Louis Oosthuizen Walks Away From LIV Golf: 'The Hardest Decision of My Career'

DALLAS, Oct 21 — Louis Oosthuizen, the 2010 Open champion who has been one of the most recognizable faces of LIV Golf since its launch, announced Wednesday that he will not re-sign with the breakaway circuit for its next chapter and will return to the DP World Tour in 2027. The 44-year-old South African delivered the news himself, in an emotional farewell posted across his social media channels, calling it the hardest decision of his professional career.

"Five years ago, I made one of the best decisions of my life, moving away from the traditional golf world and into something very special with LIV Golf and Southern Guards GC," Oosthuizen wrote in the statement. "I'm the biggest supporter of team golf and always will be. Golf needs more of it."

Oosthuizen was among the first players to defect to LIV, teeing it up at the league's inaugural event in June 2022, and he captained Southern Guards GC — an all-South African team featuring longtime friends Charl Schwartzel, Branden Grace and Dean Burmester — for the entirety of the league's existence. His departure is the latest and perhaps most symbolic wound to a league fighting for survival.

The reasons he gave were personal and practical. The proposed stripped-back LIV 2.0 schedule, which would demand extensive international travel for a smaller slate of single events, did not fit a golfer entering the twilight of his career. Speaking to the South China Morning Post ahead of this week's Link Hong Kong Open, he was blunt about the arithmetic of his remaining years.

"I realized I have a lot more in me, and my biggest fear was that the schedule on LIV 2.0 would be tough to manage," Oosthuizen said. "I feel I have a few more years of good, competitive golf left in me, and the only way to be really sharp and competitive is through a schedule I control."

"I need to arrange my own schedule and look after my body," he added. "I want to play near one spot for three weeks at a time, not have all the big travelling for one tournament. I loved LIV and the team aspect, but it's time to move on."

"Southern Guards is my team. It always has been and it always will be. That's what makes this so difficult," he said. "This is probably the hardest decision I've had to make in my career, but I have to do what I believe is right for my golf. It doesn't change how I feel about the team or the guys."

He takes pride in bringing LIV Golf to South African soil at Steyn City earlier this year, where his team finished second. "Bringing LIV Golf to South Africa was one of the best things I've done in my career. It was for the people of South Africa, and I think it was a great success," he wrote. "I'll always be grateful to PIF and LIV for what they did for me."

His exit is part of a cascading exodus. Former world No. 1 Jon Rahm confirmed his own departure — via lawyers in a bankruptcy court filing — with LIV relinquishing nearly all rights to his name, image and likeness and Rahm taking control of his Legion XIII team's intellectual property. Sergio Garcia's contract was terminated at his lawyers' request in early October; with the DP World Tour recently banning LIV players, his departure looks near certain. Adrian Meronk has also confirmed he will not return in 2027, and Bryson DeChambeau is among more than a dozen players whose contracts have been rejected through the bankruptcy process.

The backdrop is existential. LIV Golf voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on September 8 after Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund — which poured more than $5 billion into the venture over five years, per court records — cut its funding in April. The league has since secured investment from BC Partners Credit and must decide this month whether to wind down or attempt a LIV 2.0 reboot in 2027. Players face a reported soft deadline of October 25 to declare their intentions; only Richard Bland, Cameron Tringale, Brendan Steele and Ben Campbell were reported to have publicly committed to 2.0.

For Oosthuizen, the path forward is a homecoming. His DP World Tour journey began in 2004, two years after he turned professional, and he says he looks forward to revisiting courses he has not played in years. His immediate focus is the 65th Link Hong Kong Open, running October 22–25 at the Hong Kong Golf Club in Fanling, before his formal return to the European circuit in January 2027.

The timing also reflects a competitive calculation. Once ranked as high as fourth in the Official World Golf Ranking, Oosthuizen has slipped to 539th since joining LIV — a ranking wilderness that has cost him major-championship access. The Open exemption he earned by winning at St Andrews in 2010 keeps him in that championship through age 60, including next July's return to the Old Course, but he has significant qualifying work ahead for the other 2027 majors. With five runner-up finishes in majors — including the 2012 Masters playoff loss to Bubba Watson and the 2015 Open playoff taken by Zach Johnson — he still believes, as he put it, that he has "a sniff" of another major title left in him.

Whether LIV 2.0 survives without captains like Oosthuizen and Rahm is an open question. What is certain is that the original experiment — star power bought wholesale, team golf as identity — is over. Its most loyal soldiers are writing their own farewells, and Oosthuizen's may be the most telling of all.