PGA Tour since the golf wars began.
Canter got himself into a playoff over the weekend at the Investec South African Open on the DP World Tour.
The Englishman, 35, ultimately came up short in his bid for his second victory of the season and lost on the first extra hole to home favourite Dylan Naidoo.
But Canter's exploits at Durban Country Club now means that he will be inside the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking on 3 March.
Therefore, he is eligible to be in the field at TPC Sawgrass for the 2025 Players Championship.
Wow! @LaurieCanter with a world class approach from the rough at the par five second.#InvestecSAOpen pic.twitter.com/yWKVbyRVEn
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) March 1, 2025
The Players Championship - known in men's pro golf as the unofficial fifth major championship - is one of eight signature events on the 2025 schedule.
It will be played over 13-16 March.
Cameron Smith won the tournament in 2022 but has been barred from competing since joining the PIF-backed league.
Smith even lost his reserved parking space at TPC Sawgrass after he signed with LIV.
The Australian isn't alone. Former PGA Tour stars such as Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau won't be teeing it up at the Players in a few weeks' time.
Golfers on the breakaway tour still remain banned from competing in PGA Tour events.
In January 2023, the PGA Tour even moved to stem the flow of players to LIV Golf beyond its own membership.
They introduced a rule which stated: "Any player who has participated in an unauthorised tournament is ineligible to compete in any event sanctioned by the PGA Tour for a period of one year."
That rule affected Canter - but he has served his one-year suspension now.
Canter has played 19 LIV Golf events since 2022, the last of which was last February in Las Vegas.
The golfer previously told bunkered that he thought the policy 'was absurd'.
Canter was written to whilst he was attempting to get his first PGA Tour card via the Race to Dubai rankings.
Almost back.#THEPLAYERS pic.twitter.com/bQN5aGddrc
— THE PLAYERS (@THEPLAYERS) March 1, 2025
While it may seem that Canter should just be allowed to play at TPC Sawgrass, the pathway back to the PGA Tour from LIV still remains unclear.
Hudson Swafford - who was one of the first players to join LIV - previously told Golf Channel he couldn't get a straight answer from PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan about how he could return.
"There's some really grey stuff going on," he said last December.
"I tried to go back last year, talked to [Jason Gore, the Tour's senior vice president, player advisor to the commissioner] and Jay and thought I did everything pretty cordially, just told them how I felt.
"They could never give me an answer."
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