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Mark Schlabach
Multiple Authors
The PGA Tour will consider additional pathways to bring back LIV Golf players who might want to return to the circuit, CEO Brian Rolapp said Monday.
While reports surfaced last week that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is on the verge of pulling its funding, LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil said his league has the PIF’s support through this season.
“Listen, we’re reading all the same headlines you’re reading,” Rolapp said on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Monday. “We don’t know what’s going on over there. We know those guys are under contract. We’ll respect that.”
Five-time major championship winner Brooks Koepka and 2018 Masters champion Patrick Reed left the LIV Golf League before this season.
Koepka and LIV Golf agreed to end his contract early. He came back to the PGA Tour in January under the returning member program, which allowed LIV golfers who had been away from the PGA Tour for at least two years — and who won the Players Championship or one of the four majors (the Masters, PGA Championship, U.S. Open and Open Championship) since 2022 — to return under certain conditions and with severe financial penalties.
Koepka agreed to forfeit any player equity shares for the next five years and won’t be eligible for the $100 million FedEx Cup bonus program in 2026. Koepka, at the PGA Tour’s request, also agreed to make a $5 million donation to charity.
Reed couldn’t reach a new contract with LIV Golf. He is expected to return to the PGA Tour on Aug. 25 when his one-year suspension ends.
“Brooks came back on to the tour because he made a phone call and said, ‘Look, I’m out of my contract, I’m ready to come back,’ so we’re thinking about it,” Rolapp told McAfee. “We’ll react when we have an opportunity to react, but right now we’re focused on making the PGA Tour better.
“But listen, I’ve said it publicly and I’ll say it again: I’m interested in whatever makes the PGA Tour better. That’s what my job is. That’s what I’m interested in doing. That has no limit. That’s how I’ll focus on it.”
If the LIV Golf League doesn’t receive additional funding and folds, it’s unclear how long stars such as Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and others will have to wait to return to the PGA Tour.
DeChambeau, Rahm and Cameron Smith were eligible to return to the tour under the returning member program, but the deadline expired Feb. 2.
When Koepka returned, Rolapp described the program as a “one-time, defined window” and “not a precedent for future situations.”
“I think LIV did what the AFL did for the NFL years ago, maybe what the USFL did for the NFL years ago,” said Rolapp, a former NFL executive. “It’s basically competition [that] can make it better. I think whenever you get competition, you end up figuring out what you do well, what you don’t do well.
“I think that’s what LIV did was expose some things that maybe the PGA Tour could do better, how we can make it better for fans, how we can make it better for professional golfers, how we can make it better for our television partners. That’s a good thing.”
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