{"id":335656,"date":"2025-12-08T20:40:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T20:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/335656\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T20:40:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T20:40:09","slug":"liv-golf-ceo-responds-to-rumours-that-brooks-koepka-will-sit-out-the-2026-season-then-return-to-the-pga-tour-australian-golf-digest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/335656\/","title":{"rendered":"LIV Golf CEO responds to rumours that Brooks Koepka\u00a0will sit out the 2026 season, then return to the PGA Tour \u2013 Australian Golf Digest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For the past few months, rumours have swirled that Brooks Koepka is looking for a LIV Golf exit ramp. The assumption was that Koepka might move on when his contract expires at the end of the 2026 season, but new reports now suggest the five-time major winner has already made his last appearance on the Saudi-backed circuit.<\/p>\n<p>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.australiangolfdigest.com.au\/brooks-koepka-blunt-liv-golf-take-we-all-hoped-it-would-have-been-a-little-bit-further-along\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brooks Koepka\u2019s blunt LIV Golf take \u2013 \u2018We all hoped it would have been a little bit further along\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2025\/12\/08\/liv-ceo-scott-oneil-opens-up-on-his-first-year-whats-next\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sources told Sports Business Journal\u2019s Josh Carpenter<\/a> that Koepka may not play on the LIV Golf tour in 2026, forfeiting nearly $US20 million but remaining eligible to play on the DP World Tour and in the year\u2019s majors thanks to his PGA Championship win 2023. Furthermore, it has been suggested that Koepka may use this \u2018gap year\u2019 to serve a 12-month PGA Tour suspension, potentially rendering him eligible to return to the sport\u2019s largest professional circuit in August 2026.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview published on Monday, Carpenter asked LIV Golf chief executive Scott O\u2019Neil about the rumours. Here\u2019s what he had to say:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know you\u2019re not going to want to hear this one, just the individual players, and this goes back to our policy, we\u2019re just going to run it through. So, we haven\u2019t made any announcements on players, but he is signed for 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.australiangolfdigest.com.au\/liv-golf-into-the-hot-seat\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Scott O\u2019Neil moves into the hot seat<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This is by no means a confirmation, but as golf pot-stirrers have been quick to point out, it\u2019s not a denial either. Conventional wisdom suggests that if O\u2019Neil had assurances of Koepka\u2019s return in 2026, he would have used this opportunity to shut the rumours down for good. Part of O\u2019Neil\u2019s role as chief executive, however, is to protect his company, shareholders and self against financial devaluation and public embarrassment. This could just be a matter of not overcommitting until they cross every T and dot every I.<\/p>\n<p>Either way, this situation bears watching over the next few weeks. Koepka was one of LIV Golf\u2019s biggest coups when they poached him from the PGA Tour in 2022 to the tune of $US100 million. Despite his Wanamaker Trophy win at Oak Hill in 2023, Koepka\u2019s form has suffered, posting his first winless LIV season in 2025 while missing the cut at three of the year\u2019s four majors. Though the PGA Tour and LIV Golf battle lines remain hard drawn, golf fans can all agree that no matter where he ends up, a happy, healthy and competitive Brooks Koepka is what\u2019s truly best for the sport.<\/p>\n<p>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.australiangolfdigest.com.au\/tiger-woods-2025-hero-world-challenge-putting-lesson-tips-advice-video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tiger Woods explains why modern tour pros can\u2019t putt like he does in latest viral lesson<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the past few months, rumours have swirled that Brooks Koepka is looking for a LIV Golf exit&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[4225,64,63,73434,755,138747,14239,44,121136,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-335656","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-article","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-brooks-koepka","12":"tag-golf","13":"tag-golf-digest","14":"tag-liv-golf","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-scott-oneil","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}