‘Terrible idea’: Major champ floats severe PGA Tour punishment for LIV pros

It’s U.S. Open week, which means it’s the first time PGA Tour and LIV Golf stars will compete alongside each other since the PGA Championship in May. But next year, we could see LIV players like Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm tee it up against PGA Tour stars Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy much more often.

LIV is currently in a desperate search for investors after losing funding from the PIF, and if the league folds, we could see its star players try to return to the PGA Tour. Opinions on if and how LIV pros would come back to the Tour run the gamut.

While former PGA Tour stalwart Tom Lehman thinks LIV’s best should be allowed to return to the PGA Tour, he thinks letting them do so with only a “slap on the wrist” would be a “terrible idea.”

In a new interview with Skratch’s Garrett Johnston, Lehman, the 1996 Open champion, laid out exactly how he would punish those who were “not loyal to the PGA Tour” should they want to return.

Tom Lehman: LIV pros should return to ‘bottom of barrel’ of PGA Tour

Even before Saudi Arabia’s PIF announced it would pull funding from LIV Golf after the 2026 season, some of its most high-profile players were working their way back to the PGA Tour.

Most notably, Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed.

In January, the Tour made the surprising announcement that Koepka would return after leaving LIV at the end of 2025. In the deal, Koepka faced financial and competitive repercussions, but he was allowed to start playing normal Tour events immediately.

Reed announced his departure from LIV and intent to return to the PGA Tour in February. The PGA Tour stated Reed would be allowed to play in Tour events beginning in late August, at the end of a one-year suspension dating back to his last LIV start.

Lehman, who won five times on the PGA Tour, is not in favor of either outcome, as he explained in his Skratch interview. Instead, he argued that returning LIV players should start with zero PGA Tour status.

“I would have a policy that says if you leave the PGA Tour for more than 12 months to play in a competing Tour, and then you want to come back, you can come back, but you don’t come back with any kind of status whatsoever,” Lehman said. “You’re at the bottom of the barrel.”

In Lehman’s view, the past accomplishments of a returning player should have no bearing whatsoever. Instead, he explained, all LIV players should be treated equally and be required to earn Tour status the old-fashioned way.

“So if you went away as a top 50 in the world rankings, major champion — I don’t care what your status is — when you come back you go behind the Tour school. You start from the bottom of the barrel when it comes to eligibility, and you work your way back up,” Lehman argued. “And what that means for them is basically nothing but sponsor invites… Or, even better yet, put them back on the Korn Ferry [Tour] for a year.”

He reiterated his point by emphatically declaring that he’s “totally against” allowing LIV players to rejoin the PGA Tour with little punishment, and repeatedly labeled it as “wrong.”

“But to leave and then to come back and be able to just jump right in and play at any point — I don’t care if you sit out a year — is wrong. Totally against that. And if I was playing right now I would be very vocal about that,” Lehman told Skratch. “I think that’s a terrible idea to let the guys who were not loyal to the PGA Tour leave and then walk back in with just a slap on the wrist and then ‘let’s go boys.’ I think that’s wrong. Start over, earn your way back up. That’s what I would do.”

Lehman’s strong opinion highlights the conundrum the PGA Tour faces. Should LIV Golf come to an abrupt end in the coming months, a large group of players will likely hope to make a Tour return.

If the PGA Tour decides to punish them all equally, and severely, it could prevent the DeChambeaus and Rahms of the world from an easy path back, which would deprive fans of seeing them play and see the Tour miss out on a major boost in interest.

The Tour could instead choose to treat players differently based on their actions and their achievements, as it has done to this point. Whatever route they take, one thing is certain: some people will be left aggrieved.