Brooks Koepka’s recent departure from LIV Golf has opened a can of worms.
Should ex-LIVers be allowed back on the PGA Tour ASAP, with few or no repercussions?
Rory McIlroy, one of the LIV’s staunchest detractors, has chimed in.
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“They’ve made the money, but they’ve paid their consequence in terms of the reputation and some of the things they’ve lost by going over there [to LIV],” McIlroy told the Stick To Football show. “If it made the overall tour stronger to have Bryson DeChambeau back and whoever else, I would be O.K. with it. But again, it’s not just me, and I recognize that not everyone is in my position. It would be up to the collective group of PGA Tour members to make that decision.”
DeChambeau’s LIV contract expires at the end of 2026, and he was recently noncommittal about his future with the Saudi-backed circuit amid contract negotiations.
The PGA Tour currently does not have a pathway back for LIV defectors. However, McIlroy wouldn’t mind the inception of one—and he isn’t alone in that opinion.
“I’m on a seesaw here a little bit. I’ve been on one for a little while,” Billy Horschel told the Palm Beach Post at the opening of TGL on Sunday. “At the very beginning, I think I was on the side of there needs to be some punishment for these guys. And now I’m on the side that I think for the betterment of the game, for the quality of the PGA Tour product to continue to grow. … Selfishly having an equity stake in the PGA Tour now, bringing Brooks back, that does add value. So I think there needs to be a process to figure out what [brings] these guys back.”
Of course, a solution to this could be the PGA Tour and LIV finally unifying after discussions regarding their framework agreement from June 2023 have stalled. McIlroy believes it’s hard to see a resolution in the near future, but hasn’t given up all hope.
“I think it does,” the five-time major winner said when asked if he could see pro golf uniting in two or three years.
In the wake of LIV’s inception in 2022, McIlroy was essentially the de facto spokesperson for the PGA Tour. And all these years later, the Northern Irishman still doesn’t view the rival-circuit favorably, even if he’s willing to make amends with those who cashed in with LIV.
“[LIV] were coming into the game saying, ‘We’re gonna be different, we’re gonna be this, we’re gonna be that,’” McIlroy said. “Even the fact they’ve now switched from 54 holes to 72 holes to get world-ranking points, so it’s like, you’re just doing what everyone else is doing. So, what’s different, you know, apart from the money?”
McIlroy added: “They’ve spent billions on LIV, like [Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund] and so on. If LIV is failing to capture the imagination, and they’ve spent so much money on this venture and it isn’t making a return for them, I don’t know how much longer they can keep it going.”
