(Photo credit score: Katie Goodale-Imagn Images)
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Tom Watson did not mince phrases when requested his ideas on the particular situations the PGA Tour created to ensure that Brooks Koepka to make an instantaneous return to the tour this yr after leaving LIV Golf.
‘The Tour decided to renege on what they promised when the gamers left for LIV. They felt that the compensation that he is paid is nice sufficient,’ Watson stated on Thursday after serving as an honorary starter for the ninetieth Masters Tournament.
‘I believed the LIV gamers, after they left, they had been purported to be banned for all times. If I used to be commissioner, that is what I’d do. I’d say for those who’re completed together with your contract with LIV Golf, if you wish to play the PGA Tour once more, you come again, and you could play the Korn Ferry Tour for a yr to qualify for it.’
Koepka’s return got here through the PGA Tour’s swiftly created Returning Member Program in January. As a part of the situations for his instant reinstatement, Koepka agreed to a five-year forfeiture of participation within the participant fairness program that PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp stated might quantity to a $50-85 million penalty. Koepka additionally has agreed to make a $5 million charity donation and should play his approach into signature occasions.
Other LIV gamers akin to Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Cameron Smith turned down the extremely polarizing supply from the tour. Wyndham Clark and Hideki Matsuyama, two gamers who reportedly turned down profitable presents to hitch LIV Golf, had been amongst those that admitted feeling conflicted by Koepka’s return.
Clark stated in January that he was torn by the choice, feeling like Koepka was ‘in a position to get the cake and in addition eat it.’ Matsuyama informed Golf Digest Japan that he was ‘shocked’ by Koepka’s return and that whereas he admired his braveness for making the choice, he was additionally puzzled by the tour’s lack of communication across the state of affairs.
Watson’s view comes outdoors of the ropes and monetary selections that had been made by people. A winner of 39 PGA Tour occasions, together with eight majors, who joined the tour in 1971, Watson cannot look previous what he views as probably the most unfavourable impression gamers had by signing with the Saudi-backed league starting in 2022.
‘When the gamers left, they violated the No. 1 rule that we actually had out right here, which is to guard the sponsors,’ he stated. ‘Sponsors want gamers. They want the names to have the ability to promote their tournaments. If the gamers play wherever they need to play with out a conflicting-event rule — the place you needed to search the permission of the PGA Tour to play in a match reverse of a PGA Tour match — the sponsors could be harm by that. I believe all of us understood that.
‘When the gamers left for LIV, I believe it was principally over. They selected to go for the cash, which is okay. But to return to the tour, I believed, was a nonstarter. But apparently it is not.’
–Derek Harper, Field Level Media