Viktor Hovland, on a personal level, says he thought three words when he learned that Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed, both former LIV Golf pros, were returning to the PGA Tour.
“Oh, that’s interesting.”
And then?
“And then I just go about my day,” he said.
“I got stuff to do, things to figure out, so that’s about the amount of calories I’m spending on reacting to things like that.”
Still, the seven-time Tour winner said Tuesday he could understand the moves that have allowed Koepka and Reed to return. The players are unquestionably great, he said. But, in a press conference ahead of this week’s WM Phoenix Open, Hovland wondered whether other Tour pros would jump to LIV, then be allowed to return “without the biggest consequences.”
“What precedent are you setting then?” he asked.
These thoughts followed announcements last month saying that Koepka and Reed will be returning to the PGA Tour after four-season stints with LIV, though each will do so differently. Koepka returned last week under the “Returning Member Program,” which was offered to LIV players who had won a major championship over the past four years, and his penalty included making a $5 million charitable donation and not receiving access to the Tour’s equity program for five years nor a bonus program for 2026. Reed, meanwhile, will serve a one-year suspension that started after LIV’s final event last season, meaning he would be eligible to return on Aug. 25, and he, too, will not have access to the equity program until 2030. In the meantime, Reed said he would play DP World Tour events.
In the days since the announcements, multiple pros have been asked for their thoughts, as Hovland was on Tuesday.
“I mean, just for my personal standpoint, I would say I enjoy playing against those guys,” he said. “I think obviously Patrick Reed being a major champion and great player and Brooks a five-time major champion, that’s a great addition to the PGA Tour. They’re great players and I want to compete against the greatest players out there.
“I think it just makes the products, the fields better. However, it does kind of put the Tour in a tricky position now. You’ve said one thing for a long time and now we’re changing things. What precedent are you setting then to the future players now if I can go to a rival tour, get paid, and now seemingly come back again without the biggest consequences.
“I don’t really have an opinion on that, to be honest. That’s something the Tour has to figure out. I’m sure there is a lot of people not going to be super happy about that, but at the end of the day, I just want to compete against the best players in the world.
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“I’m in a place where I have to figure stuff out in my own game, and that’s basically where I’m focusing on. I don’t really want to focus on what the Tour should be doing right now.”
Notably, in a story written two years ago by Tom Kershaw of the Telegraph, Hovland said he had told his agent to look into a deal to join LIV, but he ultimately stayed with the Tour. “At the end of the day, the question is ‘What’s going to make me a better player?’” Hovland said in Kershaw’s story. “And hey, in 20 years, if I’m on the back end of my career, playing LIV Golf wouldn’t be too bad. It might have been a pretty cool opportunity but, right now, it’s something I think I’d probably look back and regret.”
On Tuesday, Hovland was asked if the Koepka and Reed moves made him “reconsider any of the decisions” he had made in his career.
“Not really,” he said.
“I just see the news and I go, oh, that’s interesting, and then I just go about my day.”
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