AUGUSTA, Ga. — Tom Watson, when asked about Brooks Koepka, says he disagrees with the punishment handed out for LIV Golf pros returning to the PGA Tour.
His penalty?
“I thought the LIV players, when they left, they were supposed to be banned for life,” Watson said.
“If I was commissioner, that’s what I would do. I’d say if you’re finished with your contract with LIV Golf, if you want to play the PGA Tour again, you come back, and you must play the Korn Ferry Tour for a year to qualify for it.”
Watson’s comments came Thursday morning at Augusta National, after the eight-time major winner, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player hit ceremonial tee shots to start this year’s Masters. Koepka is among the players at the first major of the year, and, following a four-season stint with LIV, he returned to PGA Tour play in January.
To let Koepka back on Tour, the league created the “Returning Member Program,” a policy that was also open to three other LIV players (Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Cameron Smith) through their major championship wins over the past four years and featured a Feb. 2 deadline and a series of conditions, including making a $5 million charitable donation and not receiving access to the Tour’s equity program for five years nor a bonus program for 2026. Since Koepka said he was returning to the Tour, other former LIV Golf players have indicated interest in coming back, including Patrick Reed, who has been told he can’t play Tour events until the end of August due to his LIV play.
In his Masters press conference, Watson said when Tour players left for LIV, they “violated the number one rule that we really had out here” — protect the sponsors.
“Sponsors need players,” Watson said. “They need the names to be able to promote their tournaments. If the players play wherever they want to play without a conflicting event rule, where you had to seek the permission of the PGA Tour to play in a tournament opposite of a PGA Tour tournament, the sponsors would be hurt by that. I think we all understood that.
“When the players left for LIV, I think it was basically over. They chose to go for the money, which is fine, but to return to the Tour, I thought, was a nonstarter, but apparently it’s not.”
