Well, that didn't take long - On Jan 14, the PGA Tour policy board made its decision regarding Brooks Koepka and his requested return to the PGA Tour - As I suspected in a previous post, the PGA Tour does carry a grudge

Their ruling seems to have ticked all of the boxes - 1) Koepka will pay a fine - And not a small one - It's reported to be between $50 and $80 million, although it's tied to future earnings - 2) He will not be eligible to earn from the growth of the tour until 2031 - 3) He must make a $5 million contribution to a charity determined by both Koepka and the PGA Tour - 4) He won't receive any money from the $100 million FedEx bonus fund in 2026 - 5) Koepka is eligible for the Players Championship and other full-field events but he'll have to earn his way into the eight signature events this season by winning a tournament or qualifying through one of three pathways - He is not eligible to receive sponsor exemptions available for $20 million signature events

Koepka has agreed to the stipulations and will tee it up on tour beginning at the Farmers Insurance Open later this month at Torrey Pines - If you read my post from a few days ago, you'll remember that I speculated the PGA Tour was in position to kill LIV Golf by offering a reasonable pathway for top players to jump back to the PGA Tour - PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp announced that the PGA Tour is making a one-time offer to LIV players - Anyone on LIV who has been away from the PGA Tour for two years or more, and has won either the Players Championship or a Major since 2022, is eligible to return - with the same re-entry stipulations as has been levied on Koepka - Rolapp has also made it clear that decisions must be made by Feb. 2 and that this is a one-time offer - A "use it or lose it" kind of thing

I must be psychic - I said that if the PGA Tour wanted to hurt LIV, they would try to entice just the top LIV guys - And guess what? This offer is only applicable to Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, and Cameron Smith - Really the only guys on LIV anyone still cares about - That's funny and predictable - As of this writing it has been reported that none of the remaining three will leave LIV - Cameron Smith loves playing less golf, in hit & giggle format - DeChambeau was kind of a surprise considering how well he has played in recent Majors - Although he is an enigma and nobody really knows what motivates him - Rahm is the one guy I honestly thought would jump at the chance to return - He's such a fiery competitor and it appears from afar that the LIV format just doesn't do it for him - The fact that he still has two years left on his LIV contract may have a lot to do with his decision to stay

So there you go - Koepka is back and so far that's it - The PGA Tour sounded pretty stern in its offering and seemed steadfast on the Feb. 2nd deadline for LIV guys to make a decision - That being said, I hope the tour didn't back themselves into a corner - What now will they do if next year DeChambeau and Rahm change their tune and want to come back? Caving to those guys then after all the boisterous talk recently will certainly make the tour look weak - But again and has been the underlying theme since the inception of LIV, the almighty dollar may have the last word - We'll see.....