After four years with LIV Golf, Brooks Koepka wants back into the PGA Tour.
Brooks Koepka's journey back to the PGA Tour has officially begun.
The five-time major winner applied for reinstatement of his PGA Tour membership on Friday, according to ESPN's Mark Schlabach, three weeks after his high-profile split from LIV Golf. Koepka left the PGA Tour in 2022, becoming one of the biggest, and highest-paid, names for LIV's breakaway tour.
The path forward for Koepka and the PGA Tour is unclear. The organization has indicated in the past that a return from LIV would require a player to sit out at least a year after his last non-sanctioned event. Because LIV's final 2025 event ended on Aug. 25, that would mean Koepka would be effectively banned from the tour until this September.
However, that might not be set in stone. ESPN reports the tour will start its reinstatement and disciplinary process, which will include "thoughtful input from the board, including player directors."
Rory McIlroy, a former PGA Tour player director and one of the loudest anti-LIV voices during golf's great schism, suggested last week that players in Koepka's position shouldn't face punishment upon returning to the tour:
"They've made the money but they've paid their consequence when you talk about their reputation and some of the things that they've lost by going over there," McIlroy said. "If it made the overall tour stronger to have Bryson DeChambeau back and whoever else, I would be okay with it. But, it's not just me, and I recognize that not everyone's in my position. It would be up to the collective group of PGA Tour members to make that decision."
Whatever decision is made, Koepka remains eligible to play in the four majors this year by virtue of his 2023 PGA Championship. He can also play in the DP World Tour.
Koepka was among the several big names to leave the PGA Tour for LIV Golf three years ago, including Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Jon Rahm and Phil Mickelson. Among that group, he was clearly the one most regretting his lucrative decision.
Going back to the 2023 Masters, he was lamenting losing the ability to regularly compete with golf's top competitors and dropping lines like, “It is what it is. It’s the situation we’ve got right now, so I can’t do anything about it. I just go play.” Last year, he responded to Fred Couples reporting his interest in a PGA Tour return by saying, “I’ve got a contract obligation out here to fulfill, and then we’ll see what happens.”
Koepka's time with LIV has caused him to drop to 244th in the Official World Golf Ranking and his performance in majors, once his calling card, has dropped off as well. He won the PGA Championship in 2023, but hasn't finished in the top 10 in the 10 events since then. In 2025, he missed the cut at three of the four majors.
Koepka officially left LIV in December, which the league described as an amicable split and him "prioritizing the needs of his family and staying closer to home."
Category: General Sports
