GolfWRX

Tour pro says ‘LIV would be done’ if Brooks Koepka returned to PGA Tour

koepka return to pga tour

Alan Shipnuck, the man that wrote the most read golf volume in 2022, has indicated that Brooks Koepka may have “buyer’s remorse.”

As  revealed yesterday,  in the latest round of #AskAlan, written for The Fire Pit Collective, the author of “Phil: the Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized) Biography of Golf’s most Colorful Superstar” reveals that the four-time major winner is “supposedly rethinking his career choice.”

Having initially stating he was “with the PGA Tour. It’s where I’m staying,” the former world number one had a complete reversal, and jumped ship to the Saudi tour, claiming he wasn’t worried about entry into the majors:

 “You play anywhere around the world, you’ll be just fine, you’ll get into them,” Koepka said. “I made a decision. I’m happy with it, and whatever comes of it, I’ll live with it.”

During the Q&A, reader @HighFades asked, “Who’s the first LIV golfer to come back to the PGA Tour? And how would that work, etc.? Feel like this is inevitable at this point.”  As always, Shipnuck was open with what he had heard.

“I’m hearing a lot of rumblings that Brooks Koepka has buyer’s remorse,” answered Shipnuck.

“He took the money when his brittle body was still being put back together, and in private he has confided to folks he wasn’t sure if he would ever get fully healthy again. But now Koepka is feeling frisky and supposedly rethinking his career choice.”

“The guy has one of the biggest egos in golf, and as the PGA Tour creates ever-increasing buzz with its elevated events and even the state-sanctioned TGL, Koepka has to feel like he’s on the outside looking in.”

Now Eddie Pepperell has weighed in, saying that should Brooks return to the PGA Tour, “LIV would be done.”

If (and I’m sure this is just rumour-ville shit) LIV’s biggest star (arguably), wanted to come back to play PGAT this soon, that sends a dire message about LIV. If the PGAT allowed him back, I’m sure it wouldn’t be long before others followed suit.. so LIV would be done, IMO. — Eddie Pepperell (@PepperellEddie) February 16, 2023

LIV needs something to prove the huge investment is achieving its target.

2023 is absolutely vital for Greg Norman and co, and the next few months will tell us an awful lot.

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While speaking on the  Subpar podcast , former PGA Tour winner and current PGA Tour Champions player Chris DiMarco said he hopes LIV buys the Champions Tour.

“We’re kind of hoping that LIV buys the Champions Tour,” he said.

“Let’s play for a little real money out here. I mean this is kind of a joke when we’re getting $2 million. There were like seven guys last week from TPC (Sawgrass, at the $25 million PLAYERS Championship) that made more money than our purses.”

In 2024, the Champions Tour had a total of $67 million in prize money over the course of 24 events.

DiMarco also defended LIV players for taking the money and said he would take it also.

“They wanted to play for a lot of money, and they deserve it. They have had some great careers, why not go and get some money?”

DiMarco also offered insight on Graeme McDowell’s move to LIV.

“I saw Graeme McDowell at the Old Memorial Pro Member, and he goes, ‘Listen, I went up to Jay Monahan and said I love the tour but I am struggling to keep my card and these guys are offering me all this money and less golf. I’m sorry, I’m going.’ And I do not blame him one bit, and I said I would have too.”

DiMarco was ranked as high as 6th in the world in 2006.

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‘It won’t win you golf tournaments’ – Golf analyst rips Charley Hull’s course management

koepka return to pga tour

Charley Hull came just short of her third LPGA Tour victory over the weekend at the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship when she played her last two holes at 3 over to slip all the way to 10th on the leaderboard.

After the round, Hull was blasted by Sky Sports commentator and former LPGA Tour player Trish Johnson for her lack of golf course management.

While speaking on the  Sky Sports Golf podcast , Johnson spoke harshly of Hull.

“I’m probably her harshest critic, because I know how good she is. She doesn’t win anywhere near enough for her talent, and she doesn’t get involved enough, in all honestly.

“The thing with Charley is that you’re never going to change her. I read something the other day that said how much she loves the game and it’s her love of the game [that costs her]. She’s never going to change and she’s just going to go for every pin.

“In theory that’s great, but it won’t win you golf tournaments, it just won’t because she’s not that much better than anybody else. If you put Charley against Nelly Korda, then I’m picking Nelly every single day of the week.”

Johnson also made a fascinating comparison between Hull and a famous male golfer, John Daly.

“Golf-wise that’s the way she plays the game and it’s a little bit like watching John Daly I suppose.”

“There’s something that John Daly had that made him a major winner and a winner, but Charley is kind of lacking that. Her talent is not in question, but maybe her application is. Maybe it’s just the case of her never changing and that will cost her golf tournaments, there’s no two ways about it. You cannot go for every pin because that’s the way you play and it being fun, as other players are better than that and you have to have course management.”

Hull is still only 27, and therefore has plenty of time to work on her flaws to achieve the success her talent should allow.

Former agent lifts lid on being fired by ‘zombie’ Tiger Woods

koepka return to pga tour

Discussing his new book “Rainmaker” with the  Daily Mail , Tiger Woods’ former agent, Hughes Norton, recounted the events leading up to and after his split with the 15-time major champion.

Norton was abruptly fired by Woods in 1998 after his 1997 Masters win and monster deal with Nike.

In the book, Norton talks about the way Tiger views his relationships, calling him a “zombie.”

“ The solace I can take, which doesn’t provide much, is this: He was an equal opportunity zombie with relationships, his swing coaches, his lawyer, the guy negotiated the IMG representation deal, with caddies, When it’s over, it’s over.”

Norton added:

“It is the way he terminates relationships with everyone. Whether it’s girlfriends, whether it’s his former golf coaches. It’s ironic, really. In a way he’s so good at confrontation on the golf course. If he’s playing you, he will beat your brains out every single time.

“But when it comes to confronting things like me and other people that are in his life, he has no social skills whatsoever. It’s maddening, actually.”

After he was fired by Woods, Norton was let go by IMG, which he believes was due to Woods’ influence.

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koepka return to pga tour

Is Brooks Koepka really planning a return to PGA Tour?

In a golf world that is still torn, Brooks Koepka appears to be above the fray. 

It has been almost a year since the 2023 PGA Championship winner left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf, but the 33-year-old pro hasn't taken the same "us against them" stance many on Greg Norman's breakaway circuit have. He practiced with Rory McIlroy ahead of the Masters. He pushed aside questions about being in contact with Norman after becoming the first LIV golfer to win a major. He even said he was more focused on his own game than using his win to promote the Saudi Arabia-funded league.

"Yeah, it's a huge thing for LIV, but at the same time, I'm out here competing as an individual at the PGA Championship," Koepka said, via the Mirror .

With comments like that, golf fans and critics alike have started asking the question his week: Could Brooks Koepka be the first LIV golfer to return to the PGA Tour?

Brooks Koepka refuses to take any LIV golf bait. Says he has no interest in talking to Greg Norman right now. Says more interested in competing for himself than any tour. Brooks continues to build a bridge back to PGA Tour. Not predicting this will happen but a bridge. — Ryan Burr (@RyanBurr) May 21, 2023

For starters, everyone should remember why Koepka left in the first place. The Florida native suffered a plethora of injuries following his last major victory in 2019, which affected both his game and his confidence. The drive to get back on track is what made LIV Golf appealing: fewer events for a huge payday. 

Koepka admitted after winning the Wanamaker Trophy last weekend that things might have been different had he been healthy when he decided to leave the PGA Tour.

"Honestly, yeah, probably, if I'm being completely honest," he told reporters . "I think it would have been [different if I was healthy]. But I'm happy with the decision I made." 

With that in mind, is it more possible that Koepka focuses predominantly on majors while keeping to LIV Golf's lenient schedule instead of rejoining the PGA Tour?

Brooks Koepka wins the PGA Championship for his fifth major title. pic.twitter.com/fG7YqHvWgn — PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 21, 2023

There's also the matter of LIV Golf contracts being designed to not be broken. As Sports Illustrated detailed back in March, the penalty for breaking a LIV Golf contract can be up to four times a player's signing bonus. So even if Koepka wanted to leave LIV and return to the PGA Tour, doing so before his four-year contract is up would cost him some serious cheddar.

With all of that in mind, it isn't likely Koepka is rejoining the PGA Tour any time in the near future. But is the door open for him to do it in the future if he wants to? It certainly seems possible.

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Could Brooks Koepka return to the PGA Tour? How much would it cost to break his LIV contract?

Some say the 4-time major champion is having regrets about joining the saudi-backed tour, but his contract would not be easy to get out of..

Some say the 4-time major champion is having regrets about joining the Saudi-backed tour, but his contract would not be easy to get out of.

Brooks Koepka , the four-time major champion, made headlines not only for his golfing prowess but also for his move to LIV Golf , the breakaway golf league. The decision to join LIV Golf came with a hefty price tag, and now fans and analysts are speculating whether Koepka could potentially return to the PGA Tour .

Rory McIlroy discusses THAT Masters practice round with Brooks Koepka last year. Watch the drama unfold in Full Swing Season 2. Now playing. pic.twitter.com/w6wJxFuYWz — Netflix (@netflix) March 6, 2024

How much would it cost Koepka to get out of his LIV Golf contract?

Koepka reportedly received $100 million as a signing bonus for joining LIV Golf. His contract, like that of most of his companions, is for four years and ends at the end of the 2025 season. According to Sports Illustrated, golfers playing on the LIV Tour would have to pay three to four times their signing bonus if they want out of their contract. Yep, that would be as much as $600 million dollars.

Koepka says he knew what he was getting into and he has 100 million reasons to be happy playing in a second-tier tour, but the competition on the PGA is much more intense than on the Saudi-backed tour.

So, the answer to the question about Koepka getting out of his contract is NO. At least not until 2026 when his contract ends with LIV golf. Despite rumors that Koepka isn’t happy on the new tour, there’s not much he can do to leave in the near future. Back in February 2023 Alan Shipnuck wrote on the The Fire Pit Collective website that Koepka had regrets.

“I’m hearing a lot of rumblings that Brooks Koepka has buyer’s remorse. The guy has one of the biggest egos in golf, and as the PGA Tour creates ever-increasing buzz with its elevated events and even the state-sanctioned TGL, Koepka has to feel like he’s on the outside looking in.”

While fans may hope for Koepka’s return to the PGA Tou r, the financial hurdles make it unlikely in the near future. For now, we watch as Koepka continues to tee off in LIV Golf , knowing that his decision carries both sporting and financial weight.

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2023 PGA Championship leaderboard: Brooks Koepka wins fifth major, third PGA in return to elite form

Koepka joins jack nicklaus and tiger woods as golfers to dominate the pga championship in the stroke-play era.

Scaling the mountaintop once is difficult; staying there is nearly impossible. Returning to the summit is almost unheard of, but don't tell that to Brooks Koepka. Four years removed from capturing his last major championship, Koepka stood victorious at one of the sport's premier tournaments winning the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club by two strokes over Viktor Hovland and Scottie Scheffler.

The victory is first for Koepka (-9) at a major since the 2019 PGA Championship. It marks a return to form for one of the game's brightest stars, who had been plagued over the last three years by knee injuries that led him to question whether he had a future atop the sport he once dominated.

Koepka scored consecutive 4-under 66s to storm to the top of the star-studded field over the weekend, adding a 67 on Sunday to join Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the third golfer to win three or more PGA Championships in the stroke-play era. He also becomes the fifth player to win as many PGAs and at least two U.S. Opens -- standing alongside Woods, Nicklaus, Gene Sarazen and Walter Hagen -- and the 20th in history with at least five major titles on their mantle.

While Koepka had seven top-10 finishes across the 13 majors he played since that 2019 PGA victory, he finished no better than 55th with two missed cuts in last season's four majors. To start 2023 with a pair of top-two finishes at the Masters and PGA, there's no question that Koepka has returned to form.

It all confirms what many already believed: Koepka is one of the great major championship competitors ever .

"I look back on where we were two years ago, everything that's gone on, I'm just so happy right now that I'm kind of at a loss for words," Koepka said after hoisting the Wanamaker Trophy. "To be with those group of names is absolutely incredible, something, I'll be honest, I'm not even sure if I dreamed of it as a kid winning this many."

Despite what the final score may suggest, Koepka's fifth major came with its fair share of adversity -- not only in the years leading up to it but just last month at the 2023 Masters (where he stood as the 54-hole leader only to finish second) and Sunday within the final round of the PGA Championship itself.

Kick-starting his day with three consecutive birdies on holes 2-4, Koepka saw his overnight lead balloon to three. And then he hit a speed bump. When his tee shot found the penalty area on the difficult par-4 6th, Koepka did well to just drop one before dropping another on the next.

All his hard work had temporarily been erased, and the added cushion he had built over Hovland suddenly evaporated. He made the turn in 1 under, as did Hovland, and went to the back nine face-to-face with the 25-year-old as Scheffler, the reigning PGA Tour Player of the Year, was up ahead making a charge of his own.

Two birdies sandwiched a bogey on the 11th for Koepka, and while the par breakers added some breathing room, it was a par conversion on the par-5 13th that was vintage. Missing the green with his third and chipping his fourth to 10 feet above the hole, the 33-year-old successfully navigated a slippery par save to maintain a one-stroke edge over a surging Hovland.

Scheffler clawed his way to two back, but that would be as close as the Texan came to Koepka. Running out of holes, Scheffler's inability to apply pressure down the stretch -- along with birdies from Koepka and Hovland on the 14th -- meant the three-horse race was down to just the final pair.

Pars were exchanged on the tricky 15th, and the championship's deciding moment came soon after. With Hovland scrambling after hitting his second shot from the fairway bunker and into the lip, Koepka saw his moment to pounce. From the lush rough, his second tumbled towards the pin on the 16th and settled near tap-in distance for his seventh and final birdie of the day.

Koepka entered the hole leading by one and left up four. After that, Koepka's fifth major victory and spot among golf's immortality was secured.

Here's a breakdown of the rest of the leaderboard at the 2023 PGA Championship.

