Brooks Koepka caught a case of FOMO that couldn't be cured by the Saudi dollars rolling into his bank account

Luke Walker via Getty Images

At some point over the past three years, as he realized his physical prime was being wasted on a hit-and-giggle tour only an army of internet trolls and bots could love, it had to have burned Brooks Koepka that golf’s most authentic athlete was being reduced to a what-if.

Still just 35 years old, it was obvious to anyone paying attention that he long considered his jump to LIV Golf a mistake — not for any moral reason, but for the most Koepka reason possible. As Scottie Scheffler ascended to all-time greatness, Rory McIlroy completed the career Grand Slam and the PGA Tour effectively won the war for golf relevance, the five-time major champion caught a case of FOMO that could not be cured by the Saudi dollars rolling into his bank account.

Koepka and LIV announced Tuesday he is leaving the tour. Framed in statements as an opportunity to "spend more time at home", it took only a few minutes for the PGA Tour to release its own take on Koepka’s latest career development:

“Brooks Koepka is a highly accomplished professional, and we wish him and his family continued success. The PGA Tour continues to offer the best professional golfers the most competitive, challenging and lucrative environment in which to pursue greatness.”

Translation: Game, set, welcome back.

One caveat, however. If the contractual tea leaves are being interpreted correctly, Koepka would not be eligible to return to the PGA Tour until late August — one year after his last tournament with LIV. He’ll have exemptions into all four majors and eligibility on the DP World Tour, but he probably wouldn’t be a full-time PGA Tour member again until the 2027 season.

It can’t come a moment too soon.

When Koepka left the PGA Tour for LIV in 2022 for a contract worth more than $100 million, according to multiple reports, along with Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau among others, the golf world fractured.

For a period after it launched, LIV seemed like an unstoppable force backed by unlimited dollars. The PGA Tour was reeling, unable to deliver as many stars as its sponsors and fans wanted on a regular basis and scrambling to reorganize its prize money structure to prevent more players from jumping ship.

Over time, though, LIV ran into one major problem: Nobody cared.

Sure, there were certain underserved golf markets like Australia where LIV would play a tournament, fans would show up by the thousands and it looked like one big Gen Z-style party with dance music thumping in the background.

The reality, though, is that LIV has not caught on as a viable television product and too many players who took the guaranteed money have seen their games atrophy in a barely competitive environment.

Yes, Koepka won the 2023 PGA Championship and DeChambeau has been a regular force in the majors. But Johnson hasn’t been a relevant golfer in ages, Rahm hasn’t been as sharp under pressure and Cam Smith’s game seems to be wasting away. Mito Pereira, who would have won the PGA Championship in 2022 if he didn’t drive it into the creek on the 72nd hole, has been so bad since going to LIV that he announced his retirement this week at age 30.

And since that 2023 PGA win? Koepka hasn’t made a top-10 in any of the last 10 majors and missed the cut in three of them last year.

For the guy who forged his game and reputation on showing up in the biggest events, that was never sustainable.

The seeds of Koepka returning to the PGA Tour had been planted long before Tuesday. All the way back at the 2023 Masters, when he finished tied for second, Koepka was asked about being unable to compete against the likes of McIlroy and Scheffler on a week-in, week-out basis.

“That’s the one thing I do miss,” he said. “That’s what makes the majors so cool.”

He continued: “It is what it is. It’s the situation we’ve got right now, so I can’t do anything about it. I just go play.”

Not exactly a ringing endorsement of what LIV’s Saudi overlords had put together.

The LIV framing of Koepka’s departure was hilarious. A “Thank You” graphic on social media was paired with a press release on its Web site with the headline: “Statements on Talor Gooch taking over as Smash GC captain.”

It’s all but an admission that LIV’s relevance as a serious golfing entity is over and it’s only a matter of time before the players with good years ahead and long-term ambitions to win major titles play out their contracts and ultimately return to the best, most competitive tour in the world.

When all this went down 3½ years ago, Koepka was in a different place. He was struggling with injuries and his career was trending downward. If you watched the Netflix documentary series “Full Swing,” he seemed authentically worried that his best days might be behind him.

So he took the money. It seemed right at the time.

But Koepka is a special player, an all-time great, because he’s the rare golfer whose game elevates when it’s hard. He’s wired like an elite athlete, motivated by the biggest prizes and the head-to-head competition with the players he respects the most.

He quickly discovered LIV wasn’t the place where that was going to happen, and his eventual return to the PGA Tour will bring fans a step closer to a world where the best players are competing against each other on a week-in, week-out basis.

In the meantime, for all the doom and gloom when LIV began in 2022, the PGA Tour has survived, evolved and ultimately thrived. With Scheffler and McIlroy staying loyal and other young stars rising through the ranks, it proved it didn’t need Koepka — or DeChambeau or Rahm — to deliver a good product.

But Koepka's presence alone will make the PGA Tour more compelling the minute he’s eligible to play. If there’s anything left of the old Koepka, who showed up at every major as the most feared competitor on the planet, it won't come a moment too soon.

Welcome back, Brooks.