Brooks Koepka’s decision to leave LIV Golf and rejoin the PGA Tour has put the sport in unfamiliar territory, marking him as the first player to make the switch back.
Watching how Brooks Koepka fits back into the PGA Tour is going to be interesting. Bringing a five-time major champion back into the mix should be a welcome addition for those running things at Ponte Vedra.
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The PGA Tour didn’t leave much to chance, either. They had already put together the Returning Member Program, which smoothed the path for Koepka’s comeback.
PGA Tour faces backlash over Brooks Koepka’s return
Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images
According to the PGA Tour, anyone who had won a major or The Players Championship since 2022 would have until early February to return under specific terms.
While some saw this as a smart move to help smooth Koepka’s path back, not everyone agreed, especially since the conditions didn’t seem particularly tough on him.
Wyndham Clark was among those with reservations. Clark felt that Koepka hadn’t really faced any significant consequences for leaving for LIV Golf.
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However, Rex Hoggard of the Golf Channel Podcast suggested that Clark’s comments may have been more about regret over his own choices rather than frustration with Koepka.
“To be fair, the way this story was framed, this sounds more like Wyndham is upset with his choice more so than Brooks, because in retrospect, he’s looking back saying, ‘I could have taken the bag, gone to LIV Golf for a year or two and all would have been forgiven’. I don’t know if that would have been the case,” Hoggard said.
“Clearly, this is going to be a la carte situation when it comes to different players. This was specific to four players this time around.”
Wyndham Clark raises concerns over PGA Tour’s handling of Koepka return
Clark would have qualified for the program after his win at LACC three years ago, though nobody could have predicted how the PGA Tour would approach Koepka’s case.
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The tour has been criticised for not imposing harsher penalties on Koepka, even though he paid $30 million to exit his LIV contract. But from a practical standpoint, bringing him back into the fold is likely to benefit both parties.
Having Koepka back is a clear advantage for the tour. It would have been an even bigger boost if players like Cameron Smith, Jon Rahm, and Bryson DeChambeau had followed suit.
Rex Hoggard echoed Clark’s view during the same podcast appearance, noting that this offer should not become a recurring option.
“I will say the one thing he pointed out that did resonate with me was the idea that this has to be a one-time offer. This does have to be an offer where, ‘nope, you had this one-time window to take advantage of it’, because if it’s not, I started to fast forward and think about the impact that could have. That could lead to a very dangerous decision,” he said.
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“If players start to see time and time again that the PGA Tour is willing to circumvent their own rules for the good of the tour – you and I spend a lot of time talking about how this was a very elegant solution that Brian Rolapp and the rest of the tour came up with to a very complicated issue…