As LIV Golf nears its end without enough player commitments, Adrian Meronk has told TG the major factors that made him quit.
St Andrews will always define the legacies of golf icons, but this year the magical old place staged a remarkable career revival. Adrian Meronk came full circle at the Dunhill Links Championship, winning exactly a decade on from making his professional debut at the game’s spiritual home.
But the context behind last month’s triumph was everything, as the gutsy Pole spared himself from a rather desperate situation just as he was heading towards the LIV Golf exit door.
“It was very emotional under so many different circumstances,” Meronk explains. “That was my seventh tournament in a row, so it was a very intense time. Winning after 10 years from my first professional start there, but also fighting for my playing rights on the DP World Tour. To win at that moment, it was very special. Just a dream Sunday on the Old Course.”
Indeed, Meronk arrived in Scotland on the brink. He was 141st in the Race to Dubai standings and, three years after rejecting a PGA Tour card to join LIV Golf, suddenly at risk of losing his playing rights in Europe and being stuck in career limbo. After lifting his fifth DP World Tour title, Meronk is finally looking upwards again with his status secure.
“It’s been three years and sometimes you question yourself in those tough moments if it’s going to happen again or not,” he admits.
Meronk joined LIV as the 2023 DP World Tour player of the Year and ranked 39th in the world. He has decided to leave the beleaguered league after banking north of $15 million in prize money across his three seasons, which included a victory in Riyadh.
There have been vast competitive consequences, though. Meronk slipped outside the top 500 in the rankings before a week in the Home of Golf ignited his resurgence. One of the game’s premium ball strikers has not played a single major championship since 2024.
“I think the first two years were amazing,” he says, wistfully. “The best place to play golf, to be honest. But the last season was a bit strange, obviously, with the news that we had about Saudis backing out. Then everyone didn’t know what to expect. It was a lot of unknowns. The energy was a little bit strange, I would say, and that didn’t help my performance as well. This year has been weird.”
Dubai-based Meronk is speaking to TG in a quiet corner of Yas Links ahead of the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship, just hours before the death knell was seemingly sounded. As first reported by the Financial Times, BC Partners, the credit firm that was planning to save LIV, has decided to pull out of a $300m deal, meaning the league is set to be wound down in bankruptcy court.
TG exclusively reported back in May that a swathe of LIV players had begun contacting the DP World Tour within days of the Saudi Public Investment Fund announcing it was pulling its funding. The rush then set in after uncertainty reigned at LIV’s season finale in Indianapolis.
“Every player from LIV – as soon as the season finished in August – didn’t know what to expect,” Meronk says. “Everyone was trying to get some playing opportunities going forward.
“As the season finished on LIV, I wanted to have at least different options. I still had playing rights until the end of the season so I decided to play all the way through and try to keep my status for next year. Thankfully, I won the tournament.”
Adrian Meronk’s win at the Old Course helped him decide his LIV future. (Getty Images)
When lifting his trophy at the Old Course, Meronk was already 90 percent sure his LIV career was over. He then quickly concluded the prohibitive factors that would make signing up to the next iteration inconceivable.
“It’s not really exciting to stay there,” he admits. “It’s nothing really to look forward to. There would be no world ranking points. There would be only 10 tournaments. And then if I was banned [on the DP World Tour] as well, it would be tough to get into majors. And also no Ryder Cup.”
These are, of course, explicitly Meronk’s reasons for exiting stage left, but they have been prevailing themes in the LIV locker room. The small matter of the prize money tanking in the post-Saudi era cannot be ignored either, with LIV proposing purses of between $5.5m and $9m, a far cry from the weekly $30m treasure chests available last season.
Meronk, though, is a notoriously diligent practicer and has battled hard to recover the form that once made him such an attractive recruit for LIV. Three years ago, the Pole was “shocked, sad and angry” to have missed out on Luke Donald’s team for the contest in Rome and then jumped ship. Now he wants to be the towering force who simply can’t be ignored for next year’s matches in Ireland.
“It is definitely the goal,” he says of making Donald’s dozen at Adare Manor. “I will only focus on my game, on my process and play as well as possible. And if it’s going to be enough, it’s going to be enough. If not, I’ll just keep doing my thing. But that would be amazing.
“I just need to give myself more opportunities. I’m in a good spot now to finally get in some majors again and try to improve my results and start contending.
“I feel like I’m capable of doing it.”