It was portrayed as amicable when it felt so inevitable. News that Brooks Koepka will step away from LIV Golf in 2026 comes as no shock. This never felt a particularly sensible alliance; an individual who craves glory at the top level and a disruption regime that has grasped for relevance with only varying degrees of success.

Koepka has looked unhappy in his professional domain for some time. He has all but admitted he would never have joined LIV but for fears over a potentially career-threatening injury. Golf’s ultimate alpha male was the captain of LIV’s Smash GC team. The whole thing always seemed preposterous.

Koepka’s exit is a blow to LIV, however it is spun. Two years ago, the Saudi Arabian-backed tour spent the festive season purring after Jon Rahm signed up. Golf’s existing ecosystem remained in a state of panic. LIV’s Koepka was the reigning US PGA champion. Amalgamation, surely, was necessary.

But as we prepare to bring in 2026, LIV rumbles along somewhere in the loose consciousness of even dedicated golf followers. That combining of tours no longer feels particularly likely nor needed. In one sense, that is sad; a lot of people made a lot of money out of fracturing an industry as the watching public suffered.

Koepka’s case is interesting, primarily because it has to accelerate discussions in the environment he once left behind. As word of the 35-year-old’s LIV departure broke, the PGA Tour could not resist an immediate dig. “The PGA Tour continues to offer the best competitive golfers the most competitive, challenging and lucrative environment in which to pursue greatness,” read a statement. Receipts have been kept since the 2022 moment in which LIV started coaxing at least some of the PGA Tour’s hottest properties. More recent times have seen the PGA Tour noticeably emboldened, hence the untypical swipe at LIV.

As they chuckle in Ponte Vedra, the PGA Tour hierarchy should also be reminding Tiger Woods of the role of his future competition committee, a body formed in slightly vague circumstances this year. Consensus is that Woods will assess how the PGA Tour season flows, how many events take place, field sizes and the dishing out of exemptions. All worthy enough stuff within the golf world but not on a par with: how does the PGA Tour handle any player, such as Koepka, who may want to return from LIV?

Future competition means future participants. Woods and his colleagues have to deliver advice to the PGA Tour’s full board on how to handle what has loosely been labelled returning player protocol. Woods, a PGA Tour man to the core, knew this was coming. A test of his big-picture credentials are about to come sharply into view. Woods’s committee is expected to make recommendations before the 2026 Masters.

“Not a single player on LIV wants to play on the PGA Tour,” insisted Phil Mickelson in 2023. A bold statement then and a nonsensical one now. Yet there is strong feeling within both sides of this scenario. Some on the PGA Tour, including those who knocked back exorbitant LIV approaches, will feel sore if a golfer is reintroduced without at least the perception of penalty. It would feel wrong if Koepka can have tens of millions of dollars worth of Saudi cake and eat it. What sanction is that?

At base level, like all individual sportspeople, golfers are conditioned to be selfish; the PGA Tour’s membership will accept old friends and brief adversaries if they are convinced there is something in it for them. The level-headed people in the PGA Tour will view an opportunity here that exists beyond moving above the acrimony which engulfed this sport for too long. Bringing a Koepka – or a Bryson DeChambeau – back into the fold would be an undoubted win for the old boys. A salient lesson in biding one’s time. LIV might continue but if the talent drain starts to flow the other way, as an entity propped up by Saudi generosity it has very limited scope.

In a basic, commercial and competitive sense the PGA Tour would benefit from adding certain names to fields. The rank and file may well complain but Koepka attracts more eyeballs than Sam Burns. Sponsors and investors have a say here too. It is also worth noting that no two cases are identical. Koepka’s is not the same as umpteen others – Mickelson included – who leapt to the LIV side while flinging verbal grenades or legal cases back at whence they came.

Koepka has major status until 2028. His LIV deal does not expire until the end of the 2026 season. The tone of his own statement suggested nothing is imminent in respect of a concrete career plan. He will also be welcomed with open arms at any DP World, formerly European, Tour events where he wishes to mark some time. It is just that this five-time major winner suddenly looks poised to become a fascinating test case for golf’s future. The most iconic player of its recent past is front and centre of the conversation.