The 52-year-old golfer claimed he is “banned” from playing anywhere apart from with LIV – with whom he has yearly contracts – and though he will continue in the game while he still feels “competitive”, he knows he’s coming towards the end of his career.

He told Today’s Golfer magazine: “I want to retire from the game, I don’t want the game to retire me.

“I’m hoping I’m good for next year.

“And as long as I feel like I’m competitive, I’ll keep playing and hopefully that is with LIV.

“Right now, I don’t actually have anywhere else to play. I’m banned pretty much everywhere else bar LIV!

But do I see myself playing competitively five years from now? No I don’t.”

And the golfer admitted other options don’t hold a lot of appeal.

He said: “Right now, I can’t play the Legends Tour in Europe because of the money that I owe in fines, which I’m not going to pay.

“But speaking to guys that I know and grew up playing with, that tour is quite tough.

“You play a lot of pro-ams and while I don’t want this to come across the wrong way, I don’t particularly want to go back to playing tournaments that are worth 300,000 euro.

“I’m not going to get excited by that.

“I didn’t get any exemption from the PGA Tour [Champions] for my two senior Majors, so I have no status out there.”