DUBAI – It was just a tease in March when Laurie Canter made his Players Championship debut, winning the custom Tiffany cufflinks set by PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan. It’s all the more true now, eight months later, that Canter will become the first former LIV to play the full PGA Tour.
As one of the top 10 players not already eliminated in the Race to Dubai – which ended the points tally on Sunday – Canter receives full status on the PGA Tour next season, an award he would never have considered three years ago when he played a full season on its rival tour.
It was June 9, 2022, when Canter made it as a founding member of Cleeks GC. A few minutes after those who opened the photos with the LIV tee, Monahan issued a memo to the golf world: all competitors in the rival tournament were receiving a suspension from PGA Tour play. From that point on, all LIV events were considered “unsanctioned” tournaments, and anyone playing in them would have to wait a full year before trying to earn a spot in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event.
That also applies to non-Tour members like Canter, who found themselves caught in the middle of golf’s unwanted Cold War. He played a full season in 2022 and then served as an LIV wild card in 2023. After two events in early 2024, he was replaced by LIV’s next big thing, Anthony Kim.
Canter didn’t take it personally, but his pro golf options were limited. He got his financial security – having won a comfortable $5.6 million in 20 LIV events – and returned to the DP World Tour, just in time to play the best golf of his life.
Canter won the European Open in June 2024 and then the Bahrain Championship in March 2025, earning enough world ranking points to make the field for The Players Championship, where he earned those special cufflinks from Monahan.
In his TPC Sawgrass debut, Canter was in the spotlight during interview day for the first time before ultimately missing the cut. His year has been feast or famine since then, with enough feasting to reach the DP World Championship, contend for the title and carve out one of those 10 PGA Tour cards for 2026.
“It wasn’t orthodox or, for that matter, it wasn’t by design,” Canter during that Players debut in March. “That’s how it worked for me with the opportunities that were in front of me.”
