Pat Perez sat down with Subpar co-hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz on Wednesday at Whiskey Row in Scottsdale, and Knost picked an obvious place to start: “Let’s just get up to date with your situation.”
“It’s quite the situation,” Perez said.
If you haven’t been paying attention to the PGA Tour/LIV Golf news cycle the past month, let’s catch you up.
The Tour created a Returning Member Program and Brooks Koepka rejoined and played last week at Torrey Pines (and this week in Phoenix). And just last week, Patrick Reed announced he’s leaving LIV Golf and will return to the PGA Tour later this year after his membership is reinstated.
Reed headlined last week’s news, although three other former LIV players — Hudson Swafford, Kevin Na and Perez — were also announced as reinstated to the Tour. Perez, the release said, reinstated his membership in January 2026, is now serving his disciplinary action and eligible to return to PGA Tour-sanctioned competition on Jan. 1, 2027.
On Wednesday, Perez, who turns 50 in March, said he’ll play in three senior majors this summer — those aren’t run by the Tour, so he’s not suspended from them — and might play a little on the DP World Tour and Asian Tour. He’s also looking forward to playing full time on the PGA Tour Champions circuit come 2027.
During Wednesday’s live recording, Perez talked about the whirlwind last few years.
“It’s a lot of travel [on LIV Golf], I’ll tell you that much,” he said. “Some trips are 30 hours; they take care of you incredible; I had a blast, I really did. I played the PGA Tour 21 years, I had never talked to anybody from LIV. And all of a sudden I’m at dinner at Memorial and I get a call from [Dustin Johnson]. He says, ‘Hey bro, I just signed, I’m in London, I need somebody.'”
Perez said a contact was sent over a week later. He looked it over and decided to sign.
“I knew if I did it, Jay Monahan and the PGA Tour were not joking around when they said you are gone,” Perez said. “It wasn’t just financial. It’s like, well, I’m going to be out of the Tour, and I didn’t really want to be out of the Tour, but I wasn’t playing well, struggling, 46, trying to get to the Champions Tour and I just didn’t know if I was going to make it all there. LIV was actually phenomenal. I had a blast. We traveled around, being with DJ was great; playing with him and Brooks and Bryson and those guys was fun, but I don’t know, I don’t know if I would have done it again.”
For more from Perez on his return, broadcasting, the difference between traveling on LIV vs. the PGA Tour and other topics, you can listen to the entire episode here or watch on YouTube below.
