it’s The week of the US Openmeaning it’s the first time the PGA Tour and LIV Golf stars will compete alongside each other since the PGA Championship in May. But next year, we can see LIV players like Bryson DeChambeau AND Jon Rahm take on the stars of the PGA Tour Scottie Scheffler AND Rory McIlroy much more often.
LIV is currently in a desperate search for investors after losing PIF funding, and if the league folds, we could see its star players try to return to the PGA Tour. Opinions IN whether AND HOW LIV professionals would return on the Tour run the range.
While the former PGA Tour stalwart Tom Lehman thinks LIV’s best should be allowed back on the PGA Tour, he thinks allowing them to do so with just a “slap on the wrist” would be a “terrible idea.”
In one new interview with Skratch’s Garrett JohnstonLehman, the 1996 Open champion, revealed exactly how he would punish those who “were not loyal to the PGA Tour” if they wanted to return.
Tom Lehman: LIV pros should return to the ‘bottom of the barrel’ of the PGA Tour
Even before Saudi Arabia’s PIF announced it would pull funding from LIV Golf after the 2026 season, some of its most high-profile players were working to return to the PGA Tour.
mostly, Brooks Koepka AND Patrick Reed.
In January, the Tour made the surprising announcement that Koepka would return after leaving LIV at the end of 2025. In the deal, Koepka faced financial and competitive consequences, but he was allowed to immediately begin playing normal Tour events.
Reeds announced his departure from LIV and intention to return to the PGA Tour in February. The PGA Tour announced that Reed would be allowed to play in tour events starting in late August, at the end of a one-year suspension dating back to his last start at the LIV.
Lehman, who won five times on the PGA Tour, doesn’t favor either outcome, he explained in his Skratch interview. Instead, he argued that returning LIV players should start with zero PGA Tour status.
“I would have a policy that says if you leave the PGA Tour for more than 12 months to play in a competitive tournament, and then you want to come back, you can come back, but you don’t come back with any kind of status,” Lehman said. “You’re at the bottom of the barrel.”
According to Lehman, a returning player’s past accomplishments should have no bearing. Instead, he explained, all LIV players should be treated equally and required to earn tournament status the old-fashioned way.
“So if you leave as a top 50 in the world, a major champion — I don’t care what your status is — when you come back, go after the Tour school. You start at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to eligibility, and work your way back up,” Lehman argued. “And what that means for them is nothing more than invitations from sponsors… Or, even better, it gets them back on the Korn Ferry (Tour) for a year.”
He reiterated his point by stating emphatically that he is “totally opposed” to allowing LIV players to rejoin the PGA Tour with little penalty and repeatedly labeled it “wrong.”
“But to leave and then come back and be able to jump right in and play at any moment — I don’t care if I sit out a year — is wrong. Totally against it. And if I was playing now, I’d be very vocal about it,” Lehman told Skratch. “I think it’s a terrible idea to let guys who weren’t loyal to the PGA Tour leave and then come back in with just a slap on the wrist and then ‘let’s go guys.’ I think that’s wrong. Start over, earn your way back. That’s what I would do.”
NEW: Asked Tom Lehman what his policy would be on LIV players if they wanted to come back @PGATOUR.
In a conversation about @Scratch and pod he said they would come back with “no status” and be queued “back Tour School and you start at the bottom of the barrel”. pic.twitter.com/ONbyg3ZPlR
— Garrett Johnston (@JohnstonGarrett) June 14, 2026
Lehman’s strong opinion highlights the conundrum facing the PGA Tour. If LIV Golf comes to an abrupt end in the coming months, a large group of players will likely be hoping to make a return to the Tour.
If the PGA Tour decides to punish everyone equally and harshly, it could prevent the DeChambeaus and Rahms of the world from an easy path back, which would deprive fans of seeing them play and see the Tour lose a huge surge in interest.
Instead, the Tournament may choose to treat players differently based on their actions and achievements, as it has done up to this point. Whatever path they take, one thing is certain: some people will remain angry.
