Some of the biggest names on the PGA Tour are making their voices heard after their games. Brooks Koepka welcomed back to the circuit After working at LIV Golf for 4 years. Koepka’s return, which is available through a new returning member program created by PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolup with the help of player directors such as Tiger Woods, has drawn mixed reactions from the players he will share the tee sheet with in 2026.
“There are opinions on both sides,” Woods said. “We’re not going to please everyone, we understand that. But the whole idea is to make the tour better than it was before. With Brooks joining the tour, the tour is a better place to play. Now the players are getting equity, and these players could potentially get equity for four more years. The fact that they own the tour means that if Brooks plays, it’s going to put more money in their pockets. This is a win for everyone.”
Players such as Ben Griffin, Max Homa, Jordan Spieth, Collin Morikawa and other high-end members of the PGA Tour support the decision as well. Rory McIlroy, who competed in the DP World Tour in Dubai this week, echoed those sentiments while offering his overall thoughts on LIV Golf.
“This is great because it allows us to put Brooks back where he belongs,” McIlroy told the Telegraph. “He’s one of the best players in the world and I think anything that enhances the traditional tour is a good thing.”
Koepka’s departure from LIV Golf comes at the end of an offseason when the league largely shut down its recruiting efforts. Siu Kim, Sungjae Im, Minwoo Lee, and Akshay Bhatia all reportedly turned down LIV Golf. The league appears to be focusing on country-based teams instead, signing Byung-hoon Ahn, Thomas Detrie, and Elvis Smiley. Anne Will is the captain of the all-Korean team, formerly known as Iron Heads GC, which has since been rebranded as Korea Golf Club.
nevertheless Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith have all committed to play at LIV Golf in 2026 Despite being eligible for the PGA Tour’s PGA Tour Returning Member Program, your future is not set in stone. DeChambeau is in the midst of negotiations, but he is pushing hard, refusing to commit beyond 2026 and insisting that playing only on YouTube and in major tournaments is a “viable option.”
“We didn’t really make any big contracts this year, right?” McIlroy said of LIV Golf’s recruiting efforts. “They haven’t signed a player that changes things, and I don’t think they will either. I mean, they could re-sign Bryson for hundreds of millions of dollars, but even if they did, their product wouldn’t change, right? They’d just pay for the exact same thing.”
McIlroy and Woods, like Windham Clark, received astronomical salaries at various stages from LIV Golf. The former U.S. Open champion has taken jabs at LIV Golf in the past, noting that he only played 54 holes in the league.
But Koepka was allowed a relatively smooth return, leaving Clark wondering if he should have jumped ship too.
“I personally really like Brooks and I think ultimately it’s a very good thing for the PGA Tour,” Clark said on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio. “But as someone who had the opportunity to go to LIV, it’s a little frustrating to be able to have your cake and eat it too. And if they told me I could go for a year and a half and make a lot of money and then come back and play on the Tour, I think most people would have done it.”
“At the end of the day, I want what’s best for the PGA Tour. If we can get players back, especially top players like Brooks, that’s only going to help the tour, and that’s going to ultimately help me.”
An important aspect of the Returning Member Program is that Koepka’s addition to the PGA Tour field will not come at the expense of any other players, meaning the five-time major champion will be added to the field as an additional golfer. He must compete in 15 events to qualify for the marquee event, but loses his sponsorship exemption status in those tournaments and must work his way back up all the while.
“That was one of the main concerns and one of the big things that myself and the other player directors asked for,” Woods said. “He’s an addition. … On the reserves list, it’s going to be impacted by them playing one or two more tournaments, so that’s a positive. Plus, we’re getting back probably a top-three player in our generation who went on another tour and played over there and was adamant about coming back here and left early to come back.”
“This says a lot about the PGA Tour: where we’re going, what we’ve been doing, what we’ve accomplished, and the players who have stayed on the tour and supported the tour. There’s another world-class player they’re going to beat, and that’s what the fans were looking for.”
