Koepka reinstated by PGA Tour

[Seinfeld]

But have y’all seen the stipulations?

First, at least at this time, the tour is only allowing this for players that have won a major or the Players, and the window is only open for this year.

Second, Koepka is ineligible for FedEx cup bonus money, equity money from the tour’s new equity program for the next 5 years, and he’s agreed to give $5M to charity.

Just as I’m glad that there is at least some way for some of these guys to come back, I’m equally glad that the tour is making these LIV 17ers think twice about defecting.

 

[Dawg1976]

I’m sure some have but I haven’t missed them in the least.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

I’m sure some have but I haven’t missed them in the least.

Especially that dickhead.

 

[Wesson Bulldog]

I am glad to see this. The tour has not been the same since he, Rahm, Cam Smith, Bryson and some of the others left full-time. Perhaps this will open the door for many of the others to return. I enjoy watching the PGA tour and better competition in more tournaments will keep my attention.

 

[johnson86-1]

Man, I was somehow under the impression that the PGA had made an uneasy peace with the LIV tour. I apparently completely hallucinated the tour making some accommodations. Didn't realize the LIV participants were still banned from PGA events.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

Man, I was somehow under the impression that the PGA had made an uneasy peace with the LIV tour. I apparently completely hallucinated the tour making some accommodations. Didn't realize the LIV participants were still banned from PGA events.

They can only play in the majors.

 

[FlotownDawg]

Man, I was somehow under the impression that the PGA had made an uneasy peace with the LIV tour. I apparently completely hallucinated the tour making some accommodations. Didn't realize the LIV participants were still banned from PGA events.

They supposedly came to some sort of agreement for unification more than a year ago, but nothing has happened since then, so it's like the agreement never happened. LIV players still can't get world ranking points, and can only play in the majors if they qualify for them based on the major's criteria for qualification.

 

[mstateglfr]

- The PGA Tour should have done better before their reactionary attempts to combat LIV. They were hurt by players leaving, but they hold a lot of responsibility for players leaving.

- Not being allowed to play elsewhere without consent, despite not being an employee of the PGA Tour, is dumb. Yes I get that there is legal minutiae, but the basic concept of not being allowed to play where you want when you want, as long as you have met qualifications, is dumb.

- LIV sucks for me as a consumer. I have never watched a tournament and only just now found out its broadcast on the CW and FS1 as well as other FS related platforms. Well no wonder I havent seen a tournament. It is a completely unimportant tour for me, and it seems to be similar for many others.

- Indefinite suspensions are dumb. Define them, PGA Tour. Its quite simple- set a timeframe for which someone must sit out if they go rogue and decide to get rich off of LIV then want to come back. Indefinite suspension? 17 that. Be a man and set a penalty.

- Players breaking from the PGA Tour for LIV is, to me, similar to the PAC12 disbanding so all but 2 could go to the BIG10 or ACC. It was an obvious money grab and the end result is a worse product for fans. It sucks, but it isnt surprising to see people jump at the opportunity to try something different and make gobs of money at the same time.

 

[Maroon Eagle]

- The PGA Tour should have done better before their reactionary attempts to combat LIV. They were hurt by players leaving, but they hold a lot of responsibility for players leaving.

Nah. The PGA wasn’t reactionary.

It’s not as if they…

 

[johnson86-1]

They can only play in the majors.

They supposedly came to some sort of agreement for unification more than a year ago, but nothing has happened since then, so it's like the agreement never happened. LIV players still can't get world ranking points, and can only play in the majors if they qualify for them based on the major's criteria for qualification.

I knew the ones that qualified for the majors could still play in them, but I thought there had been some sort of agreement, so makes me feel a little bit better about my memory/sanity that there was at least some noise about it.

 

[msudawg12]

- LIV sucks for me as a consumer. I have never watched a tournament and only just now found out its broadcast on the CW and FS1 as well as other FS related platforms. Well no wonder I havent seen a tournament. It is a completely unimportant tour for me, and it seems to be similar for many others.

agree 100% here but i'm considering going to the LIV event in NOLA just because i heard they're fun in person. Worth a shot I guess....

 

[vhdawg]

But have y’all seen the stipulations?

First, at least at this time, the tour is only allowing this for players that have won a major or the Players, and the window is only open for this year.

Second, Koepka is ineligible for FedEx cup bonus money, equity money from the tour’s new equity program for the next 5 years, and he’s agreed to give $5M to charity.

