Frenchman Victor Perez lives in Scotland, resided in the Bahamas while playing on the PGA Tour in America and has family ties to Australia. He’s also one of eight LIV Golf pros now officially accepted by the DP World Tour as dovetailing the two circuits throughout 2026. Australian Golf Digest caught up with Perez in Sydney last Friday.
[Photo: Andrew Redington/Getty Images]
Victor Perez is a newcomer to LIV Golf in 2026, but also a player still eligible to compete on the DP World Tour this year in a combination that presents both challenges and opportunities.
The 33-year-old Frenchman is hanging out in Sydney in between tournament starts, visiting family and evading the depths of a European winter in favour of soaking in our summer.
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The fact he can enjoy a two-week break in Australia after the frenzy of LIV Golf Adelaide is indicative of the evolving nature of intertwining playing schedules across professional golf’s various circuits.
In theory, Perez could have competed in the DP World Tour’s Magical Kenya Open this past week during a break in the LIV schedule. Instead, though, he’s taking the opportunity to stay with family in Sydney before LIV embarks on what is a rare three-week run of tournaments for the league.
Before heading to Hong Kong, Singapore then Johannesburg, Perez is staying with his father-in-law in Sydney (his wife, Abigail, was born in Australia and her father still lives here). While in town, he received the news that the DP World Tour is permitting eight LIV players to compete on both circuits this year.
It’s a welcome shift for that group of players (which includes Australia’s Elvis Smylie) and helps validate Perez’s offseason move to LIV Golf after two seasons competing on the PGA Tour. Despite attending the University of New Mexico from 2011 to 2015, the American circuit didn’t gel with the Frenchman, in part because he notes that those on the PGA Tour “don’t know what they’re playing for” this year, such is the uncertain future landscape of the game’s largest tour.
Perez earned his PGA Tour card for 2024 as one of the top-10 finishers on the DP World Tour in 2023. The man who has reached as high as 29th in the Official World Golf Ranking enjoyed a pair of third-place finishes in America two years ago but recorded only one top-10 last year before moving to LIV as part of Cleeks GC.
Thanks to majors, invitational events and the former World Golf Championships, Perez had played perhaps 30 PGA Tour events before becoming a tour member. But the tour wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
“I felt like we were sold an idea that wasn’t really what it was,” Perez says. “The move to the [LIV Golf] league was more due to the changes of the PGA Tour along the years.”
Perez elaborated, saying the idea of what the PGA Tour was when he was growing up watching Tiger Woods and co. wasn’t necessarily what it is now.
“There was probably a bit of a disconnect in what I thought it was going to be and what it was,” he says. “And then obviously when the pathway opened from the DP World, and the 10 PGA Tour cards [became available], it was like, Oh my God. This is going to be great. We’re four years past COVID now. It’s back to normal. And then you come in as a first-time full member, they add elevated events that weren’t a thing in ’23; now they’re in in ’24.
“Then in ’25, they changed from 125 cards to 100 cards because all of a sudden they feel like the pace of play is an issue when the pace of play has been an issue for 30 years. So now that’s a sticking point and all of a sudden we have to cut 25 guys.
“What’s amazing to me, looking at the PGA Tour, they’ve played 10 events or something this year already – just under, maybe. And the guys don’t know what they’re playing for. They don’t know if next year’s going to be 100 cards, 80 cards, if it’s going to be elevated [tournaments], all elevated, 20 elevated, 10 elevated. They don’t know.
“Obviously they’ve had a change of CEOs and there’s a lot going on, [but] I didn’t feel comfortable going into a business that didn’t really know where it was going and is going through a major transition.”
RELATED: LIV Golf adds Frenchman Victor Perez to 2026 roster
As golf moves slowly closer to a genuinely global schedule, Perez isn’t sure there’s a one-size-fits all outcome that will suit all players. Where a player comes from has a large bearing on their viewpoint.
“It’s a tricky question, because I think everybody’s going to try to pull the covers to their side, and it’s such a broader, individualistic question that we’re all looking at golf through our own lens,” he says.
“If you’re Scottie Scheffler, you’re going to look at the issue being like, I’m quite happy the way it is. If you’re a kid who’s 22 and grew up in Australia, you probably wish it would go global and you’d get to play here twice a year. If you’re a DP World Tour player, you probably wonder to yourself, Based on the results that the 10 cards in America have done in ’24 and ’25, and this is now the third year…
“The first year, only three of us kept [our cards]; last year I think only one guy kept it. So now do the DP World guys say to themselves, Do I really want to go to America and get battered? I’m sure everybody goes with the belief that they will [play well], but the odds are not going in their favour.”
