Hudson Swafford, who was relegated off the LIV Golf League after playing for three seasons, said he will not be able to rejoin the PGA Tour before 2027, having been hit with a suspension that covers a five-year period from when he first started with the rival circuit in 2022.

Swafford, 37, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour who had hoped to come back to the PGA Tour after sitting out this year, told the Golf.com Subpar podcast that he’s “had some good back and forth with the PGA Tour, but then some wishy-washy. It’s still not set in stone.”

As a past winner, it is possible that Swafford could get some starts as part of a past champions category.

But he told podcast host Colt Knost that he believes he is being penalized one year for each of the five tournaments he played via LIV Golf in 2022 for which he did not receive a conflicting-events release before he resigned his membership.

He also said he believes that 2027 might be tied to other LIV player contracts expiring.

“I know they’re basing that on a couple people’s contracts being up after the ’26 season,” Swafford said, referring to LIV golfers. “So then they can kind of change rules in favor of everybody coming back.

“I know some guys who didn’t have any status on the PGA Tour, it’s a hard one-year [suspension], not PGA Tour-sanctioned events, but then you can come back and play. But problem is if I come in and talk to them, it’s like, ‘O.K., I can come back and play in ’27, but what does ’27 on the PGA Tour really look like?’