After LIV cut him, he quit golf. Now he’s back — and contending

Pat Perez had a stellar PGA Tour profession. In 515 profession begins, he had three wins and 64 top-10s, and banked practically $30 million in earnings. But when LIV Golf got here knocking in 2022, Perez, who was then 46, could not resist the siren track of a mega-payday. “It’s like winning the lottery for me,” he mentioned.

As a member of Dustin Johnson’s 4Aces, Perez lasted three years on the tour, by no means ending higher than twenty eighth within the particular person standings. After the 2024 season, when Perez completed a lowly forty eighth, the 4Aces cut him. But he wasn’t out of labor for lengthy. LIV leaned into Perez’s outsized persona and supplied him a job as a commentator on his broadcast workforce.

When we are saying Perez dropped his golf equipment for a mic, we imply he fairly actually did not contact them — for practically a 12 months. From January 2025 to the tip of September of that 12 months, Perez mentioned he did not hit a single fade, draw, punch or stinger. Not one golf shot.

“Didn’t even think about it,” he mentioned earlier this week. “I never thought I’d be able to play on the tour again, so I just thought, you know what, I’m just going to kind of hang out and do TV and then we’ll see where it’s at.”

“The tour” in query was the PGA Tour and its sister properties, particularly the PGA Tour Champions, which Perez, earlier than he signed with LIV, would have been eligible to play when he turned 50 in March 2026. But when he joined LIV, the PGA Tour suspended him. In late 2025, Perez utilized for PGA Tour reinstatement. The Tour granted his request however with a caveat: He’d have to take a seat out your entire 2026 season, that means Perez would forfeit his first 10 months of Champions tour eligibility.

“I said, Okay, ‘I appreciate the opportunity,’” Perez mentioned. “Then I kind of got back into it a little. Then I realized I could play at three majors.” Those could be the three of the 5 senior majors not run by the PGA Tour: the Senior PGA Championship (which is carried out by the PGA of America), the US Senior Open (USGA) and the Senior Open Championship (R&A).

Perez was talking this week from the primary of that trio of occasions, the Senior PGA on the Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla. “Really my focus changed in August [2025] to get ready for this week,” Perez said Wednesday. “I started counting the days. I got 144 days, and then I got to start working out. “I got to start practicing harder and figuring out balls and clubs and all this other stuff and kind of getting ready for this week.”

That has meant discovering time to apply at his Scottsdale, Ariz., membership, Silverleaf, amongst getting his children to and from college and getting settled into a brand new home, a course of that has included unboxing and organizing his vast Jordan sneaker collection. There’s additionally been the small matter of reacclimating his physique and thoughts to the sport after such a prolonged break.

When his LIV taking part in profession ended, Perez thought his taking part in profession, interval, ended. At that point, he could not see a path back to high-level skilled golf. “I said, ‘You know what, I got nothing to play for,’” I remembered pondering. So, as he globetrotted with LIV, he left his golf equipment at residence and centered on calling golf as a substitute of taking part in it. “When I came home, the boys are, like, ‘Are you going to play?’ I said, ‘No, I’m just not playing. I have no interest in it right now. “I have nothing to get ready for because again, like I said, I didn’t think that this opportunity would come.”

Cold turkey for 9 months.

Which made coming back to the sport no small elevate.

“It took a while,” he mentioned. “My hand strength was gone. My arm strength was gone. Shoulders hurt. Back hurt. All the muscles I hadn’t used in so long. And then being 49, that’s not easy, either.”

Perez mentioned he had a six-month plan, which has culminated with beginning instances on the Senior PGA this week. The plan is working. On Thursday, Perez opened with a three-under 69, which was simply 4 back of the day’s low spherical. On Friday, I shot a 70, to climb to 5 beneath. As of scripting this, he was tied for ninth, 5 behind co-leaders Scott Hend and Brian Gay.

Whatever occurs this week and at his two different senior main begins this 12 months, Perez will return in 2027 with a brand new lease on his tour life and a full schedule forward of him.

“I probably won’t miss an event next year,” he mentioned. “From what I hear, this tour you want to hit it hard from 50 to 55. Since I’m missing 50, I’ll probably hit it hard the first three years and then kind of see where we’re at.”