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For multi-tour players like Perez, it remains a juggling act – although one helped by LIV’s schedule. By and large, the league has picked ‘softer’ weeks within the global picture in which to hold its tournaments, and it also calls time on its season by the end of August, creating a lot of freedom for players.
“I’m going to try to play as many DP events as we’re capable of playing,” Perez says. “There’s still a lot going on and they’re trying to work things out, but my goal would be to complement the schedule of LIV because I think there’s definitely a need to play more than just 14 events.
“To stay sharp when you’ve played 25 events [per year] your whole career and all of a sudden you go down to basically half that, there’s a need to make sure you play enough golf to stay sharp and not have really long breaks. I think the long break from August to February is great once the season’s over because then you can really pick and choose if you want time off or whatever your needs may be. That’s great. But during the year you want to make sure you stay sharp.”
As for his fellow LIV players and their relationship with the PGA Tour, Perez thinks that even though some resigned their PGA Tour membership, existing exemptions should continue to be honoured.
“If Jon [Rahm] wants to go play in the Phoenix Open because he lives in Scottsdale, shouldn’t the PGA Tour just want that? Because he still has a category.
“It’s not because he gets invited, not because he gets preferential treatment. Because he won the Masters in 2023, he has a five-year exemption until 2028. And if he wants to play, he should be allowed to play. And then, if after 2028 he hasn’t won another major or hasn’t kept his card in America, then he’s not allowed to play and he shouldn’t get the preferential treatment.”
While a greater cross-pollination across the circuits is slowly happening, as with his Rahm example, Perez sees scope for more.
“And then whether you want to play one time, 10 times, 20 times and you want to play 50 weeks a year or you want to play 12 weeks a year, it’s up to you,” he says. “But as long as you have a category, then there shouldn’t be really any of that banning: ‘We don’t want you, we don’t this, we don’t that, this is bad, this is good.’”
Perez’s notion also extends the other way, including into LIV Golf.
“The meritocracy of the league has been more difficult because, realistically, if Scottie Scheffler wanted to play in Adelaide as an individual, I think it would be amazing,” he says.
“I think it would be crazy for the league not to want Scottie Scheffler to come. Whether he wants to do it or not, it shouldn’t matter.”
Scottie Scheffler playing in Adelaide next March? Perhaps it shouldn’t be as far-fetched an idea as it sounds.
QUICK HITS
Victor Perez on…
LIV Golf Adelaide: “The crowds were big, and it was really lively and stuff, but it wasn’t out of control, which I thought was great. I think there was maybe this little misconception that, “Oh, everyone’s insane and people are screaming in your backswing, and it’s a s–t show.” It really wasn’t. It was a nice lively, enthusiastic golf tournament, and we really enjoyed it.”
His Cleeks GC teammates: “I’ve had a really good relationship with Martin [Kaymer] my whole career, and Adrian [Meronk] was the same class as I was – went to college around the same time, graduated around the same time. We would’ve been the same class in ’23 going to the PGA Tour in ’24 when he made the move. And I knew “Blandy” (Richard Bland) as well, and so it was just quite easy. I think that was a huge selling point in me joining the league was being in a team where I felt comfortable.”
Missing a medal by a shot at his home Olympics in 2024: “I really enjoyed it. I thought the event was great. I obviously didn’t start really well. I think I was three-over after nine… but then was able to turn it around and finish the week about as close as I could have hoped for a medal. The atmosphere was great. It was great that the crowd was also a bit different. It wasn’t particularly like a golf crowd, which I think made a big difference.”
More players crossing over between tours: “I know there’s all those rules that are [in place and] it gets tricky because then I’m sure it’s like, ‘Well, if he comes for one week, then he’s taking that spot from someone. And if he doesn’t play the minimum [number of tournaments], so he shouldn’t be on the ranking.’ I get, it’s more complex than I make it sound – that’s why I’m a golfer and I’m not in charge of these things, and it’s just my take. But for what people would want to see, I think it would be great. People want to see the best players compete together.”
Australia’s 45-percent tax rate for international athletes: “Even though we played for $20 million last week [in Adelaide], we really played for effectively $10 million.”
Visiting Sydney: “It’s my first time actually being here and playing golf. Usually we’re just on holiday.”
