The Masters: Tom Watson slams PGA Tour for reinstating Brooks Koepka after LIV exit

Multiple major champion Tom Watson criticised the PGA Tour for allowing LIV Golf players to return to the fold so easily after getting the 2026 Masters underway. 

With former Open champion Greg Norman as the commissioner, the lucrative LIV Golf League was launched in 2022 and fractured men's professional golf. 

Major champions Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed and Cameron Smith were among the first wave of players to be recruited by LIV. 

At the time, the PGA Tour decided to ban the LIV "rebels" and it was difficult to envision a future in which they would be able to re-join the North American circuit without severe consequences following their controversial exits. 

Both sides sued each other, but the litigation was formally dropped as part of a framework agreement between the PGA Tour, LIV Golf's Saudi financiers and the DP World Tour on 6 June 2023. 

The deal between the organisations has never, nor is likely, to ever be consummated. 

Last December, the aforementioned Koepka became the first major champion to quit LIV Golf. He re-joined the PGA Tour at the turn of the year as part of a hastily-enacted returning member programme. 

Koepka was made to make a charitable donation of $5m under the agreement. His "punishment" also included forfeiting eligibility for PGA Tour equity grants for five years. He is also excluded from the FedEx Cup bonus system this season. 

Additionally, the five-time major champion cannot accept sponsor invitations into the signature events and has to earn his way into the limited-field, bumper prize purse tournaments.

Former Masters champion Reed has also taken advantage of the programme, but will have to wait until at least July to make his first PGA Tour start in more than four years. 

But Watson, 76, believes that their returns should not have been so simple. 

"The Tour made a decision to renege on what they promised when the players left for LIV," he told reporters after getting the 90th edition of The Masters underway alongside Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player.  

"They felt that the compensation that he's [Koepka] paid is good enough.

"I thought the LIV players, when they left, they were supposed to be banned for life. 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."

Watson continued: "They saw it differently. When the players left, they violated the number one rule that we really had out here, which is to protect the sponsors. Sponsors need players. 

"They need the names to be able to promote their tournaments. 

"If the players play wherever they want to play without a conflicting event rule, where you had to seek the permission of the PGA Tour to play in a tournament opposite of a PGA Tour tournament, the sponsors would be hurt by that. I think we all understood that.

"When the players left for LIV, I think it was basically over. 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."

Reed's decision to quit LIV Golf came as a surprise. 

He began the year with a bang, winning the Dubai Desert Classic. There, he explained that he was yet to put pen to paper on a new deal with LIV. 

A week later, he announced he was returning to the PGA Tour. 

LIV recruits Jon Rahm, DeChambeau and Smith were also offered to return under the same terms as Koepka but rejected the proposal. 

Earlier this week, Reed opened up on why he decided to quit LIV. 

The 2018 Masters champion said that he missed the adrenaline of competing as an individual. 

"I'm really excited obviously to come back to the PGA Tour," said Reed. 

"I've always known, that when you look at it, the best players in the world and the deepest fields from top to bottom are on the PGA Tour."

Reed added: "I really enjoyed all my time over there at LIV. It was a blast. 

"But to be honest with you, it was one of those decisions that I felt like was the best, not just for the golf game, but also for my family to spend more time with them."