Brooks Koepka’s return to the PGA Tour had many trying to see the bigger picture.
Tommy Fleetwood took the opposite approach.
The PGA Tour’s decision to welcome Koepka back from LIV Golf via a one-time pathway for “elite” players was a blow to the breakaway league. Koepka is the first big name to defect back to the PGA Tour. And while the PGA Tour tried to entice Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith to use the limited “Returning Member Program” to follow Koepka, the five-time major champion’s decision to come back is about only one man. That’s how Fleetwood sees it.
“I think in general, people want to play where their goals or dreams are aligned,” Fleetwood said Tuesday ahead of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic. “They want to play in the place where they feel they can chase them. Personally, I’m playing where I feel like I can still chase my dreams, and I’m in the best place to be the best golfer I can be. Other people may feel differently.
“I think that’s what Brooks is doing. He wants to play where he feels like he can get the most out of himself and play his best golf, and that’s obviously where he’s made his decisions is there and he’s ended up coming back.”
Rahm, DeChambeau and Smith have already said they plan to continue playing on LIV and will not take the pathway back to the PGA Tour by the Feb. 2 deadline. DeChambeau’s contract with LIV expires at the end of the 2026 season, and the two-time U.S. Open champion now has more leverage than any golfer in history. He admitted that Koepka’s departure has added a wrinkle to his contract renewal negotiations and has said that playing the four majors and spending the rest of his time being a YouTube golfer is a “viable” option. Rahm has several years left on his deal, and it’s unclear how much money he’d have to leave on the table to try to return to the PGA Tour. As for Smith, he seems genuinely happy with LIV’s team format and its annual visit to his home country of Australia.
As to whether or not Koepka’s decision to cross back over to the PGA Tour will be the first domino in a run of elite players exiting the breakaway league, Fleetwood doesn’t have the answers.
No one does.
“What the future holds, I don’t know,” Fleetwood said. “I saw the interview with the guys, Jon and Bryson and Cameron, and they are obviously well set on playing LIV Golf, and that’s where they want to play. Who knows? I think nobody has actually really known what’s going to happen next. It’s kind of the same situation everybody’s in.
“The [PGA] Tour is in a great place. We play some unbelievable events for a ridiculous amount of money on the PGA Tour, and I think it’s been in a great place and I’m very grateful to get to play where I do. It’s a great thing for the PGA Tour that Brooks has come back and he’s playing. Where it stands after that, I really don’t know.”
While Fleetwood doesn’t know what Koepka’s return means to the bigger picture of pro golf’s civil war, the PGA Tour’s two biggest stars have a different opinion. There’s symbolism in Koepka’s return and a statement about where things are headed.
“We get a probably top-three-of-his-generation player back that went to another tour,” Tiger Woods said of Koepka’s return after last week’s TGL event. “Played over there, and was adamant about coming back here and got out early to come back. That says a lot about the PGA Tour, where we’re headed, what we have done, what we accomplished and the players who have stayed and who have supported the Tour. Having another world-class player that these guys are going to try and beat, that’s what the fans demanded. That’s what the fans wanted for our fan initiative program, and I think we’ve addressed that.”
Added Rory McIlroy in an exclusive interview with The Telegraph’s James Corrigan: “It’s not as if they made any huge signings this year, is it? They haven’t signed anyone who moves the needle and I don’t think they will. I mean, they could re-sign Bryson for hundreds of millions of dollars, but even if they do, it doesn’t change their product, does it? They’ll just be paying for the exact same thing.
“And they’ve lost Brooks.”
Brooks Koepka will officially put the tee in the ground as a member of the PGA Tour at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines next week. He’s playing where he wants to play, on a Tour that he believes gives him the best ability to be the best version of Brooks Koepka.
Whether or not it becomes more than that remains to be seen.
