Brooks Koepka will play his first event back on the PGA Tour this week while Patrick Reed could also leave the Saudi-backed league
Rory McIlroy has claimed top players on LIV Golf are “not getting everything that they wanted”(Image: Megan Briggs/TGL/TGL Golf via Getty Images)
Rory McIlroy has claimed that Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed have shown that big-name stars are not satisfied playing on LIV Golf.
And the Masters champion claimed: “That’s obviously a great thing for the PGA Tour.”
Fellow five-time Major champion Koepka will return to the American circuit at the Farmers Insurance Open in California this week after leaving LIV Golf before Christmas.
And after winning the Hero Dubai Desert Classic on Sunday, Reed revealed he is out of contract with the Saudi-backed tour and could try to play his way back onto the PGA Tour for next season.
Speaking after his latest TGL appearance back in Florida, the world No.2 said: “I think it says more about Brooks than anything else.
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He obviously is a very competitive person and wants to compete at the highest level. I think he made the decision that he thought competing at the highest level meant coming back to the PGA Tour.
“You’ve seen others say this recently. Patrick Reed said it in Dubai last week. It seems like some of those guys are maybe starting to realize that they’re not getting everything that they wanted out of going over there, and that’s obviously a great thing for the PGA Tour.”
Brooks Koepka will return to the PGA Tour at the Farmers Insurance Open this week(Image: Alex Goodlett, Getty Images)
His Boston Common Golf Club team-mate – and former Ryder Cup captain – Keegan Bradley added: “Yeah, I think it’s just an unbelievably great thing that Brooks is coming back. When I heard the news, I was thrilled. Brooks is an unbelievable competitor and somebody that really helps the PGA TOUR.
“I’m nothing but very happy, happy for him, happy for the Tour, and another guy that I think can help the Tour get to another place. I’m really happy for him.”
Keegan Bradley has welcomed the return of Brooks Koepka to the PGA Tour(Image: )
Before the new LIV Golf season starts in Riyadh on February 4, new world No.29 Reed will tee up in his third DP World Tour event of the year at the Bapco Energies Bahrain Championship.
He will be joined by fellow LIV stars Lawrie Canter – the defending champion – new signing Thomas Detry and Sergio Garcia. The 2017 Masters champion is playing on a sponsor’s invite at Royal Golf Club.
Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry flew from the Hero Dubai Desert Classic to play a TGL fixture in Florida on Monday night(Image: Megan Briggs/TGL/TGL Golf via Getty Images)
In Florida, McIlroy’s TGL team beat Shane Lowry’s The Bay Golf Club 9-1 to win their two opening matches of the season.
Both Irishmen played in Dubai on Sunday. Asked how he had been able to get over his jet lag better, McIlroy joked: “He doesn’t have his own plane! I slept okay. Yeah, I probably
slept for seven or eight hours on the way home and then I took a couple-hour nap this afternoon before coming here, which actually made me feel worse. When you have a nap that’s like two and a half hours, it’s probably too long. But hopped in the cold plunge, woke myself up and rallied.”