{"id":12578,"date":"2026-04-09T20:34:03","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T19:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=12578"},"modified":"2026-04-09T20:34:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T19:34:03","slug":"masters-2026-tom-watson-criticises-pga-tour-for-allowing-return-of-koepka-and-reed-from-liv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=12578","title":{"rendered":"Masters 2026: Tom Watson criticises PGA Tour for allowing return of Koepka and Reed from LIV"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Koepka, 35, has been welcomed back to the PGA Tour after applying for reinstatement under a new ‘Returning Member Programme’, facilitated for those who had won a major – or The Players Championship – since 2022.<\/p>\n

The five-time major champion also smoothed his return by paying fines said to be worth around \u00a363m.<\/p>\n

Reed, who won the Masters in 2018, did not match the same criteria for reinstatement as Koepka and cannot regain his membership until January 2027.<\/p>\n

However, he will be eligible to play on the PGA Tour again this coming August, a year after his final LIV appearance.<