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Brooks Koepka is back on the PGA Tour, just weeks after his exit from LIV Golf and only days after formally requesting reinstatement. The speed and sequencing suggest choreography. The truth is messier. Events moved faster than the calendar reveals, decisions cascading in real time rather than according to any plan, with one person ultimately making the call.
The tour announced Monday that Koepka will return later this month at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, ending the five-time major winner's four-year stint with the Saudi-backed circuit. Most industry insiders, including at tour headquarters and its membership, expected Koepka to wait until spring at the earliest to make his first appearance. But despite the backchannel chatter—Koepka's frustrations with LIV were among golf's worst-kept secrets—the tour received no notice from Koepka or his team until the morning his departure went public on Dec. 23. With the holidays looming, tour officials shelved the matter.
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On Thursday, Jan. 8, new tour CEO Brian Rolapp convened his leadership board to address not just Koepka's return but the pathway for other LIV defectors. The reassimilation question has divided tour players and officials since negotiations began with LIV's financial backer, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, over two years ago. Part of the resistance stems from players who resigned or abandoned their memberships, and lingering resentment toward LIV players who filed an antitrust lawsuit against the tour in August 2022 (Koepka wasn't among them). But the fundamental issue is simpler: the tour wants only three LIV players back—Koepka (for his major championship prowess), Jon Rahm (for competitive credibility), and Bryson DeChambeau (for commercial appeal). The PIF/LIV contingent pushed for broader roster integration and preservation of the LIV brand. After a March 2025 White House meeting collapsed, substantive negotiations ceased.
Koepka's departure from LIV gave the tour a chance to extract the talent it wanted without the baggage. By exempting major and Players champions from the LIV era (2022-2025), the tour created a pathway for those three (plus Cam Smith) to return penalty-free. Armed with legal assurance for this carve-out, the tour invited Koepka and his representatives to tour headquarters on Friday, Jan. 9 to discuss terms. That afternoon, news broke that Koepka had applied for reinstatement.
What happened between Friday and Monday? Politicking.
Rolapp spent the weekend working the phones, discussing Koepka and the exemption with a dozen players and powerbrokers. Nearly all supported bringing Koepka back. Rolapp has pushed for integrating the Koepka/Rahm/DeChambeau trio since taking the job. In his view, it strengthens the product and undercuts LIV's viability. He also refused to be shackled by the schism's old battles—especially since he played no part in them.
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Rolapp consulted the tour's policy board and Future Competition Committee, but the decision was his.
Tour brass hopes Rahm will consider the offer, a source familiar with the tour's thinking told Golf Digest. The tour believes Rahm has long regretted jumping to LIV, and some think he only left expecting PIF to finalize a deal with the tour imminently. More pressing: his Ryder Cup eligibility is now uncertain, perhaps pressing him back to the tour. DeChambeau is the wild card. Whispers suggest he wants out when his LIV contract expires this year. His asking price is steep, and he's demanding more control over LIV's direction. Tour officials recognize their exemption could serve as leverage in his negotiations. Still, it's a chance to reclaim LIV's two best players and block them from landing elsewhere, like the DP World Tour.
Rahm, DeChambeau and Smith have until Feb. 2 to accept. And while unintentional, the timing carries its own poetry—the tour's decision drops during LIV Golf's preview week. Rolapp has made clear to his staff that the tour will no longer cower as it has for five years. The defense is over. The offensive has begun. And with Monday's decision, Rolapp delivered the most devastating blow in golf's civil war.
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