LIV star responds as PGA Tour lays off huge | Sports News

The PGA Tour moved to trim its workforce on Thursday, laying off 56 full-time workers as half of a sweeping restructuring below its new for-profit model — a development that prompted an instant response from one of LIV Golf’s most outstanding figures.

The cuts account for roughly 4 % of the golf tour’s world workforce, which totals more than 1,300 workers. Beyond the layoffs, 73 marketed open positions may also go unfilled.

The overhaul follows a Voluntary Retirement Program launched late final yr, by which 30 workers took half, and a review of the tour’s organizational construction carried out by FTI Consulting, a business advisory firm introduced on board on the finish of 2025. The layoffs have been executed based mostly on FTI’s suggestions.

Despite the workforce reductions, experiences indicated that the group turned a revenue in 2025 and stays on firm financial ground, with plans to reinvest in more than 30 new full-time positions, together with senior-level roles, within the weeks forward. The tour’s new for-profit construction was created by way of its 2023 partnership with the Strategic Sports Group, which dedicated to invest up to $3 billion into PGA Tour Enterprises, with an initial contribution of $1.5 billion for a valuation exceeding $12 billion.

Discussions with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which had been anticipated to co-invest, have stagnated since a White House assembly went poorly final spring, and the PIF revealed a new strategy final week centered on reducing worldwide spending, the identical strategic pivot that allegedly prompted experiences of LIV Golf shedding its Saudi funding after this season.

Against that backdrop stepped Ian Poulter, the Majestics co-captain and LIV stalwart, who responded to the layoffs with a observe of sympathy earlier than shifting to a wider argument concerning the sport’s future.

“It’s not good to hear people losing their jobs,” Poulter wrote on X. “That’s not ideal for them at all. Hope they aren’t affected too bad and find roles elsewhere quickly. I heard the number was significantly larger, hopefully not true.”

Poulter has been amongst LIV’s most outspoken supporters since becoming a member of the breakaway circuit at its inaugural occasion in 2022, and he leveraged the tour’s present upheaval to make the case for a nearer relationship between the 2 organizations.

Speaking on ‘The Rough Cut Golf Podcast,’ he contended that LIV’s workforce format supplied a natural entry level for PGA Tour involvement. “There’s an opportunity to have two or three more teams in LIV,” he stated. “Why couldn’t they be PGA Tour teams? Why couldn’t you give 12 players – the top 12 or the 12 who want to play a certain number of events?”

Highlighting the mounting financial pressure on the tour as a catalyst for each events to achieve an settlement, he famous: “The PGA Tour are shortening the schedule. They need to monetize their business as soon as possible. There’s a lot of stress and pressure to the PGA Tour for them to make this make money.”