It does not feel sufficient to say that there are a lot of question marks over how the golfing world will look for the biggest names on the PGA Tour and LIV Golf once the game finds a way to come back together.
While there is a desire to bring the best players back together again, the fact that the PGA Tour and LIV Golf are not struggling to continue separately probably does not help in talks. But the majors, in particular, do remind everyone just how special it is when the world’s best players compete against each other.
Bryson DeChambeau won the US Open and was in the top 10 at The Masters and the PGA Championship before that. Meanwhile, losing Jon Rahm was undoubtedly a massive blow to the PGA Tour. But one of the hurdles which needs to be cleared concerns deciding what punishment, if any, those who joined LIV should face. Otherwise, they will be able to have their cake and eat it too, after receiving large sums to leave the PGA Tour in the first place.
It is a balancing act due to the need to have players like DeChambeau, Rahm and Brooks Koepka playing on the PGA Tour again. There is also the very interesting situation concerning what happens with Phil Mickelson.
Wyndham Clark suggests whether Phil Mickelson would be welcome back on the PGA Tour
Mickelson’s departure was messy, to put it lightly. He was also one of the 11 players who sued the PGA Tour in 2022. So there are likely to be a number of players who struggle to see Lefty welcomed back into the fold.
Speaking on the No Laying Up Podcast, Wyndham Clark admitted that he would find it difficult to look past the lawsuit, but clearly feels that Mickelson is one of the players the door should definitely be left open to.
“I don’t know, I think it depends on who it is. I think guys that have had the career where they should be lifelong PGA Tour players, I think they deserve the right to come play the PGA Tour. I think guys that maybe left and didn’t have that pedigree and career, I think those are the guys I struggle with because they made their decision. So they chose to go play there, take the money. I think that’s what a lot of us wrestle with,” he said.
“If Dustin Johnson wants to come back and Phil Mickelson and guys that have won, Brooks, who have won majors and are most likely hall of famers, they deserve to play wherever the hell they want, because they’re so good.
“But there’s just other guys I think that’s where we struggle with because then we look at it going, man, a lot of us had the chance to take the money and if we 100 percent knew we could take the money and come back, then we all would have done that, because we all would’ve been way richer and then you come back and actually play at the highest level.
“Yeah, [the PGA Tour being sued] is something that frustrated a lot of us. The PGA Tour gave everyone a platform to play and to create who these people were, to give them an unbelievable living and lifestyle, and then to turn around and sue them I just think is maybe not the right thing, regardless of if they were in the wrong or not.”
Why Mickelson may not want to return anyway
Mickelson’s case is an intriguing one because of how he left the PGA Tour, as well as the fact that he is in the twilight of his career. He did not have a great year on LIV, finishing just above the relegation zone.
Plenty of PGA Tour players are apparently not keen on Mickelson after everything that happened. But he continues to attract a lot of fans to the game and he only won his sixth major title three years ago.
Much may depend on how LIV looks once the game comes back together. If they continue in their current form, just with a pathway open between the two tours, then perhaps Mickelson will have little desire to return anyway.
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