The PGA Tour will take into account further avenues to carry again LIV Golf League gamers who want to return to the circuit, CEO Brian Rolup mentioned Monday.
Final week, stories emerged that Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund was on the verge of reducing off funding, however LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neill mentioned the league was supported by PIF all through this season.
“Pay attention, we’re studying all the identical headlines you are studying,” Lollup mentioned Monday on “The Pat McAfee Present.” “We do not know what is going on on there. We all know they’ve a contract and we respect that.”
5-time main champion Brooks Koepka and 2018 Masters winner Patrick Reed left the LIV Golf League earlier than this season.
Koepka and LIV Golf have agreed to terminate his contract early. He returned to the PGA Tour in January beneath the Returning Member Program, which permits LIV golfers who’ve been away from the PGA Tour for at the least two years and have received any of the 4 majors (Masters, PGA Championship, U.S. Open, Open Championship) beginning in 2022 to return beneath sure situations and extreme monetary penalties.
Koepka has agreed to surrender all participant fairness for the following 5 years and can not be eligible for the $100 million FedEx Cup bonus program in 2026. Koepka additionally agreed to donate $5 million to charity on the request of the PGA Tour.
Reed was unable to signal a brand new contract with LIV Golf. He’s scheduled to return to the PGA Tour on August twenty fifth, when his one-year suspension ends.
“Brooks got here again on tour as a result of he known as and mentioned, ‘My contract is up and I am prepared to return again,’ so we’re taking a look at that,” Lollup informed McAfee. “If there is a chance to reply, we are going to reply, however proper now we’re targeted on making the PGA Tour higher.
“However pay attention, I’ve mentioned it publicly and I will say it once more: I am enthusiastic about what makes the PGA Tour higher. That is my job. That is what I am enthusiastic about. There is no restrict to it. That is how I deal with it.”
If the LIV Golf League disbands with out receiving further funding, it is unclear how lengthy star gamers like Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau must wait earlier than returning to the PGA Tour.
DeChambeau, Rahm and Cameron Smith have been eligible to return to the tour beneath the Returning Gamers Program, which expired on February 2nd.
When Koepka returned, Rolup described this system as a “one-time, outlined interval” and “not a precedent for future occasions.”
“I believe LIV did the identical factor that the AFL did for the NFL a few years in the past, and possibly what the USFL did for the NFL a few years in the past,” mentioned Rolup, a former NFL government. “Primarily, competitors makes issues higher. Each time you compete, you study what you do nicely and what you do not.”
“I believe what LIV has performed is spotlight what the PGA Tour might do higher, the way it might do higher for followers, the way it might do higher for professional golfers, and the way it might do higher for its tv companions. That is an excellent factor.”