T2. Viktor Hovland (-7): For the third straight major championship, Hovland found himself with a legitimate chance to win. Unlike the first two, he still had that opportunity heading into the back nine as he matched Koepka punch for punch nearly the entire day. Birdie conversions on holes 13-14 maintained his one-stroke deficit before disaster struck two holes later. Hovland's chance to become the first major champion from Norway vanished when his second from the fairway bunker on the 16th embedded in the lip and led to a double bogey. 

To make matters worse, Koepka went on to birdie the hole and stretch his lead to four. Hovland was able to cut the lead in half when all was said and done, but this major finish has to be more disappointing than the two prior given how close he was entering the back nine. Hovland is fun-loving, wide-smiling and capable of playing with the best of 'em.

"It's cool," said Hovland. "First place is a lot better than tied for second, but it is fun to even just have a chance to been one of these. Just making the cut and finishing 20th, you know, that's -- you haven't played poorly, but you've been a non-factor in the tournament. So to be in the last group, that was my second time and been in contention for three of these. That's pretty cool."

T2. Scottie Scheffler (-7): The world No. 2 once again snuck up on the field on Sunday. Stalling in the initial portion of his final round, Scheffler found some birdies before the turn just as Koepka began to struggle. He went from seven down to three down in the span of 30 minutes and suddenly launched himself into the conversation. Scheffler got as close as two with birdies on Nos. 13-14, but it ultimately proved to be too little too late.

After getting to 5 under at the 36-hole mark, Scheffler played his final 36 in 2 under lowlighted by his third-round 73. A victory would have been Scheffler's second major in six tries and his third rather large trophy (including the Players Championship). While it was not meant to be, Scheffler continues to stake his claim as the best player in the world -- he will steal that No. 1 spot from Jon Rahm on Monday when the Official World Golf Rankings are updated -- and he hasn't finished outside the top 12 on a leaderboard since October 2022.

Brooks Koepka joins an elite group of players with five major championships. On CBS Sports HQ, Rick Gehman breaks it all down with Kyle Porter, Mark Immelman and Greg DuCharme. Follow & listen to The First Cut on  Apple Podcasts  and  Spotify .

T4. Bryson DeChambeau, Kurt Kitayama, Cameron Davis (-3): Golf is better when DeChambeau is playing well. He shot out the gates with a 4-under 66 only to play his final 54 holes in a 1-over fashion to claim his first worldwide top five since the 2021 BMW Championship. After gaining nearly six strokes with the big stick the first two days, the 2020 U.S. Open champion struggled with off the tee but showed a ton of guts in the process. 

T7. Rory McIlroy, Sepp Straka (-2): McIlroy's up-and-down final round was an encapsulation of his week. The 34-year-old arrived on site with a visible chip on his shoulder, lamenting that he was feeling less than 100% physically. Then, he got off to yet another poor start in a major championship. The world No. 3 battled back Thursday and continued his march over the next 54 holes. He again showed that he had more than enough firepower to contend down the stretch. McIlroy carded 10 birdies over the weekend, but the mistakes piled up. Where does Rory go from here? Now nine years removed from his last major triumph at the 2014 PGA Championship, he appears to be searching for his identity as he leaves yet another one inside the top 10 but without a trophy.

"I'll look back on this week as proud of how I hung in there, and I guess my attitude and sticking to it, not having my best stuff," said McIlroy. "Probably not a ton of memorable golf shots hit. My playing partner today hit a couple memorable golf shots, though. Yeah, the atmosphere out there, playing with Michael [Block], was unbelievable. We both got amazing support, but you know, he got unbelievable support, understandably so, being in this position as a club pro and playing so well and, you know, competing into the latter stages of a major championship. It was really impressive."

T9. Patrick Cantlay, Cameron Smith, Justin Rose (-1): It will go down as Cantlay's fourth straight top 15 finish in a major championship, but even he knows there is still work to be done. The world No. 4 got off to a dreadful start Thursday and played his final 54 holes in 5 under. He polished off his time in Rochester with a 4-under 66. Cantlay ranked second in strokes gained off the tee on a course that demanded excellence with the big stick but fell woefully short on and around the green. He was never close to sniffing contention.

T15. Michael Block, Tyrrell Hatton and two others (+1): What more is there to say? The club pro from Southern California took New York by storm in his fifth appearance at a PGA Championship. He nearly touched the lead Friday and got welcomed into the weekend with tee times alongside 2013 U.S. Open champion Justin Rose on Saturday and McIlroy on Sunday. As if that wasn't enough, Block gave the rowdy Rochester faithful even more to cheer about with a hole-in-one on the par-3 15th. Even that wasn't his best moment in the final round as the 46-year-old converted an unlikely up-and-down on the 72nd hole to secure his spot in the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla. 

Brooks Koepka wins the 2023 PGA Championship

It was a masterclass from Koepka over the final 54 holes at Oak Hill Country Club. He raises his third Wanamaker Trophy and fifth major to join players such as Seve Ballesteros, Byron Nelson and Peter Thomson. Koepka cements his legacy as one of the greatest major champions ever. Scottie Scheffler and Viktor Hovland finish runner up at 7 under.

koepka return to pga tour

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Brooks Koepka Wins The PGA Championship To Capture His First Major Win Since 2019

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Golf

Brooks Koepka’s PGA Championship win is confirmation that he’s back

ROCHESTER, NEW YORK - MAY 21: Brooks Koepka of the United States smiles after being awarded the Wanamaker Trophy in honor of winning the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club on May 21, 2023 in Rochester, New York. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Brooks Koepka pulled slowly into the Oak Hill Country Club parking lot at 1:10 p.m. Sunday, arriving exactly one minute after Viktor Hovland, his partner in a 2:30 tee time. Koepka leaned to his right, an elbow atop the center console, and draped his left wrist over the steering wheel of his courtesy SUV. He pulled into a personalized parking spot with signage honoring his 2018 and ’19 PGA Championship wins. He backed up, straightened her out, pulled forward, and put it in park.

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Then Koepka walked the way Koepka walks. Impossibly unhurried. Shoulders pressed back. It’s like he’s never wanted the world to think he’s trying to get anywhere.

For a long time, this walk from Koepka framed so many championship Sundays. He was the one everyone was waiting for. He was the last to arrive. He was the one greeted by a backpedaling camera guy who captured every step as the broadcast cut to a live shot of The Man coming upon the scene.

In recent years, though? We kind of got used to not seeing him.

Sunday’s round with Hovland began in front of a massive gallery, just like the old days. Koepka hit his opening tee shot and there it was, more of that walk. After an opening par, Koepka birdied the second hole, pulled the ball out of the cup and took about 30 full seconds to walk off the green. His tee shot on No. 3 was followed by a stroll pulled straight from a John Woo film.

As he has done for most of his professional career, Koepka did exactly what he wanted Sunday. A glacial front nine produced a 1-under 34. A heated back nine seeing him and Hovland trading blows, competition boiling, sped things up. Koepka’s gait moved him across the land, in control, those shoulders pushed back even further. A 2-under 33 made for a 3-under 67 and, like that, a new sign for the parking space.

Koepka was the 2023 PGA Champion.

I Got 5 on It 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 pic.twitter.com/IqAI0jx7yk — Brooks Koepka (@BKoepka) May 22, 2023

Everything that happened at Oak Hill this weekend occurred according to Koepka’s schedule. It’s been a while since he could say that and, in some ways, it felt appropriate for a player whose road back from near-oblivion rarely went as planned. At the darkest times, it seemed his playing days might befall an end known by an unfortunate company of injured greats. Such a fate would’ve been cruel. He is, without question, one of the finest players in modern golf history. This victory in Rochester makes him just the third golfer to reach five major victories in the 21st century. The others are Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, two others who know what it looks like to go to the brink and back.

After winning four majors in 2018 and ’19, Koepka tore his patella tendon in August 2019 and sustained a hip injury in 2020. Then, in March 2021, a gruesome injury. A slip and fall at home left Koepka on the ground with a dislocated knee. He tried to put the knee back in place, but instead shattered his kneecap and tore his medial patellofemoral ligament, leaving his knee and foot pointing in different directions. A series of surgeries followed, even as Koepka tried to play through it.

All of this added up to Koepka’s career teetering. Is that why he joined LIV Golf and loaded his bank account with all that up-front money? Yeah, probably. We essentially got first-hand proof in “Full Swing,” the Netflix docuseries chronicling the 2022 season in professional golf.

There are some things you can’t unsee, and this was one. Koepka has long been a star with a well-crafted, very exact image. The whole look. All Nike head-to-toe. Custom kicks. Tan. Dimples. Stubble. Biceps. Actress wife. Happy to present himself as cooler than the shmucks on the PGA Tour . Happy to suggest he’s an actual professional athlete, one who just happens to play golf.

The documentary was jarring. Episode 2 focused in large part on Koepka. Or at least this injured, broken-down version of him. The times were dark and the hair was bleached. He was broken, physically and emotionally.

“It’s like, I got a taste of it, right?” Koepka said then of bygone success. “And now it’s all I want. It’s all I want.”

It was unclear if Koepka was questioning just his body, or himself, too.

Sunday evening, standing next to the Wanamaker Trophy, he was asked about it.

“It’s tough — it’s very hard to explain,” he responded. “It’s just, like, you can’t fathom how difficult it is just to get going. I mean, it was a lot worse than I let on to you guys, let on to everybody. Maybe only five, six people really know the extent of it, and it’s just — it was hard.”

That was Koepka’s world for roughly two years. The swelling in his knee only went down a few months ago.

So, yes, whether you particularly care for him or not, this past week is all the more impressive. Koepka began with an opening 2-over 72 on Thursday, saying it was “the worst I’ve hit it in a really long time.” Then he answered with a second-round 66 to jump back in the mix. On a rain-soaked Saturday, a day when only nine players in the field broke par, he posted a second straight 66 to carry a one-shot lead into the final round.

Back in the day, Koepka would’ve been an unquestioned favorite heading into Sunday. But these are different days. Last month at Augusta National, Koepka announced his return to form by leading the Masters after both the second and third rounds. That ended, though, with a fourth-round 75 and a congratulatory handshake offered to Jon Rahm.

“He just hadn’t been in that position for a while and it showed,” said Ricky Elliott, Koepka’s caddie.

koepka return to pga tour

Entering this Sunday, it was unclear how much of the Koepka-of-old was still in there.

But that was answered quickly.

After going 1-over on Oak Hill’s front nine over the PGA’s first three days (vs. 7-under on the back), Koepka birdied Nos. 2, 3 and 4 to build a three-shot lead Sunday before home viewers could even settle in for the afternoon broadcast. From there, the pending result already felt like a foregone conclusion.

Well, that is, until the sixth tee, when Koepka opted for driver instead of 3-wood and pumped one into the right marsh. He took bogey, followed it with another, and the door remained open for others.

Hovland was still alive. So was Scottie Scheffler and others. Cameron Smith was blitzing the course and going low. These guys, they’ve emerged on the scene as Koepka receded from it. This wasn’t lost on Team Koepka.

“You only need an average six months out here and, as everybody is right now, guys will just fly by you,” Elliott said. “If you’re not winning, you’re not really relevant, are you?”

Elliott has worked for Koepka since the 2013 PGA at Oak Hill. Back then, Koepka was paired with Woods on Sunday. At one point that morning, Elliott had to nudge Koepka, tell him to stop watching Woods and focus on his own game. All this time later, it was Koepka sauntering around, unbothered.

“I’ve got to slow down,” Koepka said Sunday, describing his style on these stages. “I’ve got to take my time and really just kind of assess things. I don’t think my hands shake or my heart rate gets up. I don’t think about the next shot. I just think about what’s going on.”

This is why Koepka looked unchanged, whether rolling in a birdie putt on No. 10, or leaving a tee shot two clubs short on the par-3 11th, or rolling in another birdie on No. 12. He played his round and often walked alone, leaving a path of well-pressed footprints and dip spit.

With Hovland trying to push into the mix, Koepka matched both a birdie on No. 14 and a par on No. 15. On 16, young Hovland blinked. A drive into a right fairway bunker ended up perilously close to a raised grass front. Roles reversed, Koepka would’ve likely taken his medicine, played it out safely, and hoped to get up and down to stay in the fight. It’s one of the reasons he’s won five of these things. But Hovland? He’s 25. And he swung a full 9-iron, embedding the ball in the bunker wall, then resting his chin on his fist, wondering what he was thinking.

Hovland left with a double bogey. Koepka left with a four-shot lead.

“He is not going to give you anything, and I didn’t really feel like I gave him anything either, until 16,” Hovland said.

And that was that. Koepka closed the tournament with a 9-under 271, two shots clear of Hovland and Scheffler. His win came 1,463 days after his last major win — the 2019 PGA at Bethpage. Back then, Koepka seemed invincible. In time, his body proved otherwise.

Nevertheless, Sunday didn’t end with tears or Koepka breaking down for everyone to see. He mostly played it cool. Some things never change.

That dynamic is, at this point, unavoidable when it comes to Koepka. He’s now the first LIV player to win a major, and it’s irrevocably part of his story.

On No. 9, a fan yelled, “Let’s go Vik! Brooks is gonna choke!” and got a stare-down from Elliott. On No. 13, another yelled “Get in the water!” after a Koepka tee shot, drawing another Elliott glare. On No. 17, a voice beside the green hollered, “Sellout!” as Koepka finished up a bogey.

“I hear it all,” Koepka said. “I just don’t care. I mean, that’s sports, right?”

The lone crack in Koepka’s exterior came on his walk from the 18th green to the scoring tent. An expecting first-time father, the 33-year-old has a lot happening in his life. On his way to sign his card, that’s when it all set in and he swallowed some emotion.

“It was what I accomplished,” Koepka said an hour or so later, remembering the walk. “Pardon my language, but it’s all the f—ing s— I had to go through. No one knows. No one knows all the pain.”

With that sentiment, as only he can, Koepka ended his Sunday.

He’s the sixth player to win three PGA Championships. The others: Walter Hagen (6), Jack Nicklaus (5), Woods (4), Gene Sarazen (3) and Sam Snead (3). The hardest part about Koepka’s play being halted was always that history was being slowed with it. He had every right to be bitter about it.

But now Koepka has somewhere to be. Next, he’s slated for a LIV event later this week in Washington D.C., then the U.S. Open in Los Angeles in mid-June. He’ll get there at his own pace. As of 9:30 p.m. Sunday, that white Escalade was the only one left in the lot.

