Brooks Koepka made a smart business decision.
In returning to the PGA Tour this week? No, jumping to LIV Golf in 2022.
Forget about the loyalty of the move or the fact that he said he wasn’t jumping ship not long before he did, in fact, jump ship. Based strictly on money, his move was inarguably a good one.
Koepka guaranteed his financial future — if it even still needed guaranteeing by then after his first four major championship titles — by signing for a reported $120 million from the Saudi Public Investment Fund that backs LIV Golf. Koepka won another $45 million in four seasons at LIV. When he asked out of his deal, he lost a payment of an estimated $10-$15 million for 2026 but effectively cleared something like $150 million in the first four years.
Not even Scottie Scheffler did that and he dominated the PGA Tour during that span, winning 19 times and earning just over $91 million in prize money. No way a guy who won “only” five times in events that originally had mini-fields of just 48 players (far less competitive than PGA Tour fields two-and-a-half times that size) would have matched that. Plus, Koepka had suffered a knee injury that was potentially career-threatening or at least career-hindering. Taking the money was the right choice, the smart choice.
The price of LIV was traveling to the four corners of the globe — Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Mexico and the U.S. It’s not comfy-easy like private-jetting to the next PGA Tour stop a few states away.
The other big names who took LIV’s big money made wise investments, too. You can criticize Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith and Patrick Reed for the ways in which they left, perhaps, but not for their bottom lines. They earned far more money from LIV than they would have by playing the PGA Tour.
Now, Koepka is back and gets to eat his cake, too. Well, except for that $5 million he owes to some PGA Tour-related charity, according to his reconciliation package. And that’s still a tax deduction, which is about as painless as $5 million can be. The PGA Tour scored a win with CEO Brian Rolapp’s smart decision to create a pathway back to the Tour for a few of LIV’s biggest remaining stars.
Koepka’s second defection doesn’t drive a stake into the heart of LIV Golf’s future. Neither does Reed’s announcement Wednesday that he will leave live and rejoin the PGA Tour in September. They barely make a dent. Even if Rahm, Smith and DeChambeau also bail, LIV has the money to persevere. Losing all of them at once — especially DeChambeau — would be a public relations headache but not a death knell.
LIV Golf is about a different type of product, different format (team golf, love it or hate it) and a different audience than the PGA Tour. Although it is beyond ironic that the PGA Tour keeps getting more like LIV and LIV keeps getting more like the PGA Tour.
LIV increased its field size again to 57, almost the same size as the Tour’s no-cut signature events, and upped its tournament size from 54 holes to the Tour’s standard 72. LIV also expanded its qualifying process slightly, although it’s a still a tiny door to get through in order to get rich quick. Only three spots were available in open qualifying, two spots available based on Asian Tour results.
The PGA Tour has eight signature events in 2026 with half-fields of 72 (by standard PGA Tour field measurements). Five are no-cut events, like LIV, and three cut to the low 50. No-cut events are basically appearance fees or guaranteed money, like LIV offers. LIV played 15 tournaments in 2025, the Tour played 39 but there is talk that Rolapp and the Tour Policy Board may cut the future schedule to between 22 and 25 events. That would leave a lot of weeks where no one will be talking about the PGA Tour. Is less ever more? It didn’t work for the LPGA a decade ago.
Maybe the TGL indoor simulator league is supposed to generate PGA Tour interest in lieu of the current early-season schedule on the West Coast and Hawaii. Maybe, but those two Hawaiian events, especially, plus Palm Springs and Torrey Pines usually draw good TV ratings from folks in northern states digging out from snowstorms and freezing weather. Those viewers are desperate to see golf played on green grass. Discarding some or all of those stops seems curious, at best.
Every time I write something about LIV, especially my proprietary LIV Golf rankings that I quit computing after two seasons, I get hate mail from Tour fans who have no use for LIV. I also get hate mail from pro-LIV followers if I write something critical. Let’s just say that American golf fans have mixed feelings about LIV Golf, at best.
LIV seems very successful and popular when it plays overseas. Australia is a country of great golf courses and great fans that is horribly underserved by professional golf. The game’s top stars just don’t visit very often and when LIV comes to town, it’s a big deal. One of the most exciting finishes I’ve seen anywhere was the 2024 LIV Golf Adelaide event in which the all-Aussie team, led by Cam Smith, beat Stinger GC in a playoff. The crowd was massive and loud, it was a thriller and made for great TV.
Unless or until the Saudi PIF loses interest in funding LIV Golf or tires of the steady drain on its infinite resources, LIV Golf will continue as a valuable global golf property. The DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour) has an agreement with the PGA Tour to be business partners through 2035 but if something happened to break that alliance and the DP World Tour joined with LIV Golf, the PGA Tour would suddenly have a partner with bottomless pockets, a long history, the world’s oldest major in the Open Championship and a whole system of feeder tours. That entity would be a formidable business opponent for the heretofore unchallenged PGA Tour.
That’s all pie-in-the-sky stuff, of course. It could happen but probably won’t. But didn’t we say the same thing about Brooks Koepka coming back to the PGA Tour?
Well, Brooks is back. Just enjoy the ride.
Editor's note: This column was updated to reflect news that Patrick Reed will also return to the PGA Tour.
