Former main champion Tom Watson has criticised the PGA Tour for permitting gamers who left the tour for the rival LIV Golf League the possibility to return.
The PGA Tour created a programme to supply a route again for a restricted group of ‘elite performers’, with Brooks Koepka profiting from the Returning Member Program after parting methods with the Saudi-backed circuit on the finish of final season.
Koepka agreed – on the PGA Tour’s request – to make a $5m (£3.7m) charitable donation as a part of his reinstatement, which got here on the Farmers Insurance coverage Open in January, whereas Patrick Reed can be set to return after leaving LIV Golf earlier this 12 months.
“The [PGA] Tour decided to renege on what they promised when the gamers left for LIV,” Watson mentioned in his Honorary Starters press convention at The Masters. “They felt that the compensation that he [Koepka] paid is nice sufficient.
“I assumed the LIV gamers, after they left, they had been purported to be banned for all times?! If I used to be commissioner, that is what I might do.
Brooks Koepka is again competing on the PGA Tour, having beforehand left in 2022 to hitch LIV Golf
“I might say when you’re completed together with your contract with LIV Golf, if you wish to play the PGA Tour once more, you come again, and you could play the Korn Ferry Tour for a 12 months to qualify for it. They noticed it otherwise.”
The Returning Member Program – created by PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp – was additionally supplied to Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith, who all stay on LIV Golf, whereas Reed will return after serving a one-year suspension from his final LIV Golf look.
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Tiger Woods mentioned earlier this 12 months that Brooks Koepka’s return to the PGA Tour is necessary for the sport
“When the gamers left, they violated the primary rule that we actually had out right here, which is to guard the sponsors,” Watson added. “Sponsors want gamers. They want the names to have the ability to promote their tournaments.
“If the gamers play wherever they wish to play with no conflicting occasion rule, the place you needed to search the permission of the PGA Tour to play in a event reverse of a PGA Tour event, the sponsors could be harm by that. I feel all of us understood that.
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Gamers had their say on Brooks Koepka’s return to the PGA Tour underneath the brand new Returning Member Program
“When the gamers left for LIV, I feel it was principally over. They selected to go for the cash, which is ok, however to return to the PGA [Tour], I assumed, was a non-starter, however apparently, it is not.”
‘I wished that adrenaline again’ – Reed explains LIV Golf departure
Reed confirmed his LIV Golf departure simply days earlier than the beginning of the 2026 season, with the 2018 Masters champion set to play on the DP World Tour till he’s eligible to make his PGA Tour.
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Talking forward of The Masters, former champion Patrick Reed defined why he took the choice to stroll away from LIV Golf with the purpose of returning to the PGA Tour
“The perfect gamers on the earth and the deepest fields from prime to backside are on the PGA Tour,” Reed mentioned in his pre-tournament press convention. “I wished that adrenaline again
“I’ve performed now each tour. I’ve performed on each single considered one of them. That is the place that I really feel like is finest for us to go and compete towards the highest guys 12 months in and 12 months out, week in and week out.”
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