(Top photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

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Brendan Quinn

Brendan Quinn covers college basketball and golf for The Athletic. He came to The Athletic from MLive Media Group, where he covered Michigan and Michigan State basketball. Prior to that, he covered Tennessee basketball for the Knoxville News Sentinel. Follow Brendan on Twitter @ BFQuinn

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Brooks Koepka Surges to the Lead at P.G.A. Championship

After his second consecutive four-under-par 66, the LIV golfer Koepka will be in the final pairing on Sunday at Oak Hill Country Club.

The golfer Brooks Koepka looks determined after making a putt.

By Alan Blinder

Photographs by Desiree Rios

PITTSFORD, N.Y. — Four years ago, less than a week before he won his second consecutive P.G.A. Championship, Brooks Koepka allowed the world inside his swaggering mind.

“One hundred fifty-six in the field, so you figure at least 80 of them I’m just going to beat,” he said at Bethpage in 2019. “You figure about half of them won’t play well from there, so you’re down to about maybe 35,” he added. “And then from 35, some of them just — pressure is going to get to them. It only leaves you with a few more, and you’ve just got to beat those guys.”

Keep in contention long enough, he reasoned, and “good things are going to happen.”

He returned to the mix last month at the Masters Tournament, where he surrendered his lead to Jon Rahm during the final round . And now he is in the mix this weekend at the P.G.A. Championship at Oak Hill Country Club, where he fired a field-best four-under-par 66 on a rain-soaked Saturday, giving him a one-stroke lead over Corey Conners and Viktor Hovland with a round to play. He had also scored a tournament-leading 66 on Friday, after a 72 on Thursday.

All of that is rumbling forth from a man with a wrenching medical history, a man who last year was trying (and failing) to shatter car windows at Augusta National Golf Club after a missed Masters cut, a man who just on Thursday played a round that he said was “the worst I’ve hit it in a really long time.” He finished that day tied for 38th, a day after he declared the try-and-beat-me algorithm he detailed in 2019 still worked just fine.

Maybe he was right, though.

Sunday, of course, will have pitfalls. With its often firm and narrow fairways and a rough whose verdant hue makes it appear more appealing than it actually is, Oak Hill has been a devilish test since the first tee shot on Thursday. After two rounds, only nine players were below par. After three, that figure had shriveled to seven.

Conners held a lead that crawled as high as two strokes for much of Saturday, helped along by a front nine that passed without a bogey and made the possibility of his first major championship victory all the more real. Born in Ontario, not all that far from Oak Hill, he has been a favorite of the galleries, energized by an April victory at the Texas Open and confident in his putting, a welcome status for a player with a reputation for expert ball striking. But a double-bogey on the 16th hole sent him tumbling out of the top spot.

And Hovland again lurked at and around the top of the leaderboard throughout Saturday. He has been there before: Since the start of last year’s British Open, he has been in the top-10 at the end of every major tournament round. His afternoon darkened quickly, with bogeys on two of his first five holes, before a spree of three birdies left him poised to take the lead on the 14th hole. A sand wedge from about 75 yards brought him just inside the green’s edge, but he missed a birdie putt, settling for par. He missed another birdie try at No. 16.

Six pairings ahead, Hovland’s playing partner in last year’s final round at St. Andrews, Rory McIlroy, rediscovered some of the form that eluded him at the Masters and beyond. (Neither Hovland nor McIlroy won that Open, which Cameron Smith left with the claret jug .) McIlroy, often drenched, shot a 69 for the second consecutive day, taking him to one under and putting his ambition to win his first major since 2014 not fully out of reach.

“I probably hit it a little better off the tee today than I did the first couple of days, but I think this tournament and especially in these conditions and on this golf course, the nonphysical parts of the game, I think, are way more important this week than the physical parts of the game,” McIlroy said Saturday. “And I think I’ve done those well, and that’s the reason that I’m in a decent position.”

Koepka has not gone as long as McIlroy without a major victory, though he has been more battered with injuries these last few years. He began to gain ground early on Saturday, with birdies on the fourth and fifth holes. At No. 5, christened Little Poison, his 179-yard tee shot landed neatly on the green, setting up a putt for birdie. Unlike plenty of other past major champions, including McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau, on Saturday, he avoided a bogey at No. 6, a havoc-inducing par-4 that has been playing closer to a 5.

A second shot at No. 13 landed in the rough, leaving Koepka 96 yards from the hole. His next stroke put him on the green, setting up a birdie putt from roughly 18 and a half feet. That putt, though, seemed puny at the 17th hole, when Koepka rolled one in from about 47 feet.

One of the central questions entering the tournament at Oak Hill was whether Koepka would much resemble the player who punished almost the entire field at Augusta. Playing in the LIV Golf league afterward, he had assembled a middling performance in Australia, a third-place finish in Singapore and a sixth-place outing last weekend in Oklahoma.

Before that tournament near Tulsa, he had mused over how he enjoyed the rigors of the majors: “the discipline, the mental grind that comes with it all, the focus.” In the hours after his letdown at Augusta, he said this past week, he did not sleep, that swaggering mind suddenly left looking for answers. The answers took shape within days.

He said on Saturday that he had learned that he should “never think the way I thought going into the final round.”

“I won’t do it again the rest of my career,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean that you can’t go play bad — you can play good, you’ll play bad, but I’ll never have that mind-set or that won’t ever be the reason.”

A victory on Sunday would give him his fifth major tournament championship, and his first since that heady week at Bethpage in 2019.

Others are not so well positioned. Rahm, the No. 1 player in the Official World Golf Ranking, shot two over on Saturday to bring his tournament score to six over. Justin Thomas, the winner of last year’s P.G.A. Championship, and Phil Mickelson, who has won the event twice, were five over on Saturday, moving their scores to 10 over.

“This golf course, with how difficult it is, it all starts by putting the ball in the fairway,” Rahm said. “It’s not an easy task. It’s very, very difficult. If you can do that, then you can maybe give yourself some chances and it all starts with that. A little bit of it is trying to keep the club head dry and manage it but again, there’s an element — there’s only so much you can control — so a bit of an element of luck.”

With the wet conditions forecast to clear, players expected the tees to be moved back for Sunday’s final round. The P.G.A. of America, the three-time major winner Padraig Harrington noted, is deeply skilled at setups.

“If they want us to go out there and shoot a good score, being 68, they’ll set it up that way,” he said. “They could if they want set it up for a low one for sure, but that wouldn’t suit the leader. The leaders always want a tough challenge on Sunday so they can play safe and the chasers get caught out.”

But the universe of chasers is a small one. Again, its members are pursuing Koepka.

Alan Blinder is a sports reporter. He has reported from more than 30 states, as well as Asia and Europe, since he joined The Times in 2013. More about Alan Blinder

Desiree Rios is a photojournalist and a New York Times fellow , based in New York. More about Desiree Rios

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Brooks Koepka lifts the Wanamaker Trophy at Oak Hill Country Club

Brooks Koepka becomes first LIV golfer to win major with US PGA triumph

  • Challenge of Viktor Hovland falters in bunker on 16th hole
  • Club pro Michael Block hits spectacular hole in one

The cheers for Brooks Koepka’s US PGA Championship victory reverberated from Rochester to Riyadh. For the American, a fifth major title which places him alongside names such as Byron Nelson and Peter Thomson in golf’s pantheon of greats. He becomes only the 20th golfer in history to reach five. Arnold Palmer, who claimed seven, is within view. Koepka’s return from his darkest days, when it looked as if injury could curtail his career, is complete.

He cut an uncharacteristically emotional figure on the final green, doubtless reflecting on his earlier physical distress. Koepka said: “This is probably the sweetest one of them all because of all the hard work that went into this one. This one is definitely special.”

For LIV itself, there is validation that its much-maligned format does indeed have competitive merit. Perhaps Greg Norman can convince his Saudi Arabian paymasters that the LIV project is worthy of enhanced time and investment now that one of its players has seen off what is widely described as the strongest field in golf. Norman must be purring at Koepka’s success. Not so Jay Monahan and the PGA Tour; with Cameron Smith, the Open champion, now also a LIV golfer, the traditional ecosystem is minus two of four current major holders.

Zach Johnson, the US Ryder Cup captain, surely cannot ignore this particular LIV rebel now or the conversation around him. Team Europe would have cause to fear Koepka in Rome in September. His 67 meant the margin of victory was two, at nine under par, from Viktor Hovland and Scottie Scheffler. The champion opened this tournament with a two-over-par 72.

Koepka’s mission was to prevent Oak Hill from turning into Choke Hill. He must have felt extra pressure, given the final-round collapse which denied him a win at the Masters last month. He started like a man on a mission, with birdies on three of the first four holes to afford himself a three-shot lead over Hovland.

Michael Block celebrates his hole in one with Rory McIlroy.

When a procession looked likely, the golfing gods had other ideas. Koepka lost his ball from the tee at the sixth, triggering the first of two successive bogeys. Hovland pulled his playing partner level for a hole, the Norwegian also dropping a shot at the 7th. Birdies at the 10th and 12th for Koepka arrived either side of a pretty useful bogey at the short 11th. The Floridian’s tee shot had stuck in the face of a greenside bunker. By now, Scheffler had crept on to the scene with three birdies between the 10th and 14th. Koepka holed out impressively for par at the 13th to keep Hovland one adrift and Scheffler two back.

Hovland converted for a birdie at the 14th to tie Koepka again, but only for a matter of seconds. Nine under played eight under, with Scheffler running out of holes when minus six after 15. Disaster was to strike for Hovland at the 16th. After finding a fairway bunker from the tee, the 25-year-old cracked his second shot straight into the face of the sand trap. Clearly rattled, Hovland was to tap in for a double bogey six. Koepka’s birdie three meant he led by four at 10 under; game over.

Scheffler’s birdie at the last – his inward nine was of just 31 strokes – afforded him the runners-up spot alone until Hovland also closed out with a three. This felt a fair reflection of events given Hovland had traded blows with Koepka for so long. Kurt Kitayama, Bryson DeChambeau and Cam Davis shared fourth at three under.

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When Rory McIlroy hit his approach to within two feet of the cup at the first, hopes were raised that the Northern Irishman could make a charge towards the leaders. He had started the day five adrift of Koepka. Bogeys at the 2nd, 4th and 7th undid more fine work by McIlroy on the front nine. The playing of that half in level-par 35 was never likely to be enough.

McIlroy picked up further shots at the 10th and 13th to edge inside the top five but had to settle for a share of seventh after a bogey on the 15th. He admitted thereafter that he had little expectation coming into the US PGA as he continues to battle technical flaws. He must change that scenario before next month’s US Open.

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While glory belonged to Koepka, the most endearing moment of day four was delivered by Michael Block. The club professional, who is ranked outside the top 3,000 golfers in the world, had defied all logic not only by making the cut but maintaining a place on the leaderboard. Block had McIlroy for Sunday company.

Galleries exploded with delight at the par-three 15th as Block’s tee shot slammed straight into the hole. McIlroy was visibly delighted for his playing partner, whose disbelief was similarly plain. Block’s perfect seven iron, from 151 yards, will stay with anyone who witnessed it for ever. “It was an amazing golf shot,” said McIlroy.

McIlroy and Block were again in warm embrace on the 72nd green. Block’s tie for 15th will earn him close to $300,000 and surely further opportunity in elite environments.

Koepka’s LIV status is such that the $3.15m (£2.53m) cash prize for success at Oak Hill is basically irrelevant to him. Far more significant has proved to all doubters that he remains a true force.

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Brooks Koepka, a LIV golfer, just won the PGA Championship. Will it change the game?

Analysis Sport Brooks Koepka, a LIV golfer, just won the PGA Championship. Will it change the game?

Brooks Koepka smiles while leaning his arm on the Wanamaker Trophy

Before the Masters in April, the most we had seen of Brooks Koepka in recent times had been in the Netflix documentary Full Swing.

In an episode almost entirely dedicated to Koepka, we got an in-depth look at some of his last months on the PGA Tour, a missed cut at the 2022 Masters and his eventual decision to depart with golf's traditions and join the controversial breakaway LIV Golf league.

It was a portrait of a fallen giant. Between 2017 and 2019, Koepka won four majors and became the sport's most dominant big-game force. When the lights were brightest, Koepka emerged like only the greats can.

Then came injury in the form of debilitating knee issues, the kind that made it tough for Koepka to walk, let alone swing a golf club. This man whose entire identity had been forged by effortless dominance — a pure athlete bullying a buttoned-up sport — suddenly couldn't dominate anymore.

That was the Koepka we saw in Full Swing. Downtrodden, lost, coming to terms with a new reality he had never imagined for himself. The grand takeaway from it all was one Koepka quote — "I can't compete with these guys week in, week out".

Twelve months later, Koepka is a major champion again. Two things have changed in his life to take him from his lowest point to the top of the mountain again — he got healthy, and he joined LIV Golf.

A flag featuring the words "LIV Golf" on it rests on top of a golf bag.

As much as this victory is Koepka's alone, it will also be framed as one for his Saudi-backed, Greg Norman-led golf league.

The golf world has often pontificated what would happen when a LIV player won a major. That it has come at only the fourth time of asking will only add to the weight of those questions.

If nothing else, the first two majors of 2023 have entirely quashed the notion that joining LIV is a death sentence for a player's career.

Conventional wisdom had pushed the idea that forgoing the grind of the PGA Tour for LIV — where there is no cut during events, the money is guaranteed and there is little to no risk of losing your place — would see the competitive juices start to dry up, leaving these players short of practice and at a disadvantage during the majors.

Brooks Koepka smiles and pumps his fist on the 18th green

For some players, maybe that would be true. But for most of the guys that made the switch, the exact opposite is bearing out. From the outside, it appears that a step back from the week-to-week scrap has only served to keep the batteries charged for the ones that matter, and Koepka is front of that list.

He's spent his whole career saying the majors are the only things that really matter to him. Now he's found himself in a situation where he can prove it, where he can travel around the world effectively playing practice rounds and keeping the mind fresh for the weeks he cares about.

