To LIV and back: Laurie Canter ‘lucky’ to make history at Players

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Three years ago, it would have been hard to imagine PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan shaking Laurie Canter’s hand and handing the former LIV Golfer a box of Players Championship cufflinks.

Canter, one of the founding members of LIV Golf, became the first former member of the breakaway circuit to become eligible for the PGA Tour’s flagship event when he broke into the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking earlier this month. But Canter doesn’t view his TPC Sawgrass tee time as a groundbreaking moment in golf’s fractured world. It’s just how things fell into place for him. Golf serendipity.

“No, I don’t feel like a trailblazer,” Canter said with a chuckle on Wednesday morning. “I feel lucky that I wasn’t a member of the PGA Tour. If I had been, I couldn’t be here. The fact that I didn’t have my PGA Tour card and the position was I needed [to miss a year of PGA Tour golf after your final LIV start] — so no I would definitely not use that term.”

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Canter has no ill feelings toward LIV Golf. The 35-year-old Englishman admits he joined the rebel circuit for the financial stability it provided. He played in the first event because it was 25 miles from his home, suiting up for the Cleeks for the entire first season before losing his spot. He served as an alternate in 2023 and lost in a playoff at the LIV promotions event in 2023. He was a LIV wild card early in 2024 before being replaced by Anthony Kim.

After that, Canter used his temporary status to return to the DP World Tour. He won the European Open last June and then at the Bapco Energies Bahrain Championship. Those victories nudged him near the top 50 in the world, and a sudden death playoff loss in South Africa punched his ticket to TPC Sawgrass. Now, he’ll forever be the answer to a niche golf trivia question.

“I mean, until LIV came along, people didn’t plan to do that,” Canter said of his path. “So it’s not like it was a plan in my head when I was growing up playing, necessarily. To kind of characterize it, it’s kind of the path that opened up for me and something that I wanted to pursue and do. I feel lucky and grateful to have the opportunities I’ve had and to be able to find a way back to play in events like this. That’s kind of where I’d sit with it. It hasn’t been orthodox or, in that respect, it hasn’t been by design. It’s just how it worked for me with the opportunities that were in front of me.”

Canter, who is not yet a PGA Tour member, arrives at the flagship event just as negotiations between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) appear to be grinding to a halt over what Monahan deemed “hurdles” during his address Tuesday. He has been getting playful jabs from some players in the locker room over his time at LIV but isn’t getting caught up in the fuss. Asked if he thought it would be wise for the PGA Tour to create a pathway for LIV players to return, Canter played it safe, opting to save his risky shots for the famed 17th hole.

“I’m not a PGA Tour member,” Canter said. “I can’t really answer that. It’s not fair. I don’t want to speak for the members. I feel like on the DP World Tour, where I’m a member, it has enhanced some events having a couple of those guys come and play. I think if that was something the PGA Tour looked at, if they looked at Dubai or potentially when Jon Rahm comes and plays the Spanish Open, that kind of the thing, that might be something they would think about. But I can’t speak of the PGA Tour. I’m not even a member. I feel grateful to have the opportunity I have.”

While not a member yet, Canter is hopeful that a PGA Tour card is in his very near future.

“I think anyone who plays golf would [like to be a PGA Tour member],” Canter said. “You look at the event this week, last week I watched and kind of where those Signature Events are going, I mean, if you could engineer, play well enough to where you’ve got your world ranking where you’ve got Signature Events and majors — what a year that is for a golfer to play those venues with those golfers for that amount of money. It’s incredible.”