{"id":411966,"date":"2026-01-17T01:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T01:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/411966\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T01:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T01:16:08","slug":"major-winners-commend-pga-tour-for-reinstating-ex-liv-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/411966\/","title":{"rendered":"Major Winners Commend PGA Tour for Reinstating Ex-LIV Players"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI think that eventually they\u2019re all coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was Paul Azinger, the lead TV analyst for the PGA Tour Champions, discussing the possibility of LIV Golf players returning to the PGA Tour.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course, this past week, the golf world was rocked when the PGA Tour reinstated five-time major winner Brooks Koepka<\/a> after he departed LIV following four years on the Saudi-backed circuit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, Koepka\u2019s not the only former Tour and LIV player looking to return to their PGA Tour roots. Three-time Tour winner Pat Perez, who defected to LIV in 2022, had his Tour membership restored<\/a> this week, but he\u2019s still not eligible to compete. Perez turns 50 in March and he eyes starts on the PGA Tour Champions. He even gave up his LIV broadcasting job, which he began in 2024, to make that a possibility.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It seems his colleagues will welcome him back.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that [Koepka] wants back on the PGA Tour, I can certainly appreciate, and Pat Perez, as well,\u201d Justin Leonard, the 1997 British Open champion, said in a media appearance with Azinger on Thursday, promoting the senior tour\u2019s Chubb Classic. \u201cHe went out there [on LIV] playing, stopped playing the last couple years and has been doing television as an analyst for LIV Golf.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure that his, whatever you will, I don\u2019t know, suspension or whatever you want to call it, I don\u2019t think he’s going to be playing here early in the season from what I understand. But when he is ready to play, he brings viewers and eyes and some interest to our tour because of his experience with LIV, his personality. He\u2019s very outspoken. He\u2019ll be a great addition to the PGA TOUR Champions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Tour\u2019s disciplinary action for Perez will not be publicly disclosed. Former LIV players are typically suspended for a year since their last LIV event. Koepka, though, qualified for a newly created Returning Member Program<\/a> that allowed those on LIV who have won a major since 2022 a one-time path back to the Tour.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Brooks<\/p>\n

Brooks Koepka will return to the PGA Tour later this month. | Bill Streicher-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\u201cPlayers that do not qualify for the Returning Member Program can only be reinstated in accordance with the nonmember policy and any applicable disciplinary process,\u201d the Tour said in a statement. \u201cAt his request, Pat Perez was reinstated as a member but is not eligible to participate in PGA Tour-affiliated tournaments at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Azinger was surprised that Koepka was brought back so rapidly, and believes more action like that under the leadership of new PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp will cool off the strife men\u2019s golf has endured since LIV\u2019s inception in 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a major divide in the sport ushered in by LIV and [former LIV CEO] Greg Norman,\u201d the 1993 PGA champion said, \u201cand tennis experienced it 50 years ago. It took golf 50 years to get this great divide where the players split off like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think really the players, aside from the money, probably regret [leaving the Tour for LIV] because they all had enough for the most part. But I\u2019d like to think I would have said no to that money, but I can\u2019t guarantee you that I would have.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a real understanding here, and at the same time a real big surprise. It\u2019s costing [Koepka] a lot of money to come back and play competitive golf again, and I feel like that the direction the Tour is going now is based mostly on the fact that it\u2019s a for-profit business. They think that Brooks is a real commodity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Therefore, getting all the best players in the world competing against each other regularly again\u2014on both the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions\u2014is a priority.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t hurt to have the greatest players on the PGA Tour,\u201d Azinger said. \u201cThat\u2019s mostly where they\u2019ve always been. I\u2019m going to say I accept whatever the new leadership provides at this point and wish them the best of luck because I think that eventually they\u2019re all coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

More Golf from Sports Illustrated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI think that eventually they\u2019re all coming back.\u201d That was Paul Azinger, the lead TV analyst for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-411966","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}