Former LIV Golf competitor James Piot will make PGA Tour history this week at the Rocket Classic.
A late addition Monday to the field at Michigan’s Detroit Golf Club, he is the first former LIV player to receive a sponsor’s exemption on the PGA Tour, according to Golf Digest.
Piot, 26, a native of Farmington Hills, Mich., last competed on the PGA Tour in 2022 when the 2021 U.S. Amateur champion missed the cut at the Masters and the U.S. Open.
“There was a lot of support, and it was one or the happiest calls I’ve made,” tournament official Mark Hollis told the Detroit News. “He’s somebody we wanted in from the get-go as we were going through the process. It had to play out the way it played out.”
Piot is not the first LIV player to return to the PGA Tour. England’s Laurie Canter has competed in five events so far in 2025.
“For it to actually happen is the coolest thing in the world,” Piot told the Detroit News. “It’s awesome. Just the fact I finally get to play in the Rocket Classic, it’s a dream come true. Ever since the event was created on the schedule, I wanted to be a part of it.”
Piot became part of the first wave of players to sign with the breakaway, Saudi-backed LIV Golf circuit during the summer of 2022, reportedly receiving a guaranteed two-year, $6 million deal.
Competing with LIV Golf from 2022-23, he recorded only one top-10 finish with a T6 in Bangkok in October 2022. Part of captain Phil Mickelson’s HyFlyers GC team, he finished 47th in individual points in 2023 and was relegated to the Asian Tour.
PGA Tour rules require a one-year ban for players who compete in unauthorized events like LIV Golf. Piot became eligible again lat October.
–Field Level Media