And it turns out he was right — a T2 at the Masters and a win at the PGA is hard to argue with.

Maybe you could make the same argument for Phil Mickelson, who had a bolt from the blue week of magic at the Masters, or Bryson DeChambeau, who has largely been a no-show at LIV events but played brilliantly for a T4 finish at Oak Hill this week.

This has to be a selling point for Norman and co in the future. There's no doubt that there will have been PGA Tour players somewhat interested in the LIV concept (or, more accurately, the money) who held fears of what the switch could do for their greater career ambitions. That now seems like less of a reason not to join.

Outside of a recruiting chip, what else does LIV gain from a Koepka win? Does it give those events the prestige they seek? Does it aid in their pursuit of Official World Golf Ranking points? Will the crowds surge and the TV ratings explode and LIV's fight for world domination finally be won?

The answer to all of those questions is probably not.

Brooks Koepka holds his pose after hitting an iron shot

LIV still is what it is. If you're a fan already, like the many thousands of folks at The Grange in Adelaide were, you'll still be a fan. If you have strong moral opposition to it, that clearly won't be changed by a Koepka win at Oak Hill. If you're simply not interested, then you can consider that needle unmoved.

Brooks Koepka winning a major is significant because it's a major, and this day is now the most significant in the story of one of the great golfers of our generation. Just as it was for Jon Rahm at the Masters, it's a fascinating story for an athlete, not the tour he plays for week to week.

Perhaps, in time, we will look back at this as a seminal moment for LIV, as the singular moment the floodgates reopened and the players went running to LIV in hopes of "doing a Brooks".

But even if that happens, and there is absolutely no guarantee of it, all it will really do is fracture golf even further. And at that point, the only thing that will really become true is that the majors are truly all that matters.

It's a truth that Brooks Koepka has been telling us all along.

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He’s back! Brooks Koepka wins PGA Championship, claims fifth major title

Brooks Koepka moments after winning the PGA Championship on Sunday at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y.

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Brooks Koepka lost his 54-hole lead at the Masters . He didn’t plan on doing it again on Sunday.

Koepka, the four-time major champ who’s long played his best in the sport’s biggest events, couldn’t hang on to win at Augusta National last month, falling to Jon Rahm’s comeback victory . On Saturday night at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y., Koepka vowed whatever happened when he slept on that lead that night in Georgia wouldn’t take place again.

“What I learned at Augusta kind of helped today,” he said. “Like I said, I won’t do it again the rest of my career. … I’ll never have that mindset or that won’t ever be the reason.”

He declined to elaborate on what exactly that mindset was . All we know is his plan worked.

Golf’s most dominant major player of the past decade returned on Sunday, shooting a three-under 67 to win the PGA Championship and claim his fifth major title. It’s Koepka’s third PGA title (he also has two U.S. Opens), and he’s now one of 20 players to win at least five majors in a career.

“This is probably the sweetest one of them all just because of all the hard work that had to go into this one,” he said. “It’s special.”

Kopeka’s nine-under total bested World No. 2 Scottie Scheffler (65) and Viktor Hovland (68), Koepka’s playing partner, by two.

The 33-year-old Koepka, who joined LIV Golf last year and is now the first LIV player to lift a major trophy, opened the day six under, one ahead of Hovland and Corey Conners and three up on Bryson DeChambeau, but he still had some of the game’s biggest names — like Scheffler (four back) and Rory McIlroy (five back) — lurking.

No lead seemed safe, either. Remember last year? Justin Thomas came from seven back on Sunday to win his second PGA Championship.

But Kopeka rarely flinched. Early in his round, he went from a big betting favorite to an apparent sure thing, making birdies on Nos. 2-4 to extend his lead to three at one point.

The rest of the contenders started slowly, and Hovland did too with three straight pars, but he eventually found his rhythm with birdies at 4 and 5.

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Koepka’s first blemish came at 6, when he cut a drive into a penalty area. He did well to make bogey from there, but Hovland got up and down from the bunker and sank a clutch eight-footer for par to cut the lead to one.

Koepka made his second straight bogey on the 7th when he failed to get up and down around the green, but Hovland didn’t pick up any ground. He drove it in the thick stuff, was forced to whack it out to wedge range and couldn’t save his par.

After two straight pars, Koepka led at seven under at the turn, Hovland was six under and Scheffler and DeChambeau were both four under.

A birdie on 10 gave Koepka his two-stroke lead once more, but up ahead Scheffler was heating up. The 2022 Masters champion opened his round with six straight pars, but he made four birdies in a seven-hole stretch from Nos. 7-13. But Koepka responded. Coming off a bogey on 11, Koepka birdied 12 when he rolled in an 11-footer.

The lead, again, was two over Hovland and three over Scheffler, with six holes remaining for the final pairing and five for Scheffler. Suddenly, it seemed like a three-horse race — and it was about to get even tighter.

On the par-5 13th — the only par-5 on the back nine — Hovland made birdie, while Scheffler birdied 14 for his second straight. Koepka, who made a 10-footer to save par (one of his key moments of the day), led Hovland by one and Scheffler by two. The next closest competitors were five off the pace.

Koepka and Hovland traded birdies on 14 and pars on 15, but the 16th was the final dagger.

Hovland’s drive landed in a fairway bunker and his second shot embedded in the lip of it —  exactly what happened to Conners on Saturday, in almost the exact same spot — and led to a disastrous double bogey. Koepka? He made birdie.

“I couldn’t see what was going on, but I had a pretty good idea,” Koepka said. “It was buried under the lip, which was unfortunate.”

Koepka stepped to the 17th tee leading by four. Or, as on-course reporter Dottie Pepper framed it, “About 1,000 yards to the Wanamaker.”

Scheffler birdied 18 and Koepka bogeyed 17, so the lead was two with one to play, but an easy two-putt par sealed it.

Koepka’s latest Wanamaker Trophy joins the others he won in 2018 and ’19, and his U.S. Open trophies from 2017 and ’18.

He never finished better than 55th in last year’s majors and missed the cut in two of them, but he recently unveiled just how much he was struggling with his knee, his confidence and his swing. A runner-up finish at the Masters suggested the old Koepka was back.

Sunday at the PGA Championship confirmed it.

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Liv golf captains dish on whether they'll return to pga tour if saudi partnership is passed, share this article.

Details are still few and far between with regard to the proposed deal signed by the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to create a new global golf entity, even after the framework agreement leaked earlier this week.

One of the biggest questions is how LIV Golf players will be brought back into the fold on Tour. Will there be suspensions? Fines? For how long and how much? On top of that, do players even want to return to the Tour?

Depends who you ask.

“I’ve been pretty happy with my decision to be here at LIV. I’ve enjoyed it. I’m not going to speak for everybody else, but I would say everybody is pretty excited, and everybody is pretty happy with where they’re at right now,” said Brooks Koepka ahead of this week’s LIV Golf Andalucia event in Spain. “It’s tough to look into the future and say — I don’t have any control over what other guys do, but I know I’m happy where I’m at right now, and just take it one day at a time.”

Koepka has long been rumored as a player who has fancied a return to the Tour. Dustin Johnson left without much fuss and would seemingly fit back in with relative ease. That said, Johnson is pretty happy with his smaller schedule and larger paydays.

“I’m excited for the future. I think with this agreement, the only thing that’s going to happen is LIV is going to get even better than what it is now, which it’s already great,” said Johnson. “I’m happy exactly where I am, and I’m definitely not looking to play more golf than I’m playing now, that’s for sure.”

“If everything goes according to plan like we expect it to be, I will not be playing much at all on the PGA Tour because I don’t plan on playing 30 events a year,” echoed Sergio Garcia. “That’s not something that is in my mind at the moment. Obviously as things settle and we know exactly where we all stand, then we can make decisions. But I wouldn’t think so. Not at the moment, I guess.”

Players are smart to not close off a return to the Tour. Who knows what the schedule could look like over the next few years if the deal is passed by the PGA Tour board and allowed by the U.S. government.

“We don’t really feel the need to publicly posture our position,” explained Phil Mickelson, who has never been shy to share his opinion, no matter the subject. “There’s really no need for us to talk about things publicly but to just let it play out.”

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“Rather than saying yes or no, I know that from a player experience, all of the difficulties and challenges and things that take a lot of excessive energy and output throughout the week have been fixed at LIV,” said Mickelson. “So the player experience here is incredible.”

“I just can’t envision a better scenario for me as a player than playing out here on LIV.”

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Brooks Koepka delivers another major performance to win PGA

Brooks Koepka celebrates with the Wanamaker trophy after winning the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club on Sunday, May 21, 2023, in Pittsford, N.Y.(AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Brooks Koepka celebrates with the Wanamaker trophy after winning the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club on Sunday, May 21, 2023, in Pittsford, N.Y.(AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Brooks Koepka celebrates after winning the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club on Sunday, May 21, 2023, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Brooks Koepka holds the Wanamaker trophy after winning the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club on Sunday, May 21, 2023, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Brooks Koepka smiles on the second hole during the final round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club on Sunday, May 21, 2023, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Brooks Koepka hits his tee shot on the fourth hole during the final round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club on Sunday, May 21, 2023, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Viktor Hovland, of Norway, reacts after failing to get his ball out of the bunker on the 16th hole during the final round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club on Sunday, May 21, 2023, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Viktor Hovland, of Norway, checks on his chip to the green on the 14th hole during the final round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club on Sunday, May 21, 2023, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Scottie Scheffler reacts after missing a shot on the 14th hole during the final round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club on Sunday, May 21, 2023, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Scottie Scheffler celebrates after his putt on the 18th hole during the final round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club on Sunday, May 21, 2023, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Michael Block acknowledges the crowd on the 18th hole after his final round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club on Sunday, May 21, 2023, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Michael Block celebrates after his hole-in-one on the 15th hole during the final round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club on Sunday, May 21, 2023, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Rory McIlroy, of Northern Ireland, celebrates with Michael Block after Blocks’s hole-in-one on the 15th hole during the final round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club on Sunday, May 21, 2023, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Michael Block, low club professional, and Brooks Koepka winner, shake hands after the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club on Sunday, May 21, 2023, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Brooks Koepka waves after his putt on the 15th hole during the final round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club on Sunday, May 21, 2023, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Brooks Koepka poses with the Wanamaker trophy after winning the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club on Sunday, May 21, 2023, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Brooks Koepka holds the Wanamaker trophy after winning the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club on Sunday, May 21, 2023, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Brooks Koepka celebrates after winning the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club on Sunday, May 21, 2023, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

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PITTSFORD, N.Y. (AP) — Confidence was never an issue for Brooks Koepka until the injuries piled up, the doubts crept in and he began to wonder if he still belonged among golf’s elite.

Koepka answered every question at the PGA Championship with a performance that ranks among his best. His fifth major title was the sweetest of them all. No doubt about that, either.

“It feels damned good. Yeah, this one is definitely special,” Koepka said. “I think this one is probably the most meaningful of them all with everything that’s gone on, all the crazy stuff over the last few years.”

One knee injury kept him from the Masters, another from the Presidents Cup in Australia. Two years ago, he tried to pop his knee back into place and shattered his knee cap. And then last summer, uncertain about his future, he decided to leave the PGA Tour for the guaranteed Saudi riches of LIV Golf, bringing a mixture of criticism and skepticism.

And there he was Sunday at Oak Hill, looking good as new, dominant as ever, against the best collection of golfers in the world on a punishing golf course.

Koepka ran off three quick birdies early, never lost the lead amid a gritty fight from Viktor Hovland, and closed with a 3-under 67 for a two-shot victory.

Peter Malnati holds up the trophy after winning the Valspar Championship golf tournament Sunday, March 24, 2024, at Innisbrook in Palm Harbor, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

He held up his index finger as he posed next to the Wanamaker Trophy, but he may as well have held up all five.

With three PGAs and two U.S. Opens, he became the 20th player with five or more majors. He won his third Wanamaker Trophy — only Jack Nicklaus and Walter Hagen with five and Tiger Woods with four have won the PGA Championship more times — and captured his first major in what felt like four years.

And to think that over the last few years, Koepka was so wounded he felt he couldn’t compete, a decision that might have led to him leaving the PGA Tour for Saudi-funded LIV Golf in a shocking move last June after the U.S. Open.

In the Netflix series “Full Swing” that began aired earlier this year, he was quoted as saying his confidence had given way to doubt. “I’m going to be honest with you, I can’t compete with these guys week in and week out.”

Give him good health and a clear head, and good luck taking down Koepka in the majors. He now has won five of his last 22 majors, a rate exceeded only by Woods, Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Nick Faldo and Ben Hogan in the last 75 years.

He is the first player from LIV Golf to win a major, and it hits back at the notion that 54-hole events and guaranteed money would take the edge off the rival league’s best players.

“I definitely think it helps LIV, but I’m more interested in my own self right now, to be honest with you,” Koepka said. “Yeah, it’s a huge thing for LIV, but at the same time I’m out here competing as an individual at the PGA Championship. I’m just happy to take this home for the third time.”

Koepka is in pretty heady company just about everywhere he looks. His five majors are as many as Seve Ballesteros and Byron Nelson. Among active players, only Woods (15) and Phil Mickelson (6) have more.

“I’m not even sure I dream of it as a kid, that I’d win that many,” he said.

Koepka left little doubt about his place in the game with his two-shot win over hard-luck Hovland (68) and Scottie Scheffler, who closed with a 65 and returned to No. 1 in the world.

“To look back to where we were two years ago, I’m so happy right now,” Koepka said. “This is just the coolest thing.”

The victory moves Koepka to No. 13 in the world and No. 2 in the Ryder Cup standings. The top six automatically qualify, and it would be hard to fathom leaving Koepka off the American team. He can only early points in the majors, and two more are still to come.

Koepka had to share the loudest cheers with California club pro Michael Block, who put on an amazing show over four days. Block made a hole-in-one on the 15th hole while playing with Rory McIlroy, and then made two tough par putts at the end for a fourth straight 70.

He tied for 15th, giving him a return date to the PGA Championship next year at Valhalla. It was the best finish by a club pro since Lonnie Nielsen tied for 11 in 1986 at Inverness.

“The most surreal moment I’ve ever had in my life,” Block said. “I’m living a dream and making sure I’m enjoying the moment. Not getting any better than this — no way in hell.”

