There has been some high-profile drama in the golf world over the last few seasons due to the emergence of LIV Golf and its ability to compete with the PGA Tour. LIV made a big splash by picking up some big golfers to play for them, including Brooks Koepka, but his contract ran out with LIV, and Koepka is back on the PGA Tour.
That decision has been met with a mixed response.
Golfers like Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy were excited to get Koepka back on the PGA Tour, while someone like Wyndham Clark expressed how torn he was.
“I personally really like Brooks, and I think it's ultimately really good for the PGA Tour,” Clark said on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio. “But also, as a guy who had an opportunity to go to LIV, it's frustrating that he's able to get the cake and also eat it. And if you had told me that I could have gone for a year-and-a-half, make a boatload of money, and then be able to come back, play on the Tour, I think almost everyone would have done that.”
Clark did say that, at the end of the day, he wants what's best for the PGA Tour, and getting more players, especially the top players, to come back will only help the Tour and everyone on it.
It is worth noting that a key point of the PGA Tour's Returning Member Program is that Koepka's addition to PGA Tour fields will not cost any other player a spot, meaning the five-time major champion will be added as an extra golfer. He will have to play 15 events and qualify for signature events while being ineligible for sponsor exemptions in those tournaments, all while working his way back up.
