Never one to hold back, Brandel Chamblee says he “couldn’t disagree more” with Rory McIlroy’s comments about Brooks Koepka possibly returning to the PGA Tour.
Five-time Major champion Koepka left LIV Golf after four seasons but under the current rules in place could not return to the PGA Tour until August – 12 months after his last LIV Golf start.
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“If it made the overall tour stronger to have Bryson DeChambeau back and whoever else, I would be okay with it”, McIlroy told The Overlap.
McIlroy added that LIV golfers had “paid their consequence in terms of you talk about the reputation and some of the things they’ve lost by going over there” so no further punishment would be required.
That’s not an opinion shared by Chamblee though, who has always been the harshest critic of all things LIV Golf.
Chamblee believes just allowing Koepka or anyone else back from LIV Golf without any consequnce would set a dangerous precedent.
“I couldn’t disagree more with what Rory said,” he said on The Favorite Chamblee podcast.
“I couldn’t disagree more with those who think that Brooks should be able to come back without some consequence.”
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Do you agree with Chamblee? Should Brooks Koepka be allowed to return to the PGA Tour right away? Let us know your thoughts by joining the conversation below…
Koepka could set dangerous precedent
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Chamblee added that while Koepka possibly wanting to return would be a good thing – he couldn’t just be welcomed back having been one of LIV’s original big signings.
“It’s great if he does want to come back. I think that’s good,” added Chamblee. “It’s the best legitimate tour in the world. But he was a key legitimiser of LIV. He wasn’t just an innocent bystander.
“I think the PGA Tour needs to be careful about setting a precedent here. To allow Brooks to come back with no consequence I think would undermine the meritocratic foundations that are the one thing that makes the PGA Tour legitimate.
“It’s not about retributions. It’s about setting a precedent. Institutions protect themselves by having rules that apply even to elite players, especially to elite players. Loyalty is not optional for elite players.
“If they allow Brooks to come back after leaving and causing or contributing to the disruption of the game and normalising defection to LIV, the message will be clear that the rules only apply to the expendable and not to the exceptional. I think that’s corrosive.”
PGA Tour becoming more like LIV
Chamblee agrees that eventually he wants the best players to play together, but again had more harsh words for LIV’s impact on golf – and on how the PGA Tour needs to be careful not to become too elitist.
“Of course everybody wants the best players in the world to come back but you can’t forget about what they did,” Chamblee added.
“They hurt the PGA Tour, they hurt the ecosystem of the game, and if you allow them to come back without any consequence then you’ve privileged those who defected over those who stayed and that’s not right.
“They caused a lot of damage to the professional game. They undermined the meaning of competition, they triggered legal warfare, they made unstable historically long sponsorship deals and they changed the structure of the whole professional game.
“People will say PGA Tour players make more money now, and they do but who’s to say the net consequences 10 or 20 years down the line will be they destroyed the professional game we all know and love.
“It if becomes more about profit than philanthropy it will become more about selection than earning your way onto the PGA Tour.
“From what I can tell the PGA Tour has become a little bit more like LIV, it’s more about smaller elite fields and when you do that you guarantee less competitive fields and the game becomes more about slection than earned status.”
Chamblee believes that if LIV players were allowed back then at the least they’d have to be handed severe fines “that run into millions of dollars” adding “they’d have to hurt” but even then he thinks they would have to play their way back through qualifying or playing lower level events first.
The Favorite Chamblee, Episode 16, 2026 Resolutions – YouTube
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Rory McIlroy
Brooks Koepka