Block charges $125 a lesson at Arroyo Trabuco in Mission Viejo, California. He earned just short of $290,000 at Oak Hill.

A month ago at the Masters, Koepka lost a two-shot lead in the final round by playing tentatively and was overrun by Jon Rahm. He vowed he would not do that again, and Koepka delivered in a major way, just like he used to.

Hovland made it easy for him at the end. Koepka was one shot ahead on the 16th hole when Hovland hit his 9-iron from a bunker that plugged into the lip in front of him — the same shot that stopped Corey Conners on Saturday — and made double bogey.

Koepka gouged out a shot from the rough to 5 feet for birdie and suddenly was leading by four shots when Hovland made double bogey.

Scheffler started four shots behind and never got closer than two. His 65 matched the best score of the tournament, posted by four other players on a day that was set up for scoring.

“I gave the guys on top of the leaderboard something to think about, and I kind of made a little bit much a move, but Brooks just played some fantastic golf this week,” Scheffler said. “He played too good this weekend for me to catch up to him.”

Koepka was determined to restore his reputation as a major force, and he wasted no time. He stuffed a wedge to 4 feet on the second and third holes, and rolled in an 8-foot birdie down the hill on the par-5 fourth.

But he drove into the water on the sixth hole and did well to make bogey, and another bogey from the rough on the seventh trimmed his lead to Hovland to one shot.

It was tight the rest of the way until the 16th. Hovland hit 9-iron from the bunker and could hear the awful thud of it rocketing into the turf at the edge of the sand. He knew immediately what happened, covered his mouth with a closed fist. After a drop into nasty rough, it took two more to get to the green and led to double bogey.

“Brooks is a great player, and now he has five majors. I mean, that’s a hell of a record right there. It’s not easy going toe-to-toe with a guy like that,” Hovland said. “He is not going to give you anything, and I didn’t really feel like I gave him anything either until 16.”

Bryson DeChambeau, who began the PGA with a 66, made too many mistakes in his round of 70. He stuck around to clasp hands with Koepka, two players from LIV Golf who used to get under each other’s skin.

LIV had three players in the top 10 for the second straight major.

Koepka, who finished at 9-under 271, received $3.15 million and the heaviest trophy among the four majors. Nothing felt more valuable than that.

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DOUG FERGUSON

Brooks Koepka wins the PGA Championship for third time in six years

Brooks Koepka holds the Wanamaker trophy after winning the PGA Championship.

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All those injuries that made Brooks Koepka wonder if he was still among golf’s elite were put to rest Sunday at Oak Hill when he beat the strongest field of the year and won the PGA Championship for his fifth major title.

Determined as ever to restore his reputation as the player to beat in the majors, Koepka ran off three quick birdies early, never lost the lead amid a gritty fight from Viktor Hovland and closed with a three-under 67 for a two-shot victory.

He won his third Wanamaker Trophy — only Jack Nicklaus and Walter Hagen with five and Tiger Woods with four have won the PGA Championship more times — and captured his first major in four years.

And to think the 18 months Koepka was so wounded he felt he couldn’t compete, a decision that might have led to him leaving the PGA Tour for Saudi-funded LIV Golf in a shocking move last June after the U.S. Open.

Brooks Koepka waves after his putt on the third hole during the final round of the PGA Championship.

In the Netflix series “Full Swing” that began aired earlier this year, he was quoted as saying his confidence had given way to doubt. “I’m going to be honest with you, I can’t compete with these guys week in and week out.”

Give him good health and a clear head, and good luck taking down Koepka in the majors.

He now has won five of his last 22 majors, a rate exceeded only by Woods, Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Nick Faldo and Ben Hogan in the last 75 years.

Koepka is in pretty heady company just about everywhere he looks. His five majors are as many as Seve Ballesteros and Byron Nelson. Among active players, only Woods (15) and Phil Mickelson (six) have more.

“I’m not even sure I dream of it as a kid, that I’d win that many,” he said.

Koepka looked as powerful as ever and left little doubt about his place in the game with his two-shot win over hard-luck Hovland (68) and Scottie Scheffler, who closed with a 65 and returned to No. 1 in the world.

Michael Block acknowledges the crowd on the 18th hole after his final round.

“To look back to where we were two years ago, I’m so happy right now,” Koepka said. “This is just the coolest thing.”

The victory moves Koepka to No. 13 in the world and No. 2 in the Ryder Cup standings. The top six automatically qualify, and it would be hard to fathom leaving Koepka off the American team. He can only earn points in the majors, and two more are still to come.

Koepka had to share the loudest cheers with Orange County club pro Michael Block, who put on an amazing show over four days. Block made a hole in one on the 15th hole while playing with Rory McIlroy, and then made two tough par putts at the end for a fourth straight 70.

He tied for 15th, giving him a return date to the PGA Championship next year at Valhalla. It was the best finish by a club pro since Lonnie Nielsen tied for 11th in 1986 at Inverness.

“The most surreal moment I’ve ever had in my life,” Block said. “I’m living a dream and making sure I’m enjoying the moment. Not getting any better than this — no way in hell.”

UNBELIEVABLE! MICHAEL BLOCK JUST DUNKED A HOLE-IN-ONE! pic.twitter.com/Qin8FYXFQV — PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 21, 2023

Block charges $125 a lesson at Arroyo Trabuco in Mission Viejo, California. He earned just short of $290,000 at Oak Hill.

For Koepka, his fifth major might have been the sweetest of all considering the scrutiny of his pedestrian play brought on by injuries and his decision to join LIV Golf, where he has won two of the 54-hole events.

A month ago at the Masters, Koepka lost a two-shot lead in the final round by playing tentatively and was overrun by Jon Rahm. He vowed he would not do that again, and Koepka delivered in a major way, just like he used to.

Hovland made it easy for him at the end. Koepka was one shot ahead on the 16th hole when Hovland hit his nine-iron from a bunker that plugged into the lip in front of him — the same shot that stopped Corey Conners on Saturday — and made double bogey.

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Koepka gouged out a shot from the rough to five feet for birdie and suddenly was leading by four shots when Hovland made double bogey.

Scheffler started four shots behind and never got closer than two. His 65 matched the best score of the tournament, posted by four other players on a day that was set up for scoring.

Koepka seized on that by stuffing a wedge to four feet on the second and third holes, and rolling in an eight-foot birdie down the hill on the par-five fourth.

But he drove into the water on the sixth hole and did well to make bogey, and another bogey from the rough on the seventh trimmed his lead to Hovland to one shot.

Michael Block, left, and Brooks Koepka shake hands at the PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club.

Hovland pulled within one shot again with a 10-foot birdie on the 13th. Koepka answered with a driver he smashed over the steep bunkers and onto the fringe at the reachable 14th, and after they made pars on the par-three 15th.

Hovland hit nine-iron from the bunker on the 16th and could hear the awful thud of it rocketing into the turf at the edge of the sand. He knew immediately what happened, covered his mouth with a closed fist. After a drop into nasty rough, it took two more to get to the green.

“Brooks is a great player, and now he has five majors. I mean, that’s a hell of a record right there. It’s not easy going toe-to-toe with a guy like that,” Hovland said. “He is not going to give you anything, and I didn’t really feel like I gave him anything either until 16.”

Bryson DeChambeau, who began the PGA with a 66, made too many mistakes in his round of 70. He stuck around to clasp hands with Koepka, two players from LIV Golf who used to get under each other’s skin.

LIV had three players in the top 10 for the second straight major.

Koepka, who finished at nine-under 271, received $3.15 million and the heaviest trophy among the four majors. Nothing felt more valuable than that.

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March 19, 2024

Answering remaining questions about PGA Tour-Saudi PIF alliance

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan discusses negotiations with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. (0:48)

koepka return to pga tour

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- An important step toward a potential peace accord in men's professional golf will take place Monday in the Bahamas when Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, is scheduled to meet player directors of the PGA Tour's policy board, including Tiger Woods .

While the initial meeting might be nothing more than a meet-and-greet -- or a chance "to put a face to a name," as player director Adam Scott puts it -- it might be another step toward reuniting the fractured sport, which has been embroiled in controversy since the PIF helped launch the rival LIV Golf League in June 2022.

"I doubt we'll get into anything substantive in the first meeting," player director Patrick Cantlay said Sunday.

Still, there seems to be a renewed interest from both sides in getting a deal done sooner rather than later. Along with Woods, Scott and Cantlay, player directors Peter Malnati , Webb Simpson and Jordan Spieth are expected to attend the meeting with PIF officials.

"I think it should have happened months ago, so I am glad that it's happening," Rory McIlroy said. "Hopefully, that progresses conversations and gets us closer to a solution."

Here's a look at where the potential PGA Tour-PIF alliance stands.

Why does the PGA Tour need to get a deal done with the PIF?

While there might not be as much urgency for the PGA Tour to strike a deal after it received a $1.5 billion investment from Strategic Sports Group, a consortium of billionaire sports team owners, athletes and others, getting an agreement finalized is probably the best thing for the future health of the sport -- and the tour.

The simple answer is that if the PGA Tour doesn't strike a deal with the PIF, the Saudis will keep poaching its best players. Reigning Masters champion Jon Rahm is the latest star to defect, signing a contract worth more than $300 million in December.

McIlroy said he believes there's a difference between dealing with LIV Golf CEO and commissioner Greg Norman and Al-Rumayyan. McIlroy said he hopes player directors hear that Al-Rumayyan "wants to do the right thing."

"I think I've said this before: I have spent time with Yasir, and the people that have represented him in LIV I think have done him a disservice, so Norman and those guys," McIlroy said. "I see the two entities, and I think there's a really big disconnect between PIF and LIV. I think you got PIF over here and LIV are sort of over here doing their own thing. So the closer that we can get to Yasir, PIF and hopefully finalize that investment, I think that will be a really good thing."

With top players like Rahm and reigning PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka and other stars now competing in the LIV Golf League, there's no debate that the tour's fields have been depleted, even at its signature events like the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Arnold Palmer Invitational.

The Players Championship, which used to be revered for having the "strongest field in golf," even seemed watered down this year. There were 60 players ranked 100th or worse in the 144-man field at TPC Sawgrass last week, including 16 ranked 200th or higher.

"Whoever wins this golf tournament is going to have achieved the most incredible accomplishment, to win on this golf course, against this field, but it would be even better if we had Jon Rahm here," Malnati said. "I'll just say it: It would be even better. It would be an even better win."

Golf fans have apparently noticed. According to published reports, TV ratings for the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, Florida, where world No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler ran away with a 5-stroke victory earlier this month, were down 30% compared to the final round in 2023. TV ratings for final-round coverage of the Genesis Invitational on Feb. 18 -- when 2021 Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama returned to the winner's circle -- were down about 5%.

Monahan said it was too early to evaluate the signature events, especially after weather disrupted three of the first four. Longtime pro Lucas Glover , a two-time winner last year, called the new model of events "selfish" and a "money grab" because the reduced fields prevent many players from competing for $20 million purses.

"You're getting the best players to play, the top guys to show up, but the fields are more competitive when you have bigger field sizes," reigning FedEx Cup champion Viktor Hovland said. "I think that's just the fact. There's a reason why we're playing the Players Championship with 144 guys.

"But at the end of the day, I don't know what the fans want to watch. Do they want to watch these limited field sizes or do they want to watch the bigger sizes? I really don't know. So, yeah, I just don't know what trajectory we're on."

Why does the PIF need to strike a deal with the PGA Tour?

For all the money the PIF has spent, and all the noise it has made with its unique format that includes shotgun starts, team and individual competitions, and 54 holes, the league is still struggling to get a foothold in the U.S.

Rahm's new team created some buzz in the offseason, and the return of former Ryder Cup star Anthony Kim from a nearly 12-year hiatus garnered headlines. For the most part, however, LIV Golf's TV ratings in the U.S. haven't improved.

According to data obtained by ESPN, the final round of LIV Golf's March 1-3 tournament in Saudi Arabia averaged 208,000 viewers in the U.S. There was a seven-hour time difference, with TV coverage in the U.S. starting at 3:05 a.m. ET. The final round of the Cognizant Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, which Austin Eckroat won for his first PGA Tour victory, averaged 1.362 million.

Former LIV Golf COO Atul Khosla told ESPN in 2022 that the PIF spent about $784 million on the new circuit in 2022, and that didn't include the hundreds of millions of dollars in signing bonuses it paid to lure golfers to the league. In court papers, PIF's lawyers wrote that LIV Golf had generated virtually no revenue in its first season.

At some point, one would expect, the PIF is going to expect some sort of a return on its investment.

McIlroy believes the PIF is interested in investing in PGA Tour Enterprises because it wants to make money.

"Look, they're a sovereign wealth fund," McIlroy said. "They want to park money for decades and not worry about it. They want to invest in smart and secure businesses, and the PGA Tour is definitely one of those, especially if they're looking to invest in sport in some way."

Will LIV golfers still be punished if they come back to the PGA Tour?

Malnati said the biggest issue on the minds of PGA Tour members might be what potential punishment, if any, LIV golfers would face if they wanted to come back to the circuit. McIlroy, even as one of the PGA Tour's most vocal supporters at the beginning of its battle with LIV, has recently changed his tune.

"I think life is about choices," McIlroy said at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February. "Guys made choices to go and play LIV, guys made choices to stay here. I think it's hard to punish people. I don't think there should be a punishment."

"If people still have eligibility on this tour and they want to come back and play or you want to try and do something, let them come back."

The Saudis are also negotiating for a clearer path back for its players, according to sources.

However, some PGA Tour members still want their pound of flesh from players who defected to LIV Golf and signed guaranteed, multiyear contracts, some for more than $100 million. Monahan indefinitely suspended them as soon as they competed in a LIV Golf event.

"You would find opinions that run the gamut -- from guys that just have a line in the sand that say never and guys [who are more open to LIV golfers coming back]," Malnati said. "I think Rory's been pretty outspoken that he wants to see the best players playing on the PGA Tour, so we're going to have to net out somewhere in the middle."

