How Brooks Koepka's PGA Tour defection can serve as inflection point in ending golf's long-fractured state
It's been four long years since professional golf was split, and the PGA Tour's Returning Member Program has created a mechanism to repair it once and for all
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3 min read
In a strange twist of fate, those whose headline-making departures from the PGA Tour legitimized LIV Golf four years ago find themselves in a unique position to end it for good. When the PGA Tour announced on Monday that it had created a new pathway for Brooks Koepka to return to the PGA Tour, it accomplished more than welcoming back one of the game's brightest stars.
Koepka left LIV Golf a few days before Christmas, citing that he wanted to spend more time with his family in 2026. The split was mutual, according to a league statement that primarily boasted Talor Gooch's impending captaincy of Smash GC, the LIV Golf team Koepka previously led.
The PGA Tour responded to Koepka's decision by releasing a statement within minutes of his departure, calling the player a "highly accomplished professional" while stating the tour "continues to offer the best professional golfers the most competitive, challenging and lucrative environment in which to pursue greatness."
Internal conversations were held. PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp met with Koepka on multiple occasions. Meetings took place. A new pathway was concocted out of thin air. Majority approval was achieved, and on Monday, membership was made aware of the reinstatement decision. All of this transpired in a three-week window during the holidays leading into the start of the 2026 season.
In doing so, the PGA Tour not only opened an expedited pathway for Koepka to return without serving a year-long suspension, it created an opportunity to deal a massive blow to its rival, one from which it may not be able to recover.
Koepka's journey back to the PGA Tour may well serve as a returned knife in the back of LIV Golf -- considering the league previously poached the big-swinging Floridian -- but it's not a death blow. That opportunity belongs to three other players who are now suddenly eligible to come back through the PGA Tour's Returning Membership Program: Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Cameron Smith.
Whether any or all choose to take the PGA Tour up on its offer is anyone's best guess, of course.
Rahm's lucrative contract started towards the end of 2023, and it could be a bear to extricate himself from it, even if he wished, which some have suggested he does.
DeChambeau is up for negotiations and could become the richest golfer to ever walk on this planet if he plays his cards right. Phil Mickelson once described working with LIV Golf as a once-in-a-lifetime leverage opportunity. That word, "leverage?" DeChambeau has in spades.
Smith seems intent on remaining where he plays alongside his fellow Australians with a laidback schedule, but a PGA Tour return cannot be ruled out, either, particularly if some other top-level players depart ahead of him.
Without those three, what would be left of LIV Golf?
A bunch of (mostly) has-beens traveling the world, participating in a rowdy tournament in Australia that is considered the event of year yet comes across as more of a concert than golf event? Players like Joaquin Niemann, Patrick Reed and Tyrell Hatton stranded in what can only be described as no man's land? Oh, the teams. How could we forget about The Crushers? They may be EBITDA positive, but would they be without DeChambeau?
These were not questions being asked three weeks ago as LIV Golf and its backers, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, long ago decided they would spend whatever money was necessary to keep the league afloat. But with DeChambeau, Rahm and Smith now having a deadline of Feb. 2 -- two days before LIV Golf kicks off its season -- to decide on their future, sport-defining change could come swiftly.
After four years of an intersport battle that has split golf -- involving defections, pointless meetings, grand proclamations, flash mobs, weird messages to set up even weirder announcements and a lot of grandstanding with little to show for it -- it could all come down to these next three weeks.
The ball is officially in the court of DeChambeau, Rahm and Smith, and it's the PGA Tour who handed it to them.
