{"id":410828,"date":"2026-01-15T11:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T11:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/410828\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T11:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T11:51:09","slug":"clark-frustrated-koepka-could-take-liv-money-and-return-to-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/410828\/","title":{"rendered":"Clark frustrated Koepka could take LIV money and return to TOUR"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former U.S Open champion Wyndham Clark said he was frustrated Brooks Koepka could take Saudi money to play on LIV Golf and then return to the PGA Tour,<\/a> and he thinks several other players might have left for the rival league if they had known they could come back.<\/p>\n

Clark said Wednesday on the \u201cGravy and the Sleeze\u201d show on SiriusXM PGA Tour radio that he received an offer from LIV in 2024, a year after winning the U.S. Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if you would have told me that I could have gone for a year-and-a-half, make a boatload of money, and then be able to come back, play on the tour, I think almost everyone would have done that,\u201d he said to co-hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stolz.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it’s a little frustrating that happened,\u201d he said. \u201cAre people going to now see what the tour has done and then go do that anyways? You know, they reach out to LIV and say, \u2018Hey, I want to come play LIV,\u2019 knowing that hey, you go take a bag for a year or two and you’re able to come back. Yeah, it’s an interesting decision because I think there could be guys that have that mindset and kind of challenge the system and then come back say, \u2018Well, you let Brooks do this, why can\u2019t I do it?’\u201d<\/p>\n

PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp described the case of Koepka, a five-time major champion and former No. 1 player in the world, as a \u201cunique situation.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

The \u201cReturning Member Program\u201d was created for players who won majors or The Players Championship since 2022 and had to be at least two years removed from the tour. Koepka has to make a $5 million charity donation and cannot receive tour equity grants for five years.<\/p>\n

Rolapp also said it was a one-time program \u201cwith no promise that this path will be available again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tiger Woods, the central figure among player directors on the PGA Tour’s policy board, said Tuesday night after a TGL match: \u201cWe’re not going to satisfy everyone. We know that.”<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the whole idea is to make our tour better than what it was,\u201d Woods said. \u201cWith Brooks\u2019 addition to tour, it does. It makes it a better place to play. Now with players who have earned equity \u2014 and there are four more years of potential earning of equity for these players \u2014 the fact that they own the tour, if Brooks plays, it puts more money in their pocket. It\u2019s a win for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark said he likes Koepka and believes the decision was good for the PGA Tour \u2014 and ultimately for him if Koepka’s return adds value \u2014 but he wishes there had been more repercussions.<\/p>\n

Rolapp’s offer for three others \u2014 Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Cameron Smith \u2014 expires on Feb. 2. All three have said they are staying with LIV Golf.<\/p>\n

Clark said of the hard deadline, \u201cI just hope they stick with that and they don’t waiver on that maybe in like a year or two.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP golf: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/golf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former U.S Open champion Wyndham Clark said he was frustrated Brooks Koepka could take Saudi money to play…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-410828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}