LIV golfers who had won one of the four majors or the Players Championship since 2022 were allowed to return to the PGA Tour this winter if they agreed to certain conditions and penalties. Brooks Koepka was the only LIV player to take advantage of the hastily-arranged program, with the eligible Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Cam Smith preferring to remain in their contracts.
In return for immediate reinstatement to his old domain, Koepka received a $5 million fine to charitable causes and was unable to earn FedEx Cup bonus money or to accept sponsor invites to Signature Events this year. He also cannot access equity in the new PGA Tour Enterprises for five years.
Tiger Woods, who helped orchestrate Koepka’s return with the power he now wields in the PGA Tour’s boardroom, was unapologetic about the open invitation to only a handful of LIV’s biggest stars.
“We’re not going to satisfy every player,” Woods said in January. “This plan was created for a very select few players that met the criteria. You know the names.”
But Poulter, who insists there is “still a big fight” ongoing between the rival circuits, took a dim view of the PGA Tour’s scheme during an appearance on the Rough Cut podcast.
“What did they really open up?” the Englishman said. “They gave an opportunity to four players and four players only. That’s not really opening up. You’ll only take back players – Brooks, five majors, Cam Smith, who’s won The Players Championship and the Open Championship. You would take back Bryson DeChambeau, and you gave the opportunity to Jon Rahm. F*** everyone else. We just wanted the biggest four assets that we can nick back from LIV and we don’t want any of you lot.
“How does that look? I don’t think it looks very good. It’s a mercenary way to turn around to say we’ll just scoop a load of your assets back or try to scoop a load of them back. There’s a still a fight. That’s a hostile offer in my opinion. It’s not a full open, let’s get the guys come back and play. This is, ‘We’ll work a way to have you guys come back to benefit us.’”
Poulter believes the newly-devised Player Equity Program on the PGA Tour – created through a $1.5 billion investment from the Strategic Sports Group – has shifted the dynamic on the circuit.
“Now there is a full profit business for the PGA Tour and there is a share option to the members who have been allocated share positions to a certain value depending who you are,” he said. “Every player, even though some are going to say we don’t want them back, if they take back two or three players their share option becomes more valuable.
“They’re doing it for their back pocket. It’s still messy.”
Poulter was then asked if there was any way LIV and the PGA Tour could assimilate to end the division.
“There’s an opportunity to have two or three more teams in LIV,” he replied “Why couldn’t they be PGA Tour teams? Why couldn’t you give 12 players – the top 12 or the 12 who want to play a certain number of events? The PGA Tour are shortening the schedule. They need to monetise their business as soon as possible. Brian Rolapp has said the TV deal is up for negotiation.
“They want to reduce some of the tournaments. They want those events to be big events so everyone can play the same events. The investment made into the PGA Tour – they want this thing to make money.
“There’s a lot of stress and pressure to the PGA Tour for them to make this make money. I don’t have the perfect fix but we could take in three more teams so surely there’s a bit of give and take on both sides to a point to go, surely there’s space for 12 guys- not just four – to be able to play in a chunk of tournaments on the PGA Tour.”