Brooks Koepka Responds to Tom Watson Saying LIV Golfers Should Still Be Banned

Tom Watson said the PGA Tour "reneged" on a promise to ban LIV Golf members for life but Brooks Koepka said his opportunity was worth taking.

Brooks Koepka returned to the PGA Tour this year after four years at LIV Golf. | Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

AUGUSTA — Brooks Koepka has generally been received well by his peers on his return to the PGA Tour this year after four years with the LIV Golf League.

But he said Tom Watson isn’t alone in his feelings that the path back should not have been so easy.

A day after the two-time Masters winner who took part in the ceremonial opening tee shots on Thursday said the Tour “reneged” on its promise to ban players for life who went to the LIV Golf League, Koepka was made aware of the comments.

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“I would have to look at exactly what he said,” Koepka said Friday after a second-round 69 at the Masters. “Just going off your summary, everybody is entitled to their own opinion.

“That’s fine if he thinks that. He’s not the first person that’s thought that. So yeah, it is what it is. I’m just grateful to be out here. The people that make those decisions let me out here. If you’re going to get the opportunity to come back out, you’re going to take it.”

Koepka is back via what the PGA Tour called a Returning Member Program, which was only offered to players who had won major championships from 2022 to '25, meaning it only was meant for him, Cam Smith, Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau.

Koepka won the 2023 PGA Championship, which is why he is exempt for the Masters. Part of his way back to the PGA Tour involved a $5 million fine and the inability to play in signature events via sponsor invites unless he qualified for them. He also is precluded from the player equity program for five years.

“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.”

Before LIV Golf launched, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan did threaten lifetime bans. But that never became official. Members who played for LIV were issued indefinite suspensions. Non-members got a one-year ban.

Koepka is back this year and Patrick Reed, who won the 2018 Masters, was allowed to return under a different scenario that won’t allow him to play in PGA Tour events until the fall. Reed is currently leading the Race to Dubai points list on the DP World Tour and finishing among the top 10 will give him a fully exempt spot next year on the PGA Tour.

“When the players left for LIV, I think it was basically over,” said Watson, an eight-time major winner who won the Masters in 1977 and 1981. “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.”