Brooks Koepka became the first superstar name to make the move from LIV Golf back to the PGA Tour earlier this month.
Brooks Koepka will make his first start on the PGA Tour since 2022 when he tees it up at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.
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Brooks Koepka has left, while they have signed the likes of Laurie Canter and Thomas Detry so far
Koepka has been allowed back following the introduction of the Returning Member Program. The 35-year-old is one of four players who qualify for the program having won a major championship since 2022.
It is a big blow to LIV Golf to lose Koepka. And it is surely fair to say that there is a significant question mark hanging over the league’s future as an elite tour.
Greg Norman reacts to Brooks Koepka leaving LIV Golf
Greg Norman played a pivotal role in getting LIV off the ground. The Australian acted as the tour’s CEO for its first few years before being replaced by Scott O’Neil.
Norman only left LIV altogether towards the end of 2025. And speaking on The Big Swing with Jimmy Roberts, the two-time major champion issued his reaction to Koepka deciding to leave.
“I was intrigued by it as well. I knew Brooks very, very well. I spent a lot of time with Brooks understanding team value in Smash, and how to build it and where to go. Brooks was very engaged on how to understand how to build that value. So I was surprised to be honest with you,” he said.
“Oh absolutely [he bought into the team concept]. The conversations I had with him, it would just be one on one, he’d come to my room for dinner and we’d sit and talk about, ‘hey, how did you build your brand, how did you do this, how did you do that?’ I would explain to him it takes time.
“I said for my brand, from Reebok days to when I was an endorsed player to the Greg Norman collection coming out, it takes 15 years to build a brand to any significant value where it goes on perpetuity. But there’s a process of going through, the foundation of how you build on that.
“The team around you, I said, ‘Brooks, your priority is to be the best golfer you can possibly be. You cannot run a team, you cannot be the best player in the world, winning major championships, you cannot do this and this and this’.
“I was surprised to be honest with you. There might be other reasons, but I was very, very surprised. And I have not spoken to Brooks either.”
Brooks Koepka made an interesting admission ahead of his final season on LIV
It is fair to say that Norman played such an important role in LIV becoming a serious player in the golfing landscape.
He was not afraid to turn the game upside down. With that, he took a lot of flak. But LIV would not be where it is now without the Shark.
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Koepka’s dissatisfaction on LIV has been mooted for some time. Koepka became the first player to admit LIV was not where it should be during an interview ahead of the 2025 season.
Interestingly, he claimed at the time that the league ‘now’ had the right people in charge. That was clearly an endorsement of O’Neil.
But it could also be viewed as a dig at Norman. So perhaps it is not a huge surprise that the pair have not spoken since Koepka’s departure was announced.
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