LIV players returning to PGA Tour has been a trickle. The tour might need to plan for more

Any notion that players lured away by the Saudi Arabia riches of LIV Golf would never return to the PGA Tour doesn’t hold much water these days. Five months from now, there could be as many as five ex-LIV players teeing it up at the season opener in California.

Brooks Koepka was the first to return, and that didn’t go the way he had hoped. He played 16 times and looked like a five-time major champion until his caddie handed him the putter. Koepka failed to reach the postseason at No. 94 in the FedEx Cup, a performance he described as “pathetic.”

Patrick Reed, who decided not to renew with LIV a week before it began the 2026 season, is leading the Race to Dubai on the European tour and is a lock to be among the leading 10 players not already exempt to get PGA Tour cards for 2027.

“I always saw myself wanting to start and finish my career on the PGA Tour,” Reed said. He will be playing the Nexo Championship next week in Scotland for a $3 million purse. Even one of the lesser “Challenger Series” events in the new tour schedule will feel like an upgrade.

Others currently among the leading 10 are Eugenio Chacarra, Bernd Wiesberger and Shaun Norris. All of them were part of LIV Golf when the rival league launched in 2022, and all have been away from LIV long enough to return without penalty (and without equity).

The PGA Tour has a full plate as it tries to shore up a revamped schedule for 2028 and to create a postseason format that finally puts some meaning into the word “playoffs.”

Brian Rolapp, one year into his role as CEO of the PGA Tour, has never spent much time talking about LIV Golf because there’s no need, especially now. Rolapp saying in a Bloomberg News interview that there was “no merger, no conversations with LIV Golf,” somehow made news. The framework agreement got rid of the lawsuits. That was key.

But creating a path back will need to be added to the plate at some point.

The renegade league is in survival mode without Saudi funding, and while it is leaning into the concept of “LIV 2.0” with the promise of a lead investor, the numbers don’t make sense. The Public Investment Fund spent more than $5 billion in five years, much of that to attract stars who went over to LIV because of the money.

“So many of them came because this was a good opportunity for them to make some money, and this second bite at the apple is equity instead of cash,” LIV CEO Scott O’Neil said last week when sharing the news of an agreement with an investor.

He was full of more optimism than details, chief among them the size of the investment.

And then the show went on. Joaquin Niemann won for the ninth time. Jon Rahm clinched the individual title for the third straight time and picked up a $6 million bonus, down from $18 million the last two years he won it.

Scottie Scheffler won $10 million for winning the PGA Tour’s regular season. The PGA Tour’s new “Championship Series” in 2028 offers $20 million purses. LIV Golf’s restructuring will likely have prize funds half that size. The math is not that complicated.

LIV ends its season next week in Indianapolis. And then what? Players will have months to contemplate their futures in golf while dropping in on the odd European tour or Asian Tour event.

The day before O’Neil gave his update on a lead investor, Cameron Smith said about a return to the PGA Tour, “I mean, if it was the only option, I think that’s where everyone would want to be for sure, 100%.” Lucas Herbert said his management has been in touch with the tour.

The key figures are Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau, who are more valuable to LIV Golf than they would be to the PGA Tour. Of course, that’s not the way DeChambeau sees it.

“Personally, I’d love to be able to play events on the PGA Tour, too,” DeChambeau said last week in an interview with the New York Post. “I think that’s best for golf. I’d love that. It’s not an either-or mentality. It’s ‘can we do both?’ I think that’s where everybody wants to be.

“There isn’t a golf fan on the planet who doesn’t want to see me play a big tour event, and I get that,” he said. “I’d love to go play events that make sense, love to play team golf and love to play wherever they’ll let me.”

Is that what the PGA Tour and its members want?

Rolapp in January offered a path back to DeChambeau, Smith and Rahm — major champions since LIV launched in 2022 — and gave them three weeks to decide. None took the offer, no surprise. At the time, there was no indication Saudi Arabia was going to turn off the cash spigot for a league that is (was) all about cash.

Those are three prominent names. There are others like Tyrrell Hatton (four Ryder Cup teams) and Niemann (nine LIV victories). There is unproven youth. There also are 17 players who are 40 or older who might not want to saddle up for a rugged path back to where they once were.

So much depends on how LIV 2.0 comes together and how long it can last.

Rolapp has been consistent in saying he wants what is best for the tour while respecting that his players might harbor more bad feelings from having lived through the big split. He also might come to realize the PGA Tour has done just fine without them.

On The Fringe analyzes the biggest topics in golf during the season. AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf