For potential LIV returners, the PGA Tour CEO still has no answer

Brian Rolapp welcome Brooks Koepka on the PGA Tour in January. A few weeks later, the PGA Tour gave Patrick Reed a different path returned from LIV Golf.

Rolapp, the PGA Tour CEO who has been on the job for less than a year, opened the door for two defectors to return to their old tour after handing out a stiff financial penalty to Koepka and a one-year suspension to Reed. Welcome Koepka, who didn’t burn any bridges when he headed to LIV and asked Reed to play his way back through the DP World Tour — a feat Reed quickly accomplished — was an easy sell for a new CEO on his membership. The future may be more difficult.

With the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia officially withdrawing LIV Golf’s financial support after the 2026 season, questions about how Rolapp will handle the potential reintegration of players like Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm are understandably starting to swirl. Where Koepka didn’t ruffle any feathers on his way out, DeChambeau was the lead plaintiff in an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour, while Rahm’s exit in 2023 brought the slow merger process to a virtual halt. Those two might be a tougher sell for Rolapp if he has to make them. But that day has not yet come.

On Friday, Rolapp continued Rich Eisen’s Show and acknowledged that the PGA Tour has had talks with several players who are trying to figure out what the future might hold.

“I think it’s only natural that there are a lot of people trying to figure out what their future might look like,” Rolapp said. But overall, the PGA Tour isn’t focused on what a path back would look like for LIV players if the league folds. Not yet.

“The good news is that we don’t have to (balance the wishes of management against the wishes of the membership right now),” Rolapp said. “I know what you know. I know what I read. I know what I see. LIV has been talking about having funding until the end of their season. I think they’re working hard to figure out what life is after that. The reality is that all of their guys are under contract. As long as they’re not under contract, it’s not really an issue to worry about. So we’re not spending our honest time talking about the future. And how do we do it? best tournament.”

Since taking over, Rolapp has been steadfast in his belief that he wants to do what is best for the PGA Tour. But he admits that while he isn’t affected by golf’s big break, many of his members are. That’s something he has to consider if LIV folds and players look for a way back.

“There is a reality that we have a membership,” Rolapp told Eisen. “Anything we do to make the PGA Tour better, we have to balance that with the interest of our current players.”

This week at LIV Virginia, Rahm noted that he sees no way out of his contract with LIV and that it is not currently at the forefront of his mind as the rebel league tries to secure funding for life beyond 2026. DeChambeau spoke to several media outlets, including ESPN AND Sports Illustratedand acknowledged that his team has talked about the PGA Tour, but he would not reveal the nature of those conversations. The two-time US Open champion said that he has a plan if the path back to the PGA Tour doesn’t work out.

“I think, from my perspective, I’d like to grow my YouTube channel three times, maybe more,” DeChambeau said. His YouTube channel has 2.7 million subscribers. “I’d love to. I’d like to do a bunch of dubs in different languages, giving the world more reasons to watch YouTube. And then I’d like to play tournaments that love me.”

DeChambeau, whose contract with LIV expires after 2026, later said scratch that he knows a possible path back to the PGA Tour it materializes only if the membership gives the OK.

“I think there’s a way to solve every problem. It’s about whether the membership wants me and whether they just want me. That’s what it’s all about,” DeChambeau said scratch. “I don’t even think it’s (PGA Tour CEO) Brian Rolapp or anybody as one of the main executives, it’s really if the players want me back and if not, then I understand that.”

DeChambeau also said scratch that the PGA Tour’s policy governing the creation of social media content by players on tour was one of the biggest issues preventing his return to the Tour. While that policy is said to be being modified, it’s clear that DeChambeau’s interests and those of the PGA Tour may not align.

For Rolapp, his job is to create the best tour – one that includes the best players in the world who are committed to the vision and plan he and the PGA Tour are putting together as they begin their profitable era. What this vision looks like will not be for everyone.

“The PGA Tour might not be for everybody,” Rolapp told Eisen, speaking at length about the hypothetical reintegration of LIV players. “What we’re building, I’m really excited, our members are excited, our fans are excited. That might not excite some people. … At the end of the day, we want people who are really excited about what we’re building. I think over time, we’ll just see how it plays out.”

While the future of LIV and the future of its players is up in the air, what is clear is that Returning Member Program that Koepka was offered — the one that DeChambeau, Rahm and Cam Smith turned down — won’t come back. That door is closed. of the path Reed took back through the DP world tour may be open to players who, like Reed, resign their membership on exit and do not break any PGA Tour rules. For others who didn’t, they will be at the mercy of Rolapp and the membership. Whether or not they choose to open additional doors in the future will be decided in due course.

“We were clear that when it comes to (the Returning Member Program), it was a special program for that specific time that’s gone,” Rolapp said. “We will react when we need to react, depending on the circumstances. For us, it’s business as usual until the dust settles.”