Just as I’m glad that there is at least some way for some of these guys to come back, I’m equally glad that the tour is making these LIV 17ers think twice about defecting.

I'm not a golf fan at all and I'm only familiar with this from hearing sports radio people talk about it, but wouldn't there be a case that PGA is being anti-competitive by being punitive about reinstating golfers who left to go to a rival organization?

Again there might be something in how Koepka and the others left that leaves them open to punishment by rule, but this reads to me like taking a job that pays better and then going back to your old job but they want to punish you for having left in the first place.

 

[mstateglfr]

agree 100% here but i'm considering going to the LIV event in NOLA just because i heard they're fun in person. Worth a shot I guess....

Yeah, if I lived near an event, I wouldnt be opposed to going. That'd be the case for PGA Tour too...if it were a good tournament.

 

[Trojanbulldog19]

Especially that dickhead.

Yeah he's not exactly the most popular guy. But he's won so pga making exceptions.

 

[TimberBeast]

agree 100% here but i'm considering going to the LIV event in NOLA just because i heard they're fun in person. Worth a shot I guess....

When is that? Is it at TPC?

 

[BrunswickDawg]

I'm not a golf fan at all and I'm only familiar with this from hearing sports radio people talk about it, but wouldn't there be a case that PGA is being anti-competitive by being punitive about reinstating golfers who left to go to a rival organization?

Again there might be something in how Koepka and the others left that leaves them open to punishment by rule, but this reads to me like taking a job that pays better and then going back to your old job but they want to punish you for having left in the first place.

I think that the PGA gets around it because most tournaments have a local "play in" qualifier and "sponsors exemptions" that technically allow non-PGA players to participate. So a LIV player could get in that way. A PGA tour card automatically qualifies you for most of the regular tour events so you don't have to do that week in and week out.

 

[Dawgzilla2]

Man, I was somehow under the impression that the PGA had made an uneasy peace with the LIV tour. I apparently completely hallucinated the tour making some accommodations. Didn't realize the LIV participants were still banned from PGA events.

That whole discussion of a merger seems to have stalled out, and it gets very little media attention. There were some anti trust concerns with rhe merger which initially delayed things, but now I wonder if they will ever really try to merge.

I dont know the status of the lawsuits between the two.

 

[Wesson Bulldog]

- The PGA Tour should have done better before their reactionary attempts to combat LIV. They were hurt by players leaving, but they hold a lot of responsibility for players leaving.

- Not being allowed to play elsewhere without consent, despite not being an employee of the PGA Tour, is dumb. Yes I get that there is legal minutiae, but the basic concept of not being allowed to play where you want when you want, as long as you have met qualifications, is dumb.

- LIV sucks for me as a consumer. I have never watched a tournament and only just now found out its broadcast on the CW and FS1 as well as other FS related platforms. Well no wonder I havent seen a tournament. It is a completely unimportant tour for me, and it seems to be similar for many others.

- Indefinite suspensions are dumb. Define them, PGA Tour. Its quite simple- set a timeframe for which someone must sit out if they go rogue and decide to get rich off of LIV then want to come back. Indefinite suspension? 17 that. Be a man and set a penalty.

- Players breaking from the PGA Tour for LIV is, to me, similar to the PAC12 disbanding so all but 2 could go to the BIG10 or ACC. It was an obvious money grab and the end result is a worse product for fans. It sucks, but it isnt surprising to see people jump at the opportunity to try something different and make gobs of money at the same time.

You're right. LIV sucks.

 

[RocketDawg]

He will no doubt be heckled by a few fans. He already has been in a major this past season, and he reacted.

 

[johnson86-1]

I'm not a golf fan at all and I'm only familiar with this from hearing sports radio people talk about it, but wouldn't there be a case that PGA is being anti-competitive by being punitive about reinstating golfers who left to go to a rival organization?

Again there might be something in how Koepka and the others left that leaves them open to punishment by rule, but this reads to me like taking a job that pays better and then going back to your old job but they want to punish you for having left in the first place.

You have to have coordination to some extent to have a league, so the antitrust stuff gets a little harder to figure out when there is a league involved. Or maybe not harder for people that know the law, but at least it's not typical application.

 

[johnson86-1]

- The PGA Tour should have done better before their reactionary attempts to combat LIV. They were hurt by players leaving, but they hold a lot of responsibility for players leaving.

