Bath’s Laurie Canter Hoping That Golf Merger Will Revitalise His Career

It would be fair to say that 2023 has been a mixed bag for Laurie Canter’s golf career.

The man from Bath has been employed as a reserve on the rebel LIV Golf tour, making seven appearances around the world on the controversial circuit. But with no top-ten finishes to his name, it’s been something of a downward spiral for Canter, who was ranked as high as 81 in the world in 2022.

So could the merger between LIV, the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour create a whole new world of opportunity for the 33-year-old?

Open Mind

For any British golfer, one of the landmark moments of their career is qualifying for the Open Championship – a feat Canter has achieved on three separate occasions, with a 37th place finish at Royal Birkdale in 2017.

A symptom of Canter’s decline in 2023 is that he won’t even be playing at the Open at Hoylake, and will instead be watching the top golfers from home. For those betting on golf, the likes of Rory McIlroy (8/1), Scottie Scheffler (8/1), Jon Rahm (9/1) and Brooks Koepka (12/1) are the favourites to lift the Claret Jug.

Many golf tips columns will talk up Justin Rose’s chances at Royal Hoylake, which is a player that Canter beat by two shots at the 2021 BMW PGA Championship. That very same year, he posted top-five finishes in the money-spinning Dubai Desert Classic and in the Andalucia Masters, where he finished just four shots behind future U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick after holding the 54-hole lead.

Many sporting careers have their own ‘sliding doors’ moments, and you wonder if joining LIV was Canter’s. Those events are yet to be officially sanctioned by the OWGR, golf’s world ranking body, and so Canter has slipped down from that high of 81 to 278 – making qualification for the sport’s majors a very difficult task indeed.

The PGA Tour, DP World Tour and PIF announce landmark agreement to unify men’s professional golf.

— PGA Tour (@PGATOUR) June 6, 2023

Had he stayed on the DP World Tour, continued to progress and picked up world ranking points, Canter could have made it into the top 75 – that might have secured him invites to PGA Tour events, and for context, the top-60 in the world automatically get invited to play in the US Open.

The fact that Canter retweeted the official announcement of the proposed merger between golf’s biggest three tours perhaps speaks volumes of his endorsement of the move – with it a chance to reignite his career, perhaps, too.

New Beginnings

It hasn’t all been bad for Canter during his time with LIV.

He finished 15th in an event in Orlando back in April, before making a famous hole-in-one in Singapore later that same month. And remember that all players in LIV tournaments are paid appearance money – it’s not like other tours, where a missed cut results in zero prize money being made.

LAURIE CANTER HOLE-IN-ONE! #LIVGolf @majesticksgc pic.twitter.com/RSZ4Rz8yO7

— LIV Golf (@livgolf_league) April 30, 2023

The agreement between PIF – the Saudi Arabian investment fund that owns LIV Golf – and the PGA Tour will see players that had formally resigned the membership of their former tours given a chance to re-apply for admittance.

For Canter, that will mean a chance to return to the DP World Tour, where he previously made his name, which will surely be excellent news for his career. He can start earning ranking points again against a lower grade of opposition while seeking a first tournament win at the senior level.

Who knows, maybe the Bath man will return to golf’s top 100, potentially opening up many doors in the sport and allowing him to close what has been a difficult chapter in his promising career.