PGA Tour to Consider New Return Pathways as LIV Golf Crumbles
LIV Golf's days seem numbered, and the PGA Tour intends to find ways to bring the best golfers back once they run out. Reports have run rampant that PIF is considering pulling funding as LIV is bleeding money. CEO Scott O'Neil believes they'll continue on this season, but regardless, their time is not long.
In the wake of that, though they have already done some of this, the PGA Tour is looking at how to bring back players. It's not as simple as just restoring their status, as we learned with Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed.
PGA Tour mulling ways to get LIV golfers back
If or when LIV Golf goes down, some of the world's best and most notable golfers will be without a Tour. This includes Major winners Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson, Cameron Smith, and Phil Mickelson. The PGA Tour will absolutely want them and others back.
The Tour has already made pathways for returns. Brooks Koepka returned on a special pathway made available to him, DeChambeau, Rahm, and Smith. The other three turned it down. Later, Patrick Reed made his way back with steep penalties. He can't even play PGA Tour events until August.
Now, they're looking at all the ways they can open up return paths for golfers. Of course, there's no guarantee that LIV will actually fall apart, but it seems likely, and it's a good idea for CEO Brian Rolapp to be ready if that happens. That way, there's no gap where these golfers have nowhere to play.
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Brian Rolapp addresses situation
If there's anyone who knows what the Tour might be planning, it's Brian Rolapp. He took over for Jay Monahan and has guided the Tour for the last several months. He admitted that they're looking at the news but don't know much about what's actually going on with LIV.
"Listen, we're reading all the same headlines you're reading," Rolapp said on The Pat McAfee Show on Monday. "We don't know what's going on over there. We know those guys are under contract. We'll respect that."
"Brooks (Koepka) came back on to the tour because he made a phone call and said, 'Look, I'm out of my contract, I'm ready to come back,' so we're thinking about it," Rolapp went on. "We'll react when we have an opportunity to react, but right now, we're focused on making the PGA Tour better."
He continued, adding that he's said it time and again. What Rolapp is ultimately interested in is whatever makes the Tour better. His job is to improve the sports league, and there is "no limit" to what he'll do to achieve that goal. That's how he's looking at the potential dissolution of the rebel tour.
CEO praises LIV Golf
Despite the controversy and the fact that it might last just four years, LIV Golf did change the sport of golf like it set out to. The PGA Tour had to change to keep up, and it arguably made the sport better, at least for all the players.
"I think LIV did what the AFL did for the NFL years ago, maybe what the USFL did for the NFL years ago," Brian Rolapp, who worked with the NFL for years, said. "It's basically competition [that] can make it better. I think whenever you get competition, you end up figuring out what you do well, what you don't do well."
He believes LIV exposed what the Tour could "do better." Rolapp added that they revealed how events can be better for fans, professional golfers, and television partners. So whatever the controversy is or has been, that is a "good thing" for the sport.
