Brooks Koepka is returning to the PGA Tour. See how the five-time major champion can play on the PGA Tour less than five weeks after leaving LIV.
Brooks Koepka Returns to the PGA Tour
An open letter from PGA TOUR CEO Brian Rolapp pic.twitter.com/jiuZk1RiLp
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 12, 2026
Koepka is back.
After leaving LIV in December, Koepka applied for reinstatement to the PGA Tour this past weekend.
On Monday, the PGA Tour announced the Returning Member Program, a special initiative that allows players who meet the “elite performance-based criteria” to join the tour again.
This criterion requires a golfer to have won one of these five tournaments — THE PLAYERS Championship, Masters Tournament, PGA Championship, U.S. Open, and The Open Championship — between 2022 and 2025.
Koepka won the 2023 PGA Championship.
The program also has limitations that Koepka must adhere to, including an enormous financial repercussion that could see Koepka forfeiting as much as $85 million.
Per the PGA Tour’s memo, “Its strict limitations, which Brooks has agreed to, include a five-year forfeiture of potential equity in the PGA TOUR’s Player Equity Program, representing one of the largest financial repercussions in professional sports history, with estimations that he could miss out on approximately $50-85 million in potential earnings, depending on his competitive performance and the growth of the TOUR. At the request of the PGA TOUR, Brooks has also agreed to make a $5 million charitable contribution, the recipient(s) of which will be determined jointly.”
Koepka will make his return at the Farmers Insurance Open on Jan. 29 before playing in the WM Phoenix Open the week after.
What Does This Mean for the PGA Tour?
Koepka could be the first domino to fall in what could be a seismic moment for professional golf.
For the first time, the PGA Tour is extending an olive branch to specific LIV Golf players who want to return. By specific, I mean the league’s stars.
Using the Returning Member Program, only four LIV Golf players match the criteria: Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau (2024 U.S. Open), Jon Rahm (2023 Masters), and Cam Smith (2022 Open Championship and 2022 Players).
DeChambeau, Rahm, and Smith have until Feb. 2 to participate in the Returning Member Program.
The PGA Tour is going big-game hunting right now. If the tour can lure DeChambeau, Rahm, and Smith back, LIV Golf will suffer.
The biggest name the PGA Tour wants now is DeChambeau, one of the sport’s most popular golfers. DeChambeau’s contract with LIV reportedly expires at the end of 2026.
DeChambeau now has all of the leverage. If he wants to leave LIV, the PGA Tour will take him back. If he wants to stay, he will receive a significant raise from the reported $125 million deal he signed in 2022.
