While the top players on the PGA Tour teed off at Quail Hollow last weekend for a $20 million purse, five-time major champion Brooks Koepka was simply the most famous golfer in a field of mostly no-names one state away.
Instead of participating in one of the PGA Tour’s signature events, which feature top-tier competition and abundant prize money, Koepka was playing in what’s known as an alternate-field event for those who didn’t make it in.
For a player of Koepka’s stature, it’s a humbling place to be, having reached the sport’s peak but now needing to start from the bottom on Tour. Already this year, he had shown up to two different signature events without an invitation and warmed up as if he’d be playing, hoping someone would withdraw at the last moment. But Koepka also realized this would be the cost of doing business when he struck a deal to return from LIV Golf.
“I’m itching to get in, but I’m accepting of where I’m at,” said Koepka, who wound up finishing tied for 11th at the Myrtle Beach Classic. “I understand that there’s prices to pay for coming back, and I’m willing to accept those and whatever I have to do.”
This week marks the start of the PGA Championship, and for the past few years majors have carried the extra meaning of bringing the world’s best players together after the golf world was split in two. What used to be a normal occasion became a rarity once LIV Golf launched in 2022 and lured away many of the game’s top players with enormous paydays.
But LIV’s future is on the brink now that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which bankrolled the entire operation, has decided to turn off the funding tap after this season. Now LIV’s executives are scrambling to find investors to buy into an enterprise that has lost billions since its inception.
And for big-name golfers such as Jon Rahm, who might eventually seek a return to the PGA Tour, Koepka’s journey is instructive. Though no formal road map has been announced, Koepka is showing that coming back won’t merely be about writing huge penalty checks. Players will have to earn their way back with their clubs.
Koepka returned to the Tour earlier this year through a one-time program offered to recent major winners. He had to make a charitable donation while forfeiting bonuses and equity, a sum the Tour values at up to $90 million. And he was also given a harsh lesson in the Tour’s meritocracy.
Players get into signature events such as the Truist Championship at Quail Hollow, which featured just 72 players, based on a variety of qualifying criteria. Those include being in the top 50 players from last season’s points list or winning on Tour this season. Koepka hadn’t reached the bar for any of them—after all, he couldn’t earn many points on the PGA Tour last season when he was still playing on the LIV circuit.
“I knew this year was going to be challenging to even get in them,” he said. “But to know that I’m kind of knocking on the door already is a good thing.”
He might have been knocking, but nobody was answering. Last month, Koepka flew to the RBC Heritage in South Carolina where he was the first alternate hoping for someone to withdraw. He was shown on TV slumped in a chair waiting, before not making it in. A couple of weeks later, he was the first alternate again and spent the afternoon at the Cadillac Championship near Miami getting ready to play until everyone made their tee times.
This past weekend, as he prepared for a major, he opted for a different strategy: competing in an alternate-field event. The Myrtle Beach Classic offered just $4 million in prize money, or only 20% of the Truist Championship’s purse. Yet it gave him an opportunity to hone his game and accumulate some of the points that might help earn his way into main events down the road.
“The answer to everything is play better,” he said, “and you’re in.”
Patrick Reed, the 2019 Masters winner, is making his way back on Tour through a different path based on the same principle. Since leaving LIV before this season, he has been competing on Europe’s DP World Tour, where the top finishers at the end of the season get PGA Tour cards.
And so far, Reed’s journey has been an unqualified success: He ranks first in the European Tour standings.
