{"id":570524,"date":"2026-05-07T05:40:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T05:40:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/570524\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T05:40:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T05:40:35","slug":"rickie-fowler-opens-up-on-surprise-visit-from-pga-tour-boss-amid-liv-golf-buying-spree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/570524\/","title":{"rendered":"Rickie Fowler opens up on surprise visit from PGA Tour boss amid LIV Golf buying spree"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rickie Fowler has revealed PGA Tour<\/a> commissioner Jay Monahan made a surprise visit to his Florida home during LIV Golf’s recruitment drive in an attempt to persuade him not to join the breakaway circuit.<\/p>\n

The rebel league launched in June 2022 with a plethora of major champions, ageing Ryder Cup stars and multiple PGA Tour winners.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fowler’s name was constantly linked with LIV Golf<\/a> but the 37-year-old eight-time PGA Tour winner decided to ultimately reject their “mind-boggling” offer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a recent interview with Golfweek<\/a>, Fowler opened up on LIV’s attempts to woo him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He struck up a relationship with former LIV chairman, Yasir Al Rumayyan, during a DP World Tour event in Abu Dhabi and held plenty of discussions about a potential move as he believed the PGA Tour had “got complacent”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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To his surprise, PGA Tour commissioner Monahan – who will leave the circuit at the end of this year – turned up at his door one day out of the blue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Rickie <\/p>\n

Rickie Fowler<\/p>\n

“It wasn’t something he had to do and I told him I never really was in a position where I wanted to go,” Fowler told the publication.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“What made me want to meet and learn a bit more was that the Tour wasn’t directly meeting with them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I wanted to have a better understanding of why they felt there was a door open into the world of golf.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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“I felt like the Tour had gotten lazy, a little complacent, like, ‘Hey, we’re good, we’re the PGA Tour.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

“LIV Golf and Premier Golf League saw that they could tap into the golf space.<\/p>\n

“I wanted to learn why, how and what they were up to. I wouldn\u2019t say it actually worked out the way they envisioned it.”<\/p>\n

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LIV Golf are currently undergoing a funding crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The future of the series has been plunged into doubt after Saudi Arabia said it will withdraw its muti-billion dollar backing at the end of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Should that be the case, then there will be plenty of professional golfers looking to tee up on the PGA Tour again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brooks Koepka is the highest-profile player to leave LIV and re-join the PGA Tour, taking advantage of a “returning member programme”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But whether other players will be extended the same treatment as Koepka remains to be seen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fowler, though, doesn’t have any issues with players returning to the fold.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I don’t have a problem with it,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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“I’m not against it but it\u2019s not going to be like, ‘Oh, you had full status when you left, well, come on back and pick up where you left off.'”<\/p>\n

LIV Golf pro rules out PGA Tour return<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, at least one current LIV Golf pro has ruled out<\/a> ever returning to the PGA Tour.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thomas Pieters, who joined LIV in 2023, recently told Dan Rapaport of Skratch that he never enjoyed playing in the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Should LIV Golf fold, Pieters said, then he is likely to try and play on the DP World Tour again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old revealed he may even retire from the sport altogether.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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His comments came as LIV issued a major update on its long-term future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

LIV have hired a team of heavyweight financial advisors<\/a> to help it secure a funding lifeline.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rickie Fowler has revealed PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan made a surprise visit to his Florida home during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,11769,8693,21974,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-570524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-liv-golf","tag-pga-tour","tag-rickie-fowler","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}