A PGA Tour committee has been tackling the delicate issue of potential punishment for months. According to sources, there could be varying degrees of punishment, including suspensions and fines. Players who actively recruited PGA Tour players for LIV Golf (such as Phil Mickelson ) and players who sued the tour in federal court ( Matt Jones , Hudson Swafford , Talor Gooch , Bryson DeChambeau and others) could face more severe punishment than those who left (Brooks Koepka, Cameron Smith , Dustin Johnson and others) and didn't criticize the tour publicly.

"That's something that we as a membership and as leaders of the membership, we need to figure that out," Malnati said. "How do we make this happen for people to come back and do it in a way that has some semblance of fairness, some semblance of [justice]? How do we do it in a way that can at least somewhat pass the sniff test and get us to a place where, when we have championships like this, we have a group of the best players?"

If LIV Golf players return to the PGA Tour, would they be eligible for the new equity program?

Malnati, who joined the policy board to represent the tour's rank-and-file players, seemed to suggest that two things would probably happen if a deal with the PIF is reached and LIV golfers are allowed back: They wouldn't return as PGA Tour members and wouldn't be recipients of the initial shares of the planned $1.5 billion equity program that PGA Tour Enterprises plans to grant past, current and future members over the next several years.

It's yet to be determined whether LIV golfers would be eligible for equity shares in the future, according to sources.

"It's going to make players owners of the tour, and guys who violated our policies aren't ever going to be eligible for that," Malnati said. "That's a big deal. Like, that's a big, big deal. So I think, if we do find a pathway for guys to come back, there will certainly be safeguards in place to protect the members of the tour who stayed here."

What happens to team golf and the LIV Golf League if a deal gets done?

Along with greasing the wheels for its golfers to return to the PGA Tour, the Saudis have also dug in their heels when it comes to LIV Golf and keeping its team format intact in some way, sources have told ESPN.

The Saudis either want team golf to be part of the PGA Tour schedule, or for the LIV Golf League to continue in its present form -- with PGA Tour stars competing. Most of the PGA Tour's best players want no part of team golf outside of the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, and they don't want to play in even more tournaments.

Malnati described LIV Golf's team concept as a "very forced team model" and didn't see how it would be part of the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup schedule.

"I personally don't want that, but I can always have my mind changed if I see a great idea," Malnati said. "But personally, I don't want that and I don't see a way that we do that -- that we integrate team golf within the FedEx Cup schedule. We're going to have some time to play with in the fall, I think, we're going to have some options, but I just don't know."

When would the sport be reunited?

Even if a deal is struck this spring, the PGA Tour's alliance with the PIF might not take effect until late 2025 or 2026 at the earliest. The U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division has opened an investigation into the PGA Tour's alleged antitrust behavior, and it wouldn't be closed simply because the former competitors are now partners. Antitrust experts previously told ESPN that a DOJ review could take as long as 18 months.

Even if a deal is finalized, that means the LIV Golf League would finish out this season, which ends at the Greenbrier Golf Club in West Virginia on Aug. 16-18, and probably play next season too.

On Tuesday, Monahan wouldn't offer a timeline, saying, "It's going to take time."

For now, the PGA Tour will ponder its own future while trying to find peace with the PIF and LIV Golf League.

"I think a lot of that is depending upon the fact of what happens to the LIV guys; do they come back eventually?" Hovland said. "I don't think it's a great outlook if we keep being divided for 10, 15 years, whatever, however long it's going to take. There has to be some kind of decision being made in the future."

Brooks Koepka Reportedly 'Rethinking' Move To LIV Golf, May Be Looking At A Way To Return To PGA Tour

Brooks Koepka's move to LIV Golf last year wasn't necessarily a surprise. The former No. 1 ranked player in the world has battled injuries the past few seasons and hasn't looked like the same player who won four major championships in a two-year stretch in quite some time.

The 32-year-old taking his talents to the Saudi-backed series and cashing in on a ginormous payday actually made a bit of sense, but now, just a year since making the jump, Koepka may be looking at a way out.

READ: BROOKS KOEPKA TALKS JOINING LIV GOLF AFTER PLEDGING ALLEGIANCE TO PGA TOUR: ‘MY OPINION CHANGED’

Koepka, who won the LIV event in Jeddah last year, has "buyer's remorse" when it comes to joining LIV Golf, according to plugged in golf writer Alan Shipnuck.

"I’m hearing a lot of rumblings that Brooks Koepka has buyer’s remorse. He took the money when his brittle body was still being put back together, and in private he has confided to folks he wasn’t sure if he would ever get fully healthy again," Shipnuck wrote in a Q&A column earlier this week. "But now Koepka is feeling frisky and supposedly rethinking his career choice."

The guy has one of the biggest egos in golf, and as the PGA Tour creates ever-increasing buzz with its elevated events and even the state-sanctioned TGL, Koepka has to feel like he’s on the outside looking in."

koepka return to pga tour

Brooks Koepka played in six LIV Golf events in 2022. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/LIV Golf via Getty Images)

Given the pending lawsuits involving the PGA Tour, LIV Golf, and the DP World Tour, Koepka can't just wake up tomorrow, quit LIV, and re-join the Tour. It's also likely Koepka signed a contract with LIV Golf, and getting out of a Saudi-backed deal has to be easier said than done.

If you're the PGA Tour, a Koepka return would be a win.

Not only would the Tour be getting back a tremendous talent, it would have one of the game's biggest personalities back under its umbrella.

While Koepka and his ego may rub some the wrong way, the Tour would be foolish not to welcome him and his personality back if the opportunity does present itself later down the line.

Follow Mark Harris on Twitter @ItIsMarkHarris

LIV golfers in the 2024 Masters field? Here's who was invited and how they qualified

The PGA and LIV merger negotiations may be in full swing, but The Masters is just around the corner.

In the meantime, opportunities for LIV golfers to score Masters invites have dwindled, except for the fortunate few who've won at Augusta and have a lifetime of invitations to look forward to.

On March 5, LIV Golf dropped its application for Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points. Two of the 20 criteria to get a Masters invite are related to the OWGR:

  • The 50 leaders on the Final Official World Golf Ranking for the previous calendar year
  • The 50 leaders on the Official World Golf Ranking published during the week prior to the current Masters Tournament

Since joining the Saudi-backed golf league, players have seen their world golf ranking take a nosedive, according to Golfweek , with only four players still in the top 50.

Six qualification criteria are related to amateur players and one to winners of PGA Tour events, which currently excludes LIV players.

Here are the 13 LIV players invited to the 2024 Masters and the qualifications that got them the invite:

Qualifications for Masters invitation

The following criteria qualify players for an invitation to the Masters Tournament:

  • Masters Tournament Champions (Lifetime)
  • US Open Champions (Honorary, non-competing after five years)
  • The Open Champions (Honorary, non-competing after five years)
  • PGA Champions (Honorary, non-competing after five years)
  • Winners of The Players Championship (Three years)
  • Current Olympic Gold Medalist (One Year)
  • Current US Amateur Champion (7-A) (Honorary, non-competing after one year) and the Runner-up (7-B) to the current US Amateur Champion
  • Current The Amateur Champion (Honorary, non-competing after one year)
  • Current Asia-Pacific Amateur Champion (One year)
  • Current Latin America Amateur Champion (One year)
  • Current US Mid-Amateur Champion (One year)
  • Current NCAA Division I Men's Individual Champion (One year)
  • The first 12 players, including ties, in the previous year's Masters Tournament
  • The first 4 players, including ties, in the previous year's US Open
  • The first 4 players, including ties, in the previous year's The Open Championship
  • The first 4 players, including ties, in the previous year's PGA Championship
  • Individual winners of PGA Tour events that award a full-point allocation for the season-ending Tour Championship, from previous Masters to current Masters
  • Those qualifying for the previous year's season-ending Tour Championship
  • The 50 leaders on the final Official World Golf Ranking for the previous calendar year
  • The 50 leaders on the final Official World Golf Ranking published during the week prior to the current Masters Tournament

The Masters Committee, at its discretion, also invites international players not otherwise qualified .

Bryson Dechambeau

Bryson DeChambeau won the U.S. Open in 2020. That victory earned him Masters invites through 2025.

Additionally, DeChambeau tied for fourth in last year's PGA Championship. The top four players, plus ties, receive a Masters invitation.

DeChambeau will be making his eighth Masters appearance. His best Masters finish came in 2016 when he tied for 21st.

Sergio Garcia

Spaniard Sergio Garcia won the 2017 Masters . The victory came with a big check ($1,980,000), a green jacket and a lifetime of tournament invitations.

Garcia won in a playoff against England's Justin Rose on that Sunday at Augusta National Golf Club. It was his first major championship in 74 tries.

This will be Garcia's 25th Masters Tournament.

Tyrrell Hatton

England's Tyrrell Hatton met two criteria for a Masters invitation. He qualified for the 2023 Tour Championship and was among the top 50 on the final Official World Golf Ranking for 2023.

Hatton has seven previous Masters appearances. His best finish was a tie for 18th in 2021.

Dustin Johnson

Dustin Johnson won the COVID-delayed 2020 Masters in record-breaking fashion. After a runner-up finish in 2019, Johnson scorched Augusta National's greens in November of 2020 on his way to a scoring record of 20-under par and tournament invitations for life.

This will be Johnson's 14th Masters appearance.

Brooks Koepka

Brooks Koepka qualified for the 2024 Masters in three ways. His 2023 PGA Championship win is accompanied by 5 years of Masters invites. Koepka was among the top 12 finishers in last year's Masters and one of the top 50 players on the last OWGR of 2023.

It will be Koepka's ninth Masters. His best finishes are ties for second place in 2019 and 2023 .

Adrian Meronk

Adrian Meronk, of Poland, qualified for the 88th Masters Tournament for being among the top 50 players on the last OWGR of 2023.

This will be Meronk's second time playing in the Masters Tournament. He missed the cut in 2023.

Phil Mickelson

Three-time Masters champion Phil Mickelson will make his 31st tournament appearance in 2024. Mickelson's Masters victories came in 2004, 2006 and 2010. His wins ensure he will receive Masters invitations for life.

He also qualified by way of his 2021 PGA Championship win and being among the top 12 finishers in last year's Masters.

Mickelson finished tied for second place in the 2023 Masters after shooting a record final-round 65, making him the highest finisher among players 50 and older in Masters history.

Joaquin Niemann

Joaquin Niemann, of Chile, spent the LIV offseason playing golf all over the world. His success, including an Australian Open win, was rewarded with a special Masters invitation . Special invitations are extended to international players not otherwise qualified, at the Masters Committee's discretion.

It will be Niemann's fifth appearance at the Masters Tournament. His best result came at the 2023 Masters, where he tied for 16th.

Jon Rahm is the defending Masters champion . On what would have been fellow Spaniard and Masters champion Seve Ballesteros' birthday, Rahm bested Brooks Koepka, who let a four-shot lead slip away in the final round. Rahm's round of 69 put him 12-under par and four shots ahead of Koepka for the victory.

Not that he needed it, but Rahm qualified for the Masters in four additional ways:

  • 2021 U.S. Open win (5 years)
  • Among the top four in The Open Championship
  • Qualifier for the 2023 Tour Championship
  • Among the top 50 on the last OWGR in 2023

Rahm joined LIV in December , but his Masters invitations aren't in danger. He's also earned a lifetime of them with his 2023 Masters win.

This will be Rahm's eighth Masters appearance.

Patrick Reed

Patrick Reed gets lifetime invitations for winning the 2018 Masters . Reed also qualified for being among the top 12 finishers in last year's Masters.

He'll be playing in his 11th Masters Tournament.

Charl Schwartzel

Another Masters champion, another lifetime of invitations. South Africa's Charl Schwartzel earned his green jacket in 2011 when he birdied the final four holes to win by one stroke.

This will be Masters No. 15 for Schwartzel.

Cameron Smith

Cameron Smith met four criteria to qualify for his 2024 Masters invite:

  • Winner of the 2022 Open Championship (5 years)
  • Winner of 2022 The Players Championship (3 years)
  • Among the top 5 at last year's U.S. Open
  • Among the top 50 players on the last OWGR of 2023

This will be Smith's eighth Masters appearance. His best finish was a tie for second in 2020.

Bubba Watson

Two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson doesn't have any invitation worries. His victories in 2012 and 2014 set him up for life, too.

Watson will be making his 16th Masters start.

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The Masters 2024: Will LIV Golf or the PGA Tour take home the first major?

There was, at one point, plenty of hope that the divisive schism enveloping men’s professional golf would resolve itself by the time the game’s best players drove back down Augusta National ’s Magnolia Lane.

It was in June last year, after all, that the PGA Tour announced a shock framework agreement with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), bankrollers of the breakaway circuit LIV Golf and the sport’s disruptors-in-chief.

Nine months on, however, and an agreement remains elusive. Deadlines have been extended, face-to-face talks have been held, but, barring a miracle in the next few weeks, the PGA Tour and LIV will remain at odds as the first tee goes into the ground for the 2024 Masters .

The division, however frustrating for golf fans, does lend itself to an intriguing subplot ahead of golf’s first major of the year. Despite the public desire from both sets of players to play down the us-against-them narrative, officials on both tours will surely be desperate to see one of their players win while crucial negotiations continue to roll on in the background.

Ahead of the golf’s first major, The Independent takes an early look at the top contenders to take home the green jacket from both rival tours.

Jon Rahm , who bested LIV’s Brooks Koepka with a sublime Sunday performance to claim his second major this time last year, will now return not only as the defending champion but the American’s colleague following his eye-watering £450m switch to the Saudi-backed circuit in December last year.

The Spaniard has already spoken about the disappointment of not being able to defend three of the PGA Tour titles he won in 2023 and, therefore, will undoubtedly relish the opportunity to remind everyone of his talents and become just the fourth back-to-back winner at Augusta.

Despite failing to win any of his first four LIV events in 2024, the 29-year-old has not yet finished outside the top eight and still remains as complete a golfer as he ever was. There will, undoubtedly, be extra pressure and noise surrounding his appearance this year but that feels like the exact environment in which Rahm could thrive.

Scottie Scheffler

For a man of Scottie Scheffler ’s talents, it felt improbable at the start of March that the world’s number-one golfer was about to go a whole year without a win. In the space of a fortnight, however, the American put paid to that notion, winning back-to-back events, including becoming the first man ever to defend the Players Championship.

