Phil Mickelson is not coming back to the PGA Tour in any official capacity, according to Trey Wingo, even as the future of LIV Golf appears increasingly unsettled. Wingo said in a recent sit-down that the bridge with Mickelson has been “burned, detonated, destroyed, nuked, lasered to death,” leaving no path back to a formal role.
The blunt assessment lands as reports say Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund may stop funding LIV Golf after the current season. If that happens, the circuit that launched in 2021 and later piled up reported losses between $6 billion and $9 billion could face a break point that changes professional golf’s balance of power again. Mickelson played a major role in getting LIV up and running before its inaugural event in 2022, and he was one of the faces most closely tied to the league’s early push against the PGA Tour.
That history now cuts against him. Mickelson burned every bridge he had built over decades with the PGA Tour, and Wingo said there is no scenario in which he sees the six-time major champion returning in any official capacity. The former broadcaster also argued that Mickelson is well beyond his prime, a reminder that whatever leverage he once had in golf’s power struggle has faded with age and with time away from the circuit that made him a star.
The broader picture is more complicated than one player’s future. The PGA Tour is expected to welcome back some LIV golfers if the league ends, but not all of them, and the early signs already point to a selective return. Brooks Koepka was welcomed back to begin 2026 with strict specifications, while Patrick Reed is set to return in an official capacity in the fall after neither player renewed his LIV contract. Bryson DeChambeau, described as the most popular player on the LIV circuit, adds another layer of uncertainty because his profile could make him one of the most watched names if the breakaway tour collapses.
For Mickelson, the endgame looks different from the others. He helped create the alternative he may never be allowed to rejoin, and the sport appears ready to move on without offering him a formal seat at the table. If LIV loses its funding, the most consequential question may not be whether Mickelson can return, but whether the game he helped split can be stitched back together without him.
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