{"id":592908,"date":"2026-04-09T17:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T17:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/592908\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T17:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T17:14:10","slug":"tom-watson-blasts-pga-tour-over-returns-of-liv-golf-rebels-reed-and-koepka-the-masters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/592908\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Watson blasts PGA Tour over returns of LIV Golf rebels Reed and Koepka | The Masters"},"content":{"rendered":"

The honorary first drive was not the only shot Tom Watson played on the first morning of the 2026 Masters. Moments after taking part in the ceremony Watson, who won eight majors, lambasted the PGA Tour over its recent decision to allow Brooks Koepka<\/a> and Patrick Reed to return from LIV Golf.<\/p>\n

Watson said by reinstating Reed and Koepka<\/a> the Tour had reneged on the promises it made to the players who had remained loyal to it during the schism. \u201cI thought the LIV players, when they left, were supposed to be banned for life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Watson said that if he were running things Reed, Koepka and anyone else who wants to return would have to qualify through playing on the Korn Ferry Tour. \u201cIf I was the commissioner, that\u2019s what I\u2019d do.\u201d Koepka made his return to the PGA Tour<\/a> after four years with LIV at the Farmers Insurance Open in January. Reed is due to rejoin next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the players left, they violated the No 1 rule that we really had out here, which is to protect the sponsors. Sponsors need players. They need the names to be able to promote their tournaments,\u201d Watson said. \u201cWhen the players left for LIV, I think it was basically over. They chose to go for the money, which is fine, but to return to the Tour, I thought, was a nonstarter, but apparently it\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patrick Reed said returning to the PGA Tour was the right decision for his game and his family. Photograph: Jared C Tilton\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Reed said this week: \u201cI\u2019m really excited obviously to come back to the PGA Tour. I\u2019ve always known, that when you look at it the best players in the world and the deepest fields from top to bottom are on the PGA Tour.\u201d He described it as a family decision. \u201cI really enjoyed all my time over there at LIV. It was a blast,\u201d he said. \u201cBut to be honest with you, it was one of those decisions that I felt like was the best, not just for the golf game, but also for my family to spend more time with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watson\u2019s fellow honorary starter, Gary Player, used the press conference to explain that he felt Tiger Woods should be banned from driving after his recent car crash. \u201cHe\u2019s in pain. Do I blame him for taking medicine? Hell, no. He has sleep deprivation. Do I blame him for taking something to help him sleep? No,\u201d Player said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I don\u2019t think he should drive a car. When you\u2019re taking that medicine, it\u2019s dangerous when you\u2019re driving a car, same as it\u2019s dangerous when you look at your cell phone in the car. There\u2019s 6,000 accidents a day in motorcars. So I think all he\u2019s got to do is just not drive a car and get a chauffeur.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The honorary first drive was not the only shot Tom Watson played on the first morning of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-592908","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\/592908","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=592908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}