Despite his well-documented woes with the putter, Scheffler only needed a marginal upturn in form on the greens to allow his ball-striking mastery to win him the titles his consistency deserves.

The 27-year-old batted off questions comparing him with Tiger Woods after his win at TPC Sawgrass but his form – if a 12-month span of sustained excellence can be labelled as such – is making those analogies all the more difficult to ignore.

Scheffler claimed his first and only major to date at the Masters in 2022 and only once finished outside the top ten at a major last year. Rahm may well be the defending champion for the week, but Scheffler is undoubtedly the man to beat.

Brooks Koepka

Following a tough spell with injuries in 2022, Brooks Koepka looked ready to re-announce himself on the major stage at this tournament last year before falling short after Rahm’s superb Sunday showing.

The American, though, didn’t have to wait long to break his near four-year winless major run, tasting victory at the following month’s PGA Championship at Bay Hill with a commanding two-shot victory.

Where Scheffler revels in his unnerving consistency, Koepka’s day-to-day record is more hot and cold. He has three wins since his move to LIV but has finished inside the top ten just once in their first four events.

But the 33-year-old is the man for the big occasion and there is no greater stage than Augusta. With two second-place finishes at Augusta in his last five starts and quite possibly the greatest major championship player of his generation, he is not someone to be overlooked.

Rory McIlroy

Rory McIlroy has searched everywhere for the winning formula to end his near decade-long major drought but has, thus far, been unsuccessful. At the US Open last year, the time looked right only for the Northern Irishman to be denied by a coming-of-age display from Wyndham Clark.

The 34-year-old crashed and burned at Augusta last year – floundering to a missed cut after two poor days – but that performance is the only time he has finished outside the top eight in the last eight major championships.

The Masters is the only major left for the Northern Irishman’s career grand slam and while early-season results on the PGA Tour have not been encouraging, he heads to Augusta with his game the only focus having recused himself from the Tour’s policy board late last year. It could prove a vital weight off his shoulders at a place that has tormented him more than most in years gone by.

Wyndham Clark

The aforementioned Clark was a 120/1 outsider when he captured US Open glory at Los Angeles Country Club last June but his odds of doubling his major tally at the Masters will be substantially shorter.

Clark won for the first time on the PGA Tour only one month prior to tasting major success last year but, since then, the American’s displays have ensured he won’t be regarded as a flash-in-the-pan major champion.

Capturing his second victory on tour at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February this year, the 30-year-old finished runner-up to Scheffler in back-to-back weeks at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship. This April will be Clark’s first trip around Augusta in competition but there is no suggestion so far in his flourishing career that such a prospect should faze him.

Joaquin Niemann

Joaquin Niemann was the only golfer keen to lean into the LIV-PGA Tour rivalry before last year’s Masters, suggesting he had a fire under his belly to outperform his PGA Tour rivals “knowing that they hate us”.

An eventual T16 finish didn’t give him much reason to gloat but the Chilean returns to Georgia in the best form of his life, having enjoyed a productive winter on the DP World Tour followed by two wins in LIV’s first four events.

Such displays earned the 25-year-old a late invite to the Masters but, with last year’s finish at Augusta marking his first top-20 in a major, he must now take his game to another level yet again if he is to back up his invite and contend with the game’s best.

Xander Schauffele

Statistically speaking, nobody in the world has been able to hang with Scheffler over the past few months, although Xander Schauffele has made a damn good fist of it. The consistency of the American’s game has been staggering even if he may not have the wins to boast about in recent memory.

If any critique can be labelled against the 30-year-old it is that inability to get over the line in the biggest moments. He held an overnight lead at the Players but saw that slip away as putts failed to drop for him on Sunday and for all his consistency in majors, which has seen him notch up six top-five finishes, Schauffele has never quite got over the line when it truly matters.

One of his closest shaves saw him finish T2 in the 2019 Masters, playing a support act to Tiger Woods’ fairytale victory. Now playing the best golf of his career, though, the world No 5 could well get his breakout moment in the spotlight.

Cameron Smith

Somewhat of a forgotten star since his move to LIV, Cameron Smith was, at one point, golf’s hottest property having won the Players Championship and Open Championship in the same season.

A quiet character off the course, it’s easy to forget the Australian’s impressive record at Augusta, with four top-ten finishes in the last six years. Having notched up impressive performances, too, at last year’s PGA Championship and US Open, finishing T9 and fourth respectively, it’s clear that there are few courses capable of withstanding the 30-year-old’s aggressive style and flat-stick prowess.

With a T2 finish at the LIV’s most recent event in Hong Kong, Smith may well be peaking at the right time and could slide under the radar of his more outspoken and higher-profile LIV colleagues.

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Jordan Spieth part of big Valspar field hoping to cash in on pre-Masters opportunity

The valspar championship begins thursday with 154 players, a much larger field than the past few weeks..

Jordan Spieth lines up his 8th hole green during AT&T Byron Nelson on Thursday, May 12, 2022...

By The Associated Press

11:55 AM on Mar 21, 2024 CDT

PALM HARBOR, Fla. — Innisbrook and Bay Hill are separated by 100 miles on the road, two weeks on the PGA Tour calendar and $11.6 million in prize money. Another big difference might be the size of the field.

The Valspar Championship begins Thursday with 154 players. That’s the most ever for the Copperhead course at Innisbrook, meaning there most certainly won’t be enough daylight to finish weekday rounds in one day, rain or shine.

That’s quite a difference from two weeks ago at the Arnold Palmer Invitational , a signature event with a $20 million purse that had only 69 players and made Bay Hill feel like a ghost town during early practice.

“It is incredibly less efficient practicing here than it was at Bay Hill, is probably the biggest difference I see,” Jordan Spieth said Wednesday with a grin, his golf bag squeezed between two others on the range at Innisbrook.

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“Part of that being that I was out of the country and then had a photo shoot the next morning,” he said. “And part of it being 155 players and a small range.”

Spieth was among the six player directors on the PGA Tour Enterprises board who  met Monday in the Bahamas with Yasir Al-Rumayyan , governor of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia that pays for LIV Golf.

He called the meeting “good” without going into detail, describing it only as a “really good meet-and-greet to ask questions and get understanding and see where we go for the first step.”

It was the threat of LIV Golf, which has lured away big names like Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka, that led to the PGA Tour developing $20 million events that would bring together the best in the PGA Tour.

The limited fields led to other players going to tournaments in between with hopes of earning some of the 15 spots available at signature events. And while it’s early in the season, that has put the squeeze on PGA Tour newcomers — mainly graduates from the Korn Ferry Tour — who are trying to get into more tournaments.

The response was to boost the Valspar Championship field beyond its normal 144 players, raising it to make sure everyone from the Korn Ferry Tour could play. That brought the number to 155 — it went down by one when Garrick Higgo withdrew — creating another strange element to the week.

There’s an alternate list, but none get in unless the field gets below 144 players. Typically, someone would have replaced Higgo. But this is all about creating spots.

“The situation isn’t perfect, but people need to remember why it was done,” Spieth said.

Justin Thomas isn’t sure what the solution is to create significant events for the top performers while not shutting out players lower on the priority list who aren’t getting enough chances.

“It’s what the answer has to be right now,” he said. “But not long term, I wouldn’t think.”

The Valspar Championship has attracted a reasonably good field considering it follows the $20 million purse at Bay Hill for 69 players and the $25 million purse at The Players Championship.

Xander Schauffele and British Open champion Brian Harman, who tied for second last week at the TPC Sawgrass, are the only players from the top 10 in the world at Innisbrook. But there’s also 10 more from the top 30, a list that includes Spieth and Thomas, two-time winner Sam Burns, Tony Finau and Cameron Young.

For Schauffele, it’s a time to get back on the horse.

“After a close call last week, sometimes it’s nice just to get back to work and kind of put your head down and try to figure out a new golf course,” he said. “So happy to be here.”

Three tournaments remain until the Masters, and 130 players at Innisbrook could get that invitation on Augusta National letterhead by winning. Opportunity abounds.

For most of them, the Copperhead course is regarded as among the best in the South, certainly on the Florida swing, with its tree-lined fairways and elevation.

Spieth said players wouldn’t say it was underrated because “they’d all rate it pretty high.”

He has his own special memories from the Valspar Championship. Yes, there was the playoff victory in 2015 before he went on a tear in the majors, winning the Masters and U.S. Open. More vivid is chipping in on the 17th hole, finishing in a tie for seventh in 2013 that led to him getting a PGA Tour card at age 20.

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koepka return to pga tour

Lynch: The PGA Tour is facing the toughest decision with LIV Golf. Should players be making that call?

O nly in politics and professional golf can one hear an arsonist share his impassioned vision for the rebuild he rendered necessary. So it was Monday when player-directors on the PGA Tour’s board met Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who as head of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has single-handedly financed the ravaging of the sport. A day later, two golfers on either side of the schism he created indicated how they’re reconciled (or not) to the consequences of their decisions.

Jon Rahm, one of Al-Rumayyan’s more expensive firestarters, offered a positive pitch for the Tour he left. “It was fun to watch, and what a finish. Jesus Christ, that was one that was fun to watch,” he said of the Players Championship, before admitting he has watched other tournaments that he’s no longer eligible to play, three of which he won last season. “It’s gut-wrenching to watch, but it made for great TV, and it was really fun.”

Picture the reigning Masters champion watching the action from home, then juxtapose that with the widely-circulated image of him playing a LIV event in Jeddah with not a spectator in sight. Asked about a subsequent LIV stop in Hong Kong, Rahm praised the people and the food. He is a competitor reduced to a concierge. His brave face notwithstanding, there was a poignant note in his comments about moving to LIV Golf. “It’s done. It’s past. It’s a decision I made, and I’m comfortable with it,” he said. “But I’m hoping I can come back.”

Rahm gives the impression of someone convinced he was going to be a one-man catalyst, that his departure would be a shock so seismic that every faction in golf would hasten toward reunification. By now, he must realize that a path back to the PGA Tour is not yet paved and that, bar four weeks a year, he will be competing before sparse galleries for the foreseeable.

His words struck a dissonant chord against those of Xander Schauffele, a leading man in the Players drama Rahm enjoyed from his couch. ”I'm very content with where I sit right now,” Schauffele said. “I don't have any regrets of what I've done or what I'm doing, so I'm sleeping just fine at night knowing where I stand.”

Their respective comments illustrate the only constant in recent years: golfers making decisions based wholly on self-interest and where they are in their careers, not for any more noble motive, and certainly not for the well-being of the tours from which they earned a stout living. As competitors, golfers ought to be selfish and focus on themselves. But that trait is also why they shouldn’t be positioned to heavily influence decisions that have enormous ramifications for the PGA Tour’s broader business.

Just such a decision is nearing.

I asked someone who was in the room for the Al-Rumayyan meeting in the Bahamas to characterize it. “Weather today was partly sunny with scattered but significant clouds,” came the response. No cloud looms more ominously than the issue of how (or if) LIV golfers return to the PGA Tour in any peace deal. It’s a divisive topic, even among Tour loyalists.

Rory McIlroy’s suggestion that they come back without sanction was quickly poo-pooed by Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler, while Scottie Scheffler — not a man prone to pettiness — said that a welcome might never be extended to guys who litigated against the Tour. Tempting as it may be to exclude Phredo Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau, lines can’t be drawn around individuals based on their popularity in the locker room.

This dilemma isn’t just procedural (What status would LIV guys have? Must they re-earn eligibility? Are they to be excluded from bonus pools for a period?) it’s also personal. Not in the sense of animosity, but in advantage. No Tour member has to best Rahm or Cameron Smith to win a tournament these days. No one is seeing a FedEx Cup bonus that might otherwise be theirs go to Brooks Koepka or Dustin Johnson. None of the rank-and-file struggling for starts are missing out because Graeme McDowell or Sergio Garcia got the call instead.

If you ask John Henry — the leader of Strategic Sports Group, which just invested $1.5 billion in the Tour — he might argue that his product would be measurably improved if the aforementioned defectors were in the fold again. But despite the pablum about unifying the game and seeing the best compete together again, many Tour members are disincentivized to see that happen. Which is why active players should not be on this jury. What’s best for individual members — even a large constituency of them — isn’t necessarily best for the Tour’s commercial prospects. But convincing members of a “member-led” organization that their interests are not the same as the Tour’s interests is akin to persuading Irish republicans that their best future lies in allegiance to the British monarchy.

The equity being distributed to players is an opportunity to reset the parameters of their role in Tour governance. They are shareholders, not owners. Activist shareholders, sure, but not the ultimate decision-makers. That distinction was lost when players used discord over the secretive Framework Agreement to demand a built-in majority on the board, which they also hold at the new for-profit entity, PGA Tour Enterprises. Ask folks if they’d rather see Jay Monahan or Patrick Cantlay make decisions about the direction of a multi-billion dollar enterprise, you’d likely hear a chorus of ‘Neither!’ Players will be compromised in many future decisions, executives were compromised by past calls. But at least executives don’t have their own competitive skin in the game.

“I don't think anyone has sort of the right answer to keep everyone happy,” Schauffele said a few days ago. He’s right. But that’s an argument for avoiding a scenario in which players prioritize their happiness over what’s best for the Tour and the greater game. We’ve seen more than enough of how that usually works out.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Lynch: The PGA Tour is facing the toughest decision with LIV Golf. Should players be making that call?

A PGA Tour sign at the 2023 Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Country Club in Dublin, Ohio. (Photo: Ian Johnson/Icon Sportswire via AP Images)

The 2024 Masters Tournament: Predictions, odds and how to watch the Augusta Classic

koepka return to pga tour

In less than a month, the PGA Tour presents the 88th edition of the Masters Tournament , held at Augusta National. With huge names set to participate such as Tiger Woods , Phil Mickelson , Rory McIlroy , Scottie Scheffler , and of course last year's winner Jon Rahm , this year's tournament is sure to dazzle spectators.

Rahm has the honor of attempting to become the tournament's first back-to-back champion since Tiger Woods in 2001 and 2002. That will be no easy task. The world's No. 1 golfer, 2022 Masters winner, and current 2024 Masters favorite, Scottie Scheffler is hot on Rahm's heels and wants nothing more than to return to the sweet embrace of that coveted green jacket.