I think this is right. THey either did a bad job of making sure the value goes to the players that create the value, or they did a bad job of communicating how the value is transferred and showing that it wasn't being sapped away by unnecessary league overhead and costs. Or maybe the players complaining didn't believe any of what they were saying and were coming up with an excuse beyond a paycheck for the defection.

- Not being allowed to play elsewhere without consent, despite not being an employee of the PGA Tour, is dumb. Yes I get that there is legal minutiae, but the basic concept of not being allowed to play where you want when you want, as long as you have met qualifications, is dumb.

Could they not play elsewhere? Or not play opposite a league tournament? I was thinking it was the latter, which makes sense. Communities and sponsors come up with a lot of money for tournaments, but the league also uses TV money to supplement it, so it makes sense to protect those tournaments. They also I believe limit any inducements to particular players to play in a particular tournament, which is less obvious but I guess helps make sure money is available for the purse and not siphoned off to popular players just to show up.

If they were prohibiting playing not opposite league tournaments, that's a little harder to justify. Sort of makes sense in that none of the players are playing in every tournament, so you don't want them playing in non-league tournaments when they are already skipping league tournaments, but potentially helping non-league tournaments become more prestigious than weaker league tournaments. But seems a bit unreasonable.

- LIV sucks for me as a consumer. I have never watched a tournament and only just now found out its broadcast on the CW and FS1 as well as other FS related platforms. Well no wonder I havent seen a tournament. It is a completely unimportant tour for me, and it seems to be similar for many others.

- Indefinite suspensions are dumb. Define them, PGA Tour. Its quite simple- set a timeframe for which someone must sit out if they go rogue and decide to get rich off of LIV then want to come back. Indefinite suspension? 17 that. Be a man and set a penalty.

- Players breaking from the PGA Tour for LIV is, to me, similar to the PAC12 disbanding so all but 2 could go to the BIG10 or ACC. It was an obvious money grab and the end result is a worse product for fans. It sucks, but it isnt surprising to see people jump at the opportunity to try something different and make gobs of money at the same time.

 

[Choctaw Dawg]

To note further, under the rules stipulated it appears the doors only open for a few players:

Rahm
Bryson
Cam Smith
Koepka

The other three besides Koepka have until February 2nd to decide and the PGA makes it sound like this is a one time offer (it won't be). Also just read that Rahm plans to stay with LIV.

 

[Dawgbite]

Golf and music don’t go together. I give zero 17’s about golf rules or etiquette. Do what you want, wear what you want, but I can’t stand a Bluetooth speaker blaring on a golf course.

 

[Chesusdog]

Guess I'm out of the loop since I haven't followed golf since before Tiger ruined his life. Some guys decided to go join a league founded by the... Saudis? And this caused the PGA to lose their collective **** for... reasons? I'm really unclear on what the deal was. **** the Saudis, sure, but there seems a lot more angst than you'd expect from a few guys deciding to go work for another company. Surely there's more to the story.

 

[Jack Klompus.sixpack]

PGA classy. LIV not so much.

 

[DerHntr]

I’m sure some have but I haven’t missed them in the least.

Haven’t really noticed their absence

 

[Choctaw Dawg]

Guess I'm out of the loop since I haven't followed golf since before Tiger ruined his life. Some guys decided to go join a league founded by the... Saudis? And this caused the PGA to lose their collective **** for... reasons? I'm really unclear on what the deal was. **** the Saudis, sure, but there seems a lot more angst than you'd expect from a few guys deciding to go work for another company. Surely there's more to the story.

PGA had been the only show in town for a long time and that is where most of the angst lies, just looking at it from 5,000 feet.

 

[Chesusdog]

PGA had been the only show in town for a long time and that is where most of the angst lies, just looking at it from 5,000 feet.

That's all I got. I'm hoping there's more to it than that.

 

[Pars]

They want Douchebro back real bad.
I think Koepka is on the way down as far as trajectory but he’s got the cash to pay the buy in and makes LIV look bad.
LIV was always going to fail

 

[Anon1684630174]

I can’t figure LIV out. Not only is the music a bad idea, but the annoying bing bong music that you hear in clubs doubles down on it. If you have to have music, find something other than that crap. Unless it has improved, the production is horrrible to the point that you don’t want to watch. I imagine the Saudi’s are regretting it.

 

[Choctaw Dawg]

They want Douchebro back real bad.
I think Koepka is on the way down as far as trajectory but he’s got the cash to pay the buy in and makes LIV look bad.
LIV was always going to fail

Maybe on the way down, but him and Rory have the most majors among those active on the tour now not including Tiger, who likely won't return to full time. Brooks still has another major in the tank in my opinion and he still will be a good draw for PGA events.

