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Dustin Johnson is sticking with LIV Golf for the foreseeable future.
Johnson, a two-time major championship winner and former top-ranked golfer in the world, has signed a multiyear extension with the league, it announced on Wednesday. Johnson was one of the biggest names to make the jump over to LIV Golf from the PGA Tour initially, and he currently is the captain of the 4Aces GC team.
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Specifics of Johnson’s new deal are not yet known. His initial contract with LIV Golf was reported to be worth more than $100 million when he first left the Tour in 2022.
Johnson won 24 times on the Tour in his career. He’s won two major titles, too, first the U.S. Open in 2016 and then the Masters in 2020. While he’s more than held his own with LIV Golf, Johnson has struggled significantly lately elsewhere. He has missed the cut in six of his last nine major championship starts. The 41-year-old has plummeted to No. 636 in the Official World Golf Rankings, too, as LIV Golf events still do not count toward ranking points.
LIV Golf also announced that Thomas Detry has joined the 4Aces GC team. Detry, who is currently No. 58 in the OWGR, picked up his inaugural Tour win last season at the WM Phoenix Open. He won that tournament by seven strokes, which made him the first player from Belgium to win on the Tour.
Detry and Johnson will join Patrick Reed and Thomas Pieters on the four-man squad.
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“This team is built for big moments, and 2026 is a chance for us to take another step forward,” Johnson said in a statement. “Thomas Detry is a great addition; he’s confident, competitive, and that fits exactly what we’re about. We’ve got the talent, the chemistry, and the mindset to be right there all season.”
Dustin Johnson doesn’t qualify for PGA Tour return
While Johnson has had dominant stretches throughout his career, he was not eligible to return to the PGA Tour under its new “Returning Members Program” that was announced earlier this week.
That deal, which Brooks Koepka accepted, allows a select group of LIV Golf members to return to the Tour if they accept several significant penalties. Koepka, for example, will have to make a $5 million donation to charity, can’t earn any FedExCup bonus money in 2026 and can’t receive any sponsor exemptions into signature events, among other things. The Tour estimated that it could cost Koepka up to $85 million in potential earnings.
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Koepka, who split with LIV Golf in December, will make his Tour return at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines later this month.
“There was no negotiating,” Koepka said on Monday. “It’s meant to hurt, it does hurt, but I understand. It’s not supposed to be an easy path.”
The program, however, is only available to golfers who have either won a major championship or The Players Championship between 2022 and 2025. As Johnson’s last major win was in 2020, he does not qualify. Other than Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Cam Smith are also eligible for the program if they wish — though those three have not yet accepted and appear to be, at least for now, committed to LIV Golf.
While it’s unclear if Johnson ever wanted to return to the Tour, the “Returning Members Program” wasn’t an option for him. So, he clearly decided to stick with LIV Golf for the time being.
Johnson and the 4Aces GC will open the new LIV Golf season on Feb 4 in Saudi Arabia.
English (US) ·