LIV Golf League captains Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith and Jon Rahm stated Tuesday they haven’t any intention of following Brooks Koepka again to the PGA Tour.
Chatting with reporters on the LIV preseason press convention in Palm Seashore, Florida, DeChambeau, Smith and Rahm stated they intend to stay on the Saudi-funded exit circuit this season.
DeChambeau, who’s within the remaining 12 months of his LIV Golf contract, stated of Koepka’s return to the PGA Tour: “I by no means anticipated that to occur, I by no means anticipated it.” “I do not even know what the penalty might be. I am below contract now. I am wanting ahead to seeing what I can do at LIV Golf this 12 months.”
Rahm is the final high-profile golfer to affix LIV Golf in December 2023, and is believed to have at the very least two years left on his contract.
“I am not going anyplace,” he stated. “(A) very related reply to the one Bryson gave. I want Brooks the most effective of luck. So far as I am involved, I am centered on the league and my group this 12 months and I hope we are able to come again as champions once more.”
These three LIV golfers are eligible to return to the PGA Tour below the brand new Returning Member Program. This system is open to anybody who has been away from the PGA Tour for at the very least two years and has received the Gamers Championship or any of the 4 majors (Masters, PGA Championship, U.S. Open, British Open Championship) since 2022. If he’s reinstated, he might be topic to sure circumstances and extreme monetary penalties.
DeChambeau received the 2024 U.S. Open. Rahm received the 2023 Masters. And Smith received the Gamers Championship and Open Championship in 2022.
“I decided to return out right here and spend extra time at residence, and I am not going to provide that up,” Smith instructed reporters. “I plan on taking LIV for a few years to return.”
LIV golfers eligible to return have till February 2nd to resolve whether or not to return.
“The standards itself would clearly be sufficient to know who it’s,” Rahm stated. “However yeah, I wasn’t shocked in any respect. There’s been fairly a couple of rumors going round for some time. Yesterday’s information did not shock me in any respect.”
PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolup stated the return path is a “one-time, outlined window” and “not a precedent for what may occur sooner or later.”
“As soon as the doorways shut, there isn’t a promise that this highway might be accessible once more,” Lollup wrote in a memo to PGA Tour members Monday.
The LIV Golf League season will open from February 4th to seventh at Riyadh Golf Membership in Saudi Arabia.
Koepka, a five-time main champion, paid a excessive value to return to the PGA Tour. Along with donating $5 million to charity on the tour’s request, they agreed to forfeit all participant inventory for the subsequent 5 years. They may also now not be eligible to obtain cash from the $100 million FedEx Cup bonus program in 2026.
Rolup stated within the memo that Koepka is eligible to compete within the Gamers Championship and different full-field occasions, however should earn a spot on this season’s eight signature occasions by successful a event or qualifying by way of considered one of three routes. He isn’t eligible for the sponsor exemption accessible for $20 million signature occasions.
Koepka, LIV Golf’s first five-time winner, is the primary high-profile golfer to return to the PGA Tour.
“I believe we’re all buddies,” LIV Golf captain Phil Mickelson stated. “I contemplate Brooks a good friend and I absolutely help him in no matter he thinks is finest for (him) and his household.”
The final of Mickelson’s six main championship titles got here on the 2021 PGA Championship in Kiawah Island, South Carolina, making him the oldest main winner. As such, Mickelson, who helped recruit many golfers to LIV Golf earlier than its launch in June 2022, is just not eligible to return to the PGA Tour below the Returning Member Program.
“I am having quite a lot of enjoyable right here,” Mickelson stated. “I really like taking part in right here at LIV. I really like being with everybody.”