 

[msudawg12]

When is that? Is it at TPC?

Its actually at the course in City Park, which is pretty cool to me. Its in late June

 

[jethreauxdawg]

They want Douchebro back real bad.
I think Koepka is on the way down as far as trajectory but he’s got the cash to pay the buy in and makes LIV look bad.
LIV was always going to fail

The only thing that gave LIV any life was when the PGA banned players from joining so the Saudis opened the check book to pay out stupid signing bonuses. Without that, no good PGA players would’ve gone to LIV.

 

[Pink Floyd.sixpack]

LIV = NIL for golfers.
Or perhaps the ORIGINAL USFL.

 

[TXDawg.sixpack]

To note further, under the rules stipulated it appears the doors only open for a few players:

Rahm
Bryson
Cam Smith
Koepka

The other three besides Koepka have until February 2nd to decide and the PGA makes it sound like this is a one time offer (it won't be). Also just read that Rahm plans to stay with LIV.

That's correct. According to this article, it's a very narrow window and a very limited number of players that will qualify for reinstatement. Further, it appears as though it was specifically written to exclude Mickelson:

Answering the biggest questions regarding Brooks Koepka's return to the PGA Tour

How will LIV Golf react? Will other LIV Golf stars follow Koepka back to the PGA Tour? How much will golf fans see Koepka on the PGA Tour this season?

www.espn.com

 

[TimberBeast]

The PGA is better off without phil and rahm both.

 

[Choctaw Dawg]

That's correct. According to this article, it's a very narrow window and a very limited number of players that will qualify for reinstatement. Further, it appears as though it was specifically written to exclude Mickelson:

Answering the biggest questions regarding Brooks Koepka's return to the PGA Tour

How will LIV Golf react? Will other LIV Golf stars follow Koepka back to the PGA Tour? How much will golf fans see Koepka on the PGA Tour this season?

www.espn.com

I think that PGA had a convenient excuse making the rule of "having won a major since 2022" gave them the cover of

A. 2022 was when LIV golf was started
B. Phil won his last major in 2021

Make no mistake, PGA doesn't want Phil back and was given a great excuse that he won his last major before LIV was formed and he joined up.

 

[goindhoo]

People can criticize the LIV guys all they want, but if not for them, the PGA Tour would still be hoarding millions of dollars for themselves and not the players. The only reason the PGA Tour has an equity program is because of LIV. PGA tour players should be thanking those guys instead of taking shots at them.

 

[Bulldog Bruce]

- The PGA Tour should have done better before their reactionary attempts to combat LIV. They were hurt by players leaving, but they hold a lot of responsibility for players leaving.

- Not being allowed to play elsewhere without consent, despite not being an employee of the PGA Tour, is dumb. Yes I get that there is legal minutiae, but the basic concept of not being allowed to play where you want when you want, as long as you have met qualifications, is dumb.

- LIV sucks for me as a consumer. I have never watched a tournament and only just now found out its broadcast on the CW and FS1 as well as other FS related platforms. Well no wonder I havent seen a tournament. It is a completely unimportant tour for me, and it seems to be similar for many others.

- Indefinite suspensions are dumb. Define them, PGA Tour. Its quite simple- set a timeframe for which someone must sit out if they go rogue and decide to get rich off of LIV then want to come back. Indefinite suspension? 17 that. Be a man and set a penalty.

- Players breaking from the PGA Tour for LIV is, to me, similar to the PAC12 disbanding so all but 2 could go to the BIG10 or ACC. It was an obvious money grab and the end result is a worse product for fans. It sucks, but it isnt surprising to see people jump at the opportunity to try something different and make gobs of money at the same time.

It is awful cold in Hell right now. I agree with all glfr has written.

The one thing I would add is that the PGA tour should pay an expenses level appearance fee for any professional player and his caddy that tees off on day one. The requirement to make the cut to get any money limits the chances for new players. They already require you to qualify to get the PGA Tour card so they should cover reasonable flight and lodging costs for everyone with a tour card and his caddy to play in a tournament.

 

[Choctaw Dawg]

People can criticize the LIV guys all they want, but if not for them, the PGA Tour would still be hoarding millions of dollars for themselves and not the players. The only reason the PGA Tour has an equity program is because of LIV. PGA tour players should be thanking those guys instead of taking shots at them.

Paging Rory