Five-time major winner Brooks Koepka announced his return to the PGA Tour on Monday under a new program that creates a pathway back to the tour for stars who joined the Saudi-backed LIV Golf circuit.
Koepka, who confirmed last month he would play no part in LIV Golf’s 2026 season, said in a statement on X he accepted returning to the PGA Tour would come with financial penalties.
“When I was a child, I always dreamed about competing on the PGA Tour, and I am just as excited today to announce that I am returning to the PGA Tour,” Koepka said.
“Being closer to home and spending more time with my family makes this opportunity, especially meaningful to me. I believe in where the PGA TOUR is headed with new leadership, new investors, and an equity program that gives players a meaningful ownership stake.”
“I also understand there are financial penalties associated with this decision, and I accept those.”
PGA Tour chief executive Brian Rolapp chief executive said Koepka’s decision to leave LIV last month had prompted officials to consider how they handled the issue of embracing players who wanted to rejoin the tour.
The result was the PGA Tour’s new “Returning Member Program,” which Rolapp said would come with “severe and justified consequences.”
“The Returning Member Program mandates heavy and appropriate limitations to both tournament access and potential earnings that we believe properly holds returning members accountable for substantial compensation earned elsewhere,” Rolapp said.
The program is open to returning members who have who won either The Players Championship, the Masters, the PGA Championship, the US Open or British Open between 2022 and 2025. Koepka won the PGA Championship in 2023.
Under the program rules, other LIV Golf players who could now be eligible for a return to the PGA Tour would be 2024 US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, 2023 Masters winner Jon Rahm and Australia’s Cameron Smith, who won the 2022 Players Championship and Open Championship.
Rolapp added that the program’s limitations included a five-year forfeiture of rights to participation in the PGA Tour’s player equity program. Rolapp said Koepka’s absence from the equity sharing program could mean him missing out between $50-85 million in potential earnings.