The major champion floats the PGA Tour’s toughest penalty for LIV pros
It’s the week of the US Open, which means it’s the first time the PGA Tour and LIV Golf stars will compete together since the PGA Championship in May. But next year, we could see LIV players like Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm competing against PGA Tour stars Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy more often.
LIV is currently in the process of looking for investors after losing PIF, and if the league folds, we could see its famous players try to return to the PGA Tour. Comments are open if again How LIV professionals will return to Tour run the gamut.
While PGA Tour star Tom Lehman thinks LIV’s best should be allowed to return to the PGA Tour, he thinks allowing them to do so with a “slap on the wrist” would be a “bad idea.”
In a new interview with Skratch’s Garrett Johnston, Lehman, the 1996 Open champion, revealed how he would punish those who were “dishonest on the PGA Tour” if they wanted to come back.
Tom Lehman: LIV pros should return to the ‘bottom of the barrel’ of the PGA Tour
Even before Saudi Arabia’s PIF announced it would pull funding from LIV Golf after the 2026 season, some of its top players were working their way back to the PGA Tour.
Most notably, Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed.
In January, the Tour made a surprise announcement that Koepka would return after leaving LIV at the end of 2025. In the deal, Koepka faced financial and competitive consequences, but was allowed to begin playing regular Tour events immediately.
Reed announced his departure from LIV and intends to return to the PGA Tour in February. The PGA Tour said Reed will be allowed to play in tour events beginning in late August, ending a one-year suspension from his last LIV start.
Lehman, a five-time winner on the PGA Tour, doesn’t agree with any 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 if you leave the PGA Tour for more than 12 months to play on the competitive Tour, and you want to come back, you can come back, but you don’t come back with any kind of condition,” said Lehman. “He’s under the barrel.”
In Lehman’s opinion, a returning player’s past accomplishments should not count. Instead, he explained, all LIV players should be treated equally and be required to get tour status the old fashioned way.
“So if you go like a top 50 in the world rankings, a major champion — I don’t care what your status is — when you come back you go back to Tour school. You start at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to qualifying, and you go back,” Lehman argued. “And what that means to them is basically nothing but sponsor invitations… Or, better yet, send them back to Korn Ferry. [Tour] for a period of one year.”
He reiterated his point by emphatically declaring that he is “absolutely against” allowing LIV players to join the PGA Tour with a minor penalty, and again calling it “wrong.”
“But to go and come back and be able to just jump in and play at any time – I don’t care if you sit out the year – it’s not fair. On the contrary. And if I was playing right now I would be more vocal about that,” Lehman told Skratch. “I think it’s a bad idea to let guys who weren’t reliable on the PGA Tour go and then come back and slap them on the wrist and say ‘let’s go guys.’ I think that is wrong. Start over, find your way back. That’s what I would do.”
UPDATE: Asked Tom Lehman what his policy would be for LIV players if they wanted to return to the @PGATOUR.
In an interview with @Skratch and the pod he said they would come back “out of shape” and line up “after the Travel School and start at the bottom of the barrel.”… pic.twitter.com/ONbyg3ZPlR
— Garrett Johnston (@JohnstonGarrett) June 14, 2026
Lehman’s strong opinion highlights a conundrum facing the PGA Tour. Should LIV Golf come to an abrupt end in the coming months, a large group of players may be hoping to return to the Tour.
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 way back, which could deprive fans of seeing them play and see the Tour miss out on a major boost in interest.
The Tour may choose to treat players differently based on their actions and achievements, as it has done so far. No matter which path they take, one thing is certain: some people will be left sad.
