{"id":39414,"date":"2026-08-11T22:14:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T17:14:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=39414"},"modified":"2026-08-11T22:14:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T17:14:27","slug":"liv-players-returning-to-pga-tour-has-been-a-trickle-the-tour-might-need-to-plan-for-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=39414","title":{"rendered":"LIV players returning to PGA Tour has been a trickle. The tour might need to plan for more"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"prism-article-body\">\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">Any notion that players <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/entertainment-sports-lawsuits-golf-phil-mickelson-d17cc25c582c2ec2dd4dce318c288bb1\">lured away by the Saudi Arabia riches of LIV Golf<\/a> would never return to the PGA Tour doesn&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \"><a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/brooks-koepka-pga-tour-liv-golf-rolapp-4dcd241cfef551e7feca7fe2778ede5e\">Brooks Koepka was the first to return<\/a>, and that didn&#8217;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 \u201cpathetic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Patrick Reed, <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/patrick-reed-liv-golf-pga-tour-dubai-d9fda5d8a044f40ef0b9f3ae87fd84e0\">who decided not to renew with LIV<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cI always saw myself wanting to start and finish my career on the PGA Tour,&#8221; Reed said. He will be playing the Nexo Championship next week in Scotland for a $3 million purse. Even one of the lesser \u201cChallenger Series\u201d events in the new tour schedule will feel like an upgrade.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Others currently <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.europeantour.com\/dpworld-tour\/rankings\/overview\/rankings\/\">among the leading 10<\/a> 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).<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">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 \u201cplayoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Brian Rolapp, one year into his role as CEO of the PGA Tour, has never spent much time talking about LIV Golf because there&#8217;s no need, especially now. Rolapp saying in a Bloomberg News interview that there was \u201cno merger, no conversations with LIV Golf,\u201d somehow made news. The framework agreement got rid of the lawsuits. That was key.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">But creating a path back will need to be added to the plate at some point.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The renegade league is in survival mode without Saudi funding, and <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/liv-golf-investor-trump-bedminster-scott-oneil-169ca9da22ea74151b370b4ff6426617\">while it is leaning into the concept of \u201cLIV 2.0\u201d with the promise of a lead investor<\/a>, the numbers don&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cSo 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,\u201d LIV CEO Scott O\u2019Neil said last week when sharing the news of an agreement with an investor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">He was full of more optimism than details, chief among them the size of the investment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Scottie Scheffler won $10 million for winning the PGA Tour&#8217;s regular season. The PGA Tour&#8217;s new \u201cChampionship Series\u201d in 2028 offers $20 million purses. LIV Golf&#8217;s restructuring will likely have prize funds half that size. The math is not that complicated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The day before O&#8217;Neil gave his update on a lead investor, Cameron Smith said about a return to the PGA Tour, &#8220;I mean, if it was the only option, I think that\u2019s where everyone would want to be for sure, 100%.\u201d Lucas Herbert said his management has been in touch with the tour.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">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&#8217;s not the way DeChambeau sees it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cPersonally, I&#8217;d love to be able to play events on the PGA Tour, too,\u201d DeChambeau said last week in an interview with the New York Post. \u201cI think that\u2019s best for golf. I\u2019d love that. It\u2019s not an either-or mentality. It\u2019s \u2018can we do both?\u2019 I think that\u2019s where everybody wants to be.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cThere isn\u2019t a golf fan on the planet who doesn\u2019t want to see me play a big tour event, and I get that,\u201d he said. &#8220;I\u2019d love to go play events that make sense, love to play team golf and love to play wherever they\u2019ll let me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Is that what the PGA Tour and its members want?<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Rolapp in January offered a path back to DeChambeau, Smith and Rahm \u2014 major champions since LIV launched in 2022 \u2014 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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">So much depends on how LIV 2.0 comes together and how long it can last.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">___<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">On The Fringe analyzes the biggest topics in golf during the season. AP golf: <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/golf\">https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/golf<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Any notion that players lured away by the Saudi Arabia riches of LIV Golf would never return to the PGA Tour doesn&#8217;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&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/83fe4e71-2c9a-4925-91f3-450b670c0300\/wirestory_ae77f4cb89866099bb9017c7648804da_16x9.jpg?w=1600","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}