Stephen A. Smith accuses PGA Tour of forcing golfers to join LIV: ‘It was their abuse’

With the future of LIV Golf in doubt, Stephen A. Smith bizarrely believes it’s the PGA Tour that should be offering a public mea culpa.

In recent weeks, it’s widely been reported that LIV Golf’s funding from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund will run out at the conclusion of the 2026 season. And without a financial backer willing to lose billions of dollars on the league, LIV Golf seems destined to reach its expiration date quickly. The uncertainty around LIV, however, raises similar questions about the future of its golfers.

Last week, Trey Wingo joined the Awful Announcing Podcast and said don’t expect the PGA Tour to welcome LIV golfers back with open arms. Outside of wanting Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau, Wingo believes the PGA Tour will make it difficult for those who left for LIV to return.

Thursday morning on First Take, Stephen A. Smith countered what Wingo predicted and instead claimed the PGA Tour better welcome LIV golfers back, or else. According to Smith, it’s the PGA’s fault that they left in the first place.

“If the PGA decides to punish these (LIV) golfers, we should stay in their ass like white on rice…the players didn’t want to leave the PGA, they were forced to.” – Stephen A. Smith pic.twitter.com/ukVXV2vhKE

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 30, 2026

“If the PGA decides to punish these (LIV) golfers, we should stay in their ass like whit on rice,” Smith ranted. “They should not be punishing anybody. It was their negligence, it was their abuse, it was their taking golfers for granted that forced the existence of LIV to begin with. The players didn’t want to leave the PGA, they were forced to because they were looking for better opportunities because of the manner in which they were treated.”

“All they wanted was to be treated better,” Smith said of the golfers who left the PGA for LIV. “And the PGA stuck their nose up like the arrogant people that they were, and they mistreated these guys. Now that this is going away, supposedly, and these players from LIV are looking to come back, I don’t want to hear anything about punishment. They should be embraced, they should be accepted, and PGA should learn from this and treat them more fairly than they did in the past, which forced LIV’s existence to begin with.”

Smith is making golfers leaving the PGA for LIV out to be like people defecting from authoritarian systems or political oppression in search of freedom. The golfers who opted to leave the PGA did so for nine-figure checks from a country looking to sportswash their history of human rights abuses.

LIV’s existence undoubtedly forced the PGA Tour to pay its players better, and that business model has now been improved. But Smith claiming golfers only left for Saudi money because the PGA was abusing them might be the worst attempt at spinning sportswashing.