Thomas Pieters Reconsiders Retirement Claim If LIV Golf Folds

Thomas Pieters has walked back on comments he made earlier this year when he hinted he would retire from professional golf if the LIV Golf League folded.

LIV's future is currently up in the air with potential investors for 'LIV 2.0' amid reports of bankruptcy, staff lay-offs and big names potentially missing out on money owed from contracts signed to join the circuit.

Pieters told Dan Rapaport in May he was 'ready to retire' when he heard the news of the PIF withdrawing its funding for the tour, but he now says he has a plan B of returning to the DP World Tour and hopes to play in the 2028 Olympics.

The Belgian has six DP World Tour wins, including the 2022 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, and joined LIV Golf in 2023. He currently plays on Dustin Johnson's 4Aces GC.

"I’ve talked since with my team and and I’m in a really like happy place in my life at at this moment and, you know, talking with my family about going like - I love the Olympics. I would love to do one more Olympics. That would be you know 2028 and then I think we go from there," Pieters told Garrett Johnston from Beyond The Clubhouse on behalf of Golf Monthly.

Pieters hopes LIV Golf can continue into 2026, but if not he will be back competing in Europe.

"For me there’s only one plan B, to go back and play in Europe. But like I said I’d rather play out here so Europe is a great kind of fallback thing and like I can go to Q school, I can play on the Challenge [HotelPlanner] Tour. We’ll see. it’s not really on my mind at this point. It’s just something if LIV finishes then yeah, we’ll see what happens."

Pieters admits the LIV staff members he sees are working around the clock to secure the league's future. He also discussed the Asian Tour's deal with the DP World and PGA Tours, admitting he has learned everyone and each organization needs to look out for themselves first.

"I think we just kinda go by whatever we get fed from from LIV itself. We’ve got a player meeting later today, so hopefully we find out a little bit more," he said.

"And you know the last three, four tournaments you see the CEO, everybody looks knackered. You can tell they’re working hard behind the scenes. So hopefully they get this thing done and funded.

"Everybody’s kinda looking out for themselves and I think that’s the thing what we’ve learned in golf as well over the last couple of years.

"You have to look out for yourself. And they’re [Asian Tour] doing that by making an alliance there which suits them, which is great.

"Everybody’s making a plan B I think at this point, but I really hope we can all stay here and play here because I think it’s a great product."