Brooks Koepka will return to PGA Tour action when he tees it up at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines this week, and Rory McIlroy believes that Kopeka’s decision to leave LIV Golf with a year to go on his contract and return to the PGA Tour is further evidence that the PGA Tour continues to deliver the highest standard in men’s professional golf.
Speaking to the press after helping Boston Common to a 9-1 victory over Bay Golf Club in his second TGL outing of the year, McIlroy suggested that Brooks’ decision, combined with Patrick Reed’s recent suggestion that he’d favour a return to the Tour which made him a global star, can only be good for the PGA Tour.
“Yeah, I think it says more about Brooks than anything else,” McIlroy said when asked what Koepka’s return said about the ongoing LIV/PGA Tour debate. “He obviously is a very competitive
person and wants to compete at the highest level. I think he made the decision that he thought competing at the highest level meant coming back to the PGA TOUR.
“You’ve seen others say this recently. Patrick Reed said it in Dubai last week. It seems like some of those guys are maybe starting to realise that they’re not getting everything that they wanted out of going over there, and that’s obviously a great thing for the PGA TOUR.”
Speculation is rife that the PGA Tour will debut a new-look schedule in 2027 with the season not starting until after the Super Bowl in February and running through until the conclusion of FedEx Cup playoffs in August, and though McIlroy is no longer part of those discussions, he sees opportunities for other tours such as the DP World Tour and the tech TGL to fill the void.
“Yeah, look, Keegan [Bradley] and I were talking about this earlier. We’ve all heard the rumblings without really knowing what’s being said in those rooms and what they’re thinking of,” he said.
“Obviously I think we’ve all heard starting maybe after the Super Bowl and then going through to the end of August before the football season starts again. That seems very condensed to me.
“It seems like a lot of golf in a pretty short period of time, depending on how many events they want to play. But that does open up opportunity for the other five months of the year around the world. I’m a DP World Tour member, a very proud one, and I think that opens an opportunity up for them to showcase some of their biggest events in that time of the year.
“Yeah, obviously with TGL, as well, maybe not — we’ve tried to do a good job of starting earlier this year so this season doesn’t run so much into the PGA TOUR season. I think if the TOUR does go to that condensed schedule, it does open opportunities up for others to take advantage of those
other five months of the year for sure.”
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