As we approach the tournament's first round, here's everything to know about this year's Masters Tournament.

PGA Tour News: Tony Finau remembers his first time playing with Scottie Scheffler

Predictions for the 2024 Masters:

CBS Sports : Rory McIlroy barely cracks top-five

The CBS Sports staff writes, "McIlroy has made the cut in his first four starts this season, but has not finished in the top 10 in any of them. In fact, he has finished 61st, 24th and 21st twice as he gets closer to the 2024 Masters Tournament. While he is still ranked first in the Tour in shots gained off the green (1.251), he's 152nd in shots gained approaching the green (-0.522) and 129th in putting (-0.246). His odds to win at Augusta National may be short, but his current struggles suggest you look elsewhere when betting on the 2024 Masters."

Golf Digest : Jason Day is a value pick to win the Masters

Alex Myers writes, "After a resurgent 2023 that saw the Aussie win on the PGA Tour for the first time in five years, [Day]'s back to being under the radar. But with four top-10s at the Masters, including a runner-up in 2011, this is an enticing price."

Covers : Rory is looking for vengeance

Chris Gregory writes, "No matter which way you slice it, Rory McIlroy's week at the 2023 Masters was a massive disappointment. He missed the cut by a handful of shots, allowing another opportunity at the major championship grand slam to pass him by. 

His 2024 form has been just so-so but few have this week marked on the calendar like Rory does. Will this be the year he gets over the hump?"

2024 Masters Tournament Odds:

Here are the odds for the tournament winner. Odds via  BetMGM , as of Tuesday, March 26.

  • Scottie Scheffler (+450)
  • Jon Rahm (+1000)
  • Rory McIlroy (+1000)
  • Viktor Hovland (+1800)
  • Jordan Spieth (+1800)
  • Brooks Koepka (+2000)
  • Xander Schauffele (+2000)
  • Patrick Cantlay (+2200)
  • Will Zalatoris (+2200)
  • Cameron Smith (+2500)
  • Justin Thomas (+2500)
  • Ludvig Aberg (+2500)
  • Wyndham Clark (+2500)
  • Collin Morikawa (+2800)
  • Hideki Matsuyama (+2800)
  • Joaquin Niemann (+2800)
  • Phil Mickelson (+10000)
  • Tiger Woods (+10000)

It's hard to bet against Scottie Scheffler given the tear he's been on as of late. He's played in seven events in 2024 with two wins. In fact, he's only finished outside the top-ten at one of those events -- The American Express from January 18-21. Essentially, he has been at or near the top of every leaderboard for more than two months at this point.

That said, one surprise pick to finish well could be Sam Burns. Burns has struggled in his three most recent appearances, finishing tied for 30th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, tied for 45th at the Players Championship, and missing the cut entirely at the Valspar Championship. However, he also has four top-ten finishes and ranks in the top-20 in the PGA Tour in shots gained total, shots gained off the tee, and shots gained via putting. Burns' odds are currently listed at +5500.

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How to watch the 2024 Masters:

The 2024 Masters Tournament will take place between Thursday, April 11 and Sunday, April 14, with one round played each day. Rounds 1 and 2 will air on ESPN. Rounds 3 and 4 will air on CBS. Each of the first three rounds will see coverage start at 3 p.m. ET. The fourth round's coverage start at 2 p.m. on the 14th.

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The Masters 2024: Who can still earn invite to Augusta National over next two PGA Tour events?

Players can still earn an invite to The Masters by moving into the world's top 50 this week or by winning one of the next two PGA Tour events - the Houston Open and Valero Texas Open; Watch The Masters exclusively live from April 11-14 on Sky Sports

Wednesday 27 March 2024 13:50, UK

Alex Noren, Robert MacIntyre, Billy Horschel - credit AP Photo/PA

Time is running out to qualify for The Masters, with Ryder Cup players, former FedExCup champions and plenty of notable names among those chasing a late invite to Augusta National.

There are currently 85 players in the field for the opening men's major of the year, live from April 11-14 on Sky Sports , where Jon Rahm returns to defend his title and Scottie Scheffler arrives as pre-tournament favourite.

Players only have two PGA Tour events left to secure a spot for The Masters, with the winners of the Texas Children's Houston Open and Valero Texas Open - providing they're not already exempt - automatically earn an invite.

  • The Masters: Latest headlines and highlights
  • How has qualified for The Masters? Full 2024 field
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MASTERS GOLF PREDICTIONS THUMB IMAGES: PA/AP

Those inside the world's top 50 after this week's event at Memorial Park Golf Course will also get to feature in The Masters, with several players having the opportunity to guarantee their qualification via that method.

Which players have the best chance?

Former BMW PGA Championship winner Byeong Hun An is the highest-ranked player not officially yet listed in the field, although the world No 42 won't drop out of the world's top 50 this week and therefore will secure an invite.

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Early spring in Augusta, GA. #themasters pic.twitter.com/AMMSH0cG09 — The Masters (@TheMasters) March 25, 2024

The Korean started the year outside the world's top 60 but followed a fourth at The Sentry by finishing runner-up at the Sony Open earlier in the season, with another top-10 finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational earlier this month helping him secure a return to The Masters.

Everyone else inside the world's top 50 is already in the field for The Masters, as are the next four in the world rankings, with Tom Hoge (world No 57), Mackenize Hughes (No 63) and former Ryder Cup winner Alex Noren (No 66) among those in action this week looking to earn a late major invite.

The Masters: Latest headlines and video

Who has qualified for the 2024 Masters?

Could McIlroy finally win the Grand Slam?

Can Scheffler add to major tally at Augusta?

Alex Noren, Butterfield Bermuda Championship (Getty Images)

Hoge would need a top-five finish in Houston to have a chance of making it into the top 50, while Hughes and Noren will likely need to end the week inside the top two to have a mathematical chance of securing a spot via that method.

Anyone else who can still make The Masters?

Everyone else in action in Houston will need a win to qualify for The Masters, with Keith Mitchell (No 71) and Germany's Stephan Jaeger (No 72) the next two in the world rankings who would require a victory.

Ryder Cup winner Robert MacIntyre is in danger of missing The Masters for the second successive season, having dropped down the world rankings after a slow start to the PGA Tour season, while English duo Aaron Rai and Matt Wallace also need a win to qualify.

koepka return to pga tour

Former FedExCup champion Billy Horschel (No 87) has posted top-12 finishes in two of his three PGA Tour starts but is on the verge of not making The Masters for the first time since 2017, having featured in every major since 2018.

Christiaan Bezuidenhout (No 55) and Brendon Todd (No 64) both sit out of this week and will need to win the Valero Texas Open from April 4-7 if they're to feature at Augusta National, with that PGA Tour event where the final Masters spot will be available.

Matt Kuchar , former Open champion Francesco Molinari and Kevin Kisner - who has featured in every major since 2015 - are among the other notable names currently set to miss out, while others are struggling since dropping down the world rankings with moves to the LIV Golf League.

Rory McIlroy and Talor Gooch

There are 13 players from LIV Golf in the field, including Rahm, reigning PGA champion Brooks Koepka and two-time major winner Dustin Johnson, although Talor Gooch, Mito Pereira, Ian Poulter and Paul Casey all miss out.

Watch the Texas Children's Houston Open all live on Sky Sports. Early coverage begins on Thursday from 12.30pm on Sky Sports Golf, ahead of full coverage from 8pm. The Masters is then exclusively live from April 11-14 exclusively on Sky Sports. Stream the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, majors and more with NOW.

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Brooks Koepka wins PGA Championship for his fifth major title

Brooks Koepka fired a 3-under-par 67 in the final round to finish at 9 under.

PITTSFORD, N.Y. — Confidence was never an issue for Brooks Koepka until the injuries piled up, the doubts crept in and he began to wonder if he still belonged among golf’s elite.

Koepka answered every question at the PGA Championship with a performance that ranks among his best. His fifth major title was the sweetest of them all. No doubt about that, either.

“It feels damned good. Yeah, this one is definitely special,” Koepka said. “I think this one is probably the most meaningful of them all with everything that’s gone on, all the crazy stuff over the last few years.”

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One knee injury kept him from the Masters, another from the Presidents Cup in Australia. Two years ago, he tried to pop his knee back into place and shattered his knee cap. And then last summer, uncertain about his future, he decided to leave the PGA Tour for the guaranteed Saudi riches of LIV Golf, bringing a mixture of criticism and skepticism.

And there he was Sunday at Oak Hill, looking good as new, dominant as ever, against the best collection of golfers in the world on a punishing golf course.

Koepka ran off three quick birdies early, never lost the lead amid a gritty fight from Viktor Hovland, and closed with a 3-under-par 67 for a two-shot victory.

He held up one finger as he posed next to the Wanamaker Trophy, but he may as well have held up all five.

Brooks Koepka could have held up five fingers for the amount of majors he has won.

With three PGAs and two US Opens, he became the 20th player with five or more majors. He won his third Wanamaker Trophy — only Jack Nicklaus and Walter Hagen with five and Tiger Woods with four have won the PGA Championship more times — and captured his first major in what felt like four years.

And to think that over the last few years, Koepka was so wounded he felt he couldn’t compete, a decision that might have led to him leaving the PGA Tour for Saudi-funded LIV Golf in a shocking move last June after the US Open.

In the Netflix series “Full Swing” that aired earlier this year, he was quoted as saying his confidence had given way to doubt.

“I’m going to be honest with you, I can’t compete with these guys week in and week out.”

Give him good health and a clear head, and good luck taking down Koepka in the majors. He now has won five of his last 22 majors, a rate exceeded only by Woods, Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Nick Faldo, and Ben Hogan in the last 75 years.

He is the first player from LIV Golf to win a major, and it hits back at the notion that 54-hole events and guaranteed money would take the edge off the rival league’s best players.

“I definitely think it helps LIV, but I’m more interested in my own self right now, to be honest with you,” Koepka said. “Yeah, it’s a huge thing for LIV, but at the same time I’m out here competing as an individual at the PGA Championship. I’m just happy to take this home for the third time.”

Koepka is in pretty heady company just about everywhere he looks. His five majors are as many as Seve Ballesteros and Byron Nelson. Among active players, only Woods (15) and Phil Mickelson (6) have more.

“I’m not even sure I dreamed of it as a kid, that I’d win that many,” he said.

Koepka left little doubt about his place in the game with his two-shot win over hard-luck Hovland (68) and Scottie Scheffler, who closed with a 65 and returned to No. 1 in the world.

“To look back to where we were two years ago, I’m so happy right now,” Koepka said. “This is just the coolest thing.”

The victory moves Koepka to No. 13 in the world and No. 2 in the Ryder Cup standings. The top six automatically qualify, and it would be hard to fathom leaving Koepka off the American team. He can only earn points in the majors, and two more are still to come.

Michael Block, who made a hole-in-one on the 15th, captured the Low Club Professional trophy, and so much more.

Koepka had to share the loudest cheers with California club pro Michael Block, who put on an amazing show over four days. Block made a hole-in-one on the 15th hole while playing with Rory McIlroy, and then made two tough par putts at the end for a fourth straight 70.

He tied for 15th, giving him a return date to the PGA Championship next year at Valhalla. It was the best finish by a club pro since Lonnie Nielsen tied for 11 in 1986 at Inverness.

“The most surreal moment I’ve ever had in my life,” Block said. “I’m living a dream and making sure I’m enjoying the moment. Not getting any better than this — no way in hell.”

Block charges $125 a lesson at Arroyo Trabuco in Mission Viejo, Calif. He earned just short of $290,000 at Oak Hill.

A month ago at the Masters, Koepka lost a two-shot lead in the final round by playing tentatively and was overrun by Jon Rahm. He vowed he would not do that again, and Koepka delivered in a major way, just like he used to.

Hovland made it easy for him at the end. Koepka was one shot ahead on the 16th hole when Hovland hit his 9-iron from a bunker that plugged into the lip in front of him — the same shot that stopped Corey Conners on Saturday — and made double bogey.

Koepka gouged out a shot from the rough to 5 feet for birdie and suddenly was leading by four shots.

Viktor Hovland's approach from a fairway bunker on 16 imbedded into a lip, and he made double bogey.

Scheffler started four shots behind and never got closer than two. His 65 matched the best score of the tournament, posted by four other players on a day that was set up for scoring.

“I gave the guys on top of the leaderboard something to think about, and I kind of made a little bit of a move, but Brooks just played some fantastic golf this week,” Scheffler said. “He played too good this weekend for me to catch up to him.”

Koepka was determined to restore his reputation as a major force, and he wasted no time. He stuffed a wedge to 4 feet on the second and third holes, and rolled in an 8-foot birdie down the hill on the par-5 fourth.

But he drove into the water on the sixth hole and did well to make bogey, and another bogey from the rough on the seventh trimmed his lead to one shot.

It was tight the rest of the way until the 16th. Hovland hit 9-iron from the bunker and could hear the awful thud of it rocketing into the turf at the edge of the sand. He knew immediately what happened, covering his mouth with a closed fist. After a drop into nasty rough, it took two more to get to the green and led to double bogey.

“Brooks is a great player, and now he has five majors. I mean, that’s a hell of a record right there. It’s not easy going toe-to-toe with a guy like that,” Hovland said. “He is not going to give you anything, and I didn’t really feel like I gave him anything either until 16.”

Bryson DeChambeau, who began the PGA with a 66, made too many mistakes in his round of 70. He stuck around to clasp hands with Koepka, two players from LIV Golf who used to get under each other’s skin.

LIV had three players in the top 10 for the second straight major.

Koepka, who finished at 9-under 271, received $3.15 million and the heaviest trophy among the four majors. Nothing felt more valuable than that.

IMAGES

  1. Brooks Koepka Returns to the PGA Tour After COVID-19 Scare to Headline

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  2. Brooks Koepka delivers another major performance to win PGA

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  3. Brook Koepka to return to PGA Tour at Zurich Classic of New Orleans

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  4. Koepka wins PGA Tour Player of the Year award

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  5. Brooks Koepka named PGA Tour Player of the Year │ GMA News Online

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  6. Brooks Koepka voted PGA Tour's top player of the year

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