What next for LIV Golf's star players, and its fight for survival?

The DP World Tour has said it has had a "high volume" of interest from LIV Golf players and is exploring ways to accommodate those who leave the breakaway league.

It comes as LIV Golf filed for bankruptcy protection in the US on Tuesday, as it attempts to restructure for a "new era" next year.

LIV owes at least $45m (£33m) to 14 current and former players.

Its golfers, including star names like Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm, can now opt to leave, rather than being obliged to see out their contracts in LIV 2.0 which is aiming to launch next year.

But, given all the acrimony since LIV's launch in 2021 and subsequent outlay of $5bn (£3.7bn) split the sport, it may not be easy to return to the PGA Tour and DP World Tour.

A spokesperson for the DP World Tour said: "Given the high volume of inbound interest and enquiries we have received in recent weeks, we are exploring the terms on which we are willing to accommodate players, provided they are free from third-party contractual restrictions and are willing to abide by our membership regulations.

"Our tournament committee has approved the process we intend to follow and we expect further enquiries in the days ahead."

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Court documents show LIV estimates its assets at $100m-$500m (£74m-£370m) and its liabilities at between $500m and $1bn (£370m-£739m).

Plans are for LIV 2.0 to be "built around a sustainable business model".

It is unclear at present how many of LIV's existing players may decide to stay.

While LIV bosses are hopeful of being able to transition to a "new era" early next year, both the bankruptcy filing and the first court hearing in the US on Wednesday highlighted the critical issue of player retention, with tight timescales and significant criteria to be met.

There are a number of "key milestones" ahead, including that within 35 days of the bankruptcy petition, a "requisite number of players" need to have entered into the restructuring agreement.

Further down the bankruptcy documents, it is explained: "'Requisite players' means players holding eligible player claims… that equal or exceed (a) 2/3 in amount and (b) 1/2 in number of such eligible player claims held by all players."

Essentially, half of all players with claims against LIV Golf need to have signed up for LIV 2.0 by mid-October.

And there will need to be several top players among them, as they are the ones who are owed the most money.

Rahm topped the list of unsecured creditors, being owed $7.5m (£5.5m) in Q3 of this year, while the next four spots were filled by DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Cameron Smith and Adrian Meronk.

Why who plays where is so complicated

Playing on both the traditional tours and LIV has proved complicated.

There are now believed to be around 15 players who have exemptions to compete in in the DP World Tour.

Nine players, including Rahm, agreed conditional releases this year which allowed them to feature on both tours without disciplinary action.

Meanwhile, Brooks Koepka quit LIV in December 2025 and returned to the PGA Tour in 2026 but only after making a $5m (£3.7m) charitable donation and forgoing any payment from the FedExCup Bonus scheme, as well as being ineligible for the tour's player equity programme until 2030.

The PGA said this was one of the "largest financial repercussions in professional sports history" under its returning member programme for top players.

Conversely, Patrick Reed did not meet the programme's criteria when he quit LIV.

He has therefore had to earn his place back on next year's PGA Tour through the DP World Tour's Race to Dubai top 10.

PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp said last month there were "no current plans" to run the returning member programme again, which indicated Reed's path back will be the most likely way forward for other golfers.

BBC Sport has been told players who have exempt status will be able to apply to the DP World Tour, but the tour would need to consider what any new LIV looks like before a final decision.

For those without exempt status rejoining the DP World Tour, it is understood they could not be contracted to LIV.

What will LIV 2.0 look like?

If LIV bosses can secure the funding to continue with what they are calling LIV 2.0, the major scaling back will be in terms of prize funds.

Their ambition is for tournaments worth around £7m, which puts them well below leading events on the PGA Tour but above most competitions on Europe's DP World Tour.