With Brooks Koepka finding a quick route back to the PGA Tour, Tommy Fleetwood was asked a big question on LIV Golf’s future…

It feels like an inflection point has been reached in men’s professional golf.

Brooks Koepka’s exit from LIV Golf might not be a defining moment in the game’s civil war, but the five-time major champion’s immediate return to the PGA Tour has at least raised questions about the direction of the breakaway league and the futures of its other big stars.

What happens next in a schism that has now been going on for four years? And what is more likely – big names following Koepka’s lead and quitting LIV or big names leaving the PGA Tour to join the league?

That exact question was put to Tommy Fleetwood in the press room here at the Emirates Golf Club, where the Englishman is preparing for this week’s Hero Dubai Desert Classic.

“Who knows?” Fleetwood replied. “I think that’s very hard to ask. I think you would have to ask individual players on which – obviously you’re asking me – but how they feel about it.

“I think in general, people want to play where their goals or dreams are aligned. They want to play in the place where they feel they can chase them.

“Personally, I’m playing where I feel like I can still chase my dreams, and I’m in the best place to be the best golfer I can be. Other people may feel differently.

“What the future holds, I don’t know. I saw the interview with the guys, Jon [Rahm] and Bryson [DeChambeau] and Cameron [Smith], and they are obviously well set on playing LIV Golf and that’s where they want to play.

“If I speak for myself, I will always make my decisions for as long as I want to be the best I can be at golf, I’ll make my decisions to play where I feel like I can do that. So that’s what I’m doing.”

It will come as a surprise to nobody that Fleetwood is going nowhere. Starting his season a career-high No.3 in the world rankings, the Englishman wants to build on a year that included his memorable first PGA Tour title – the FedEx Cup at East Lake – as well as a stellar showing in the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black.

“They haven’t sniffed around me in this postseason,” he said when asked if LIV were still targeting the top names.

“We don’t really talk about it that much. I haven’t heard of that. I think you definitely see changes, and I think some very good golfers have gone over to LIV and have chose to go to LIV. It’s probably going to cost a lot of money, right, to get some big-name players.

“I don’t know what their strategy will be or who they will be looking at to go or how they want to go about it, but they don’t talk to me.”

Fleetwood is certainly pleased to welcome Koepka back to the US circuit.

“The [PGA] Tour is in a great place,” he said. “We play some unbelievable events for a ridiculous amount of money on the PGA Tour, and I think it’s been in a great place and I’m very grateful to get to play where I do.

“It’s a great thing for the PGA Tour that Brooks has come back and he’s playing. Where it stands after that, I really don’t know.”

Rather like Fleetwood, Shane Lowry wants to stay out of the drama between the tours. The Irishman wants to focus on his own game after a “miserable” two years on the Tour’s Player Advisory Council.

But he too is welcoming Koepka back with open arms.

“I know Brooks really well,” Lowry added. “I met him last weekend. We’re members of the same golf courses in Florida. I know his caddie really well.

“I think it’s good for him that he wanted to get off LIV, and he got back really quickly. Like I think it’s good for the PGA Tour, as in Brooks is going to play a lot of the smaller events. That’s going to add to those.”

Lowry meanwhile, reiterated his desire for Luke Donald to take on a third stint as European Ryder Cup captain at Adare Manor. If Donald takes the job for 2027, he will get the chance to become the first skipper in history to complete a ‘threepeat’ in the match.

“I think it’s Luke’s if he wants it,” Lowry said. “Does he want it or not? I’m not sure. It’s a big undertaking for him, and he’s obviously been very successful. But there’s a huge carrot dangling there to go three in a row and be the only person to do that.

“But that’s up to him. He’s here this week. I’m sure he’ll have conversations about it this week. Like is there a template there? Probably yes. But I think the last two Ryder Cups and the continuity of it all was amazing, and it obviously will be good to have that for Adare Manor.

“But it is his decision. It is a big undertaking for him, and it’s also a big undertaking for his family because he will be travelling a lot more. He’ll be in Ireland a lot obviously getting ready for it. When you’re doing a home Ryder Cup, there’s a lot more planning with you and your wife and stuff.

“I’d certainly love to see him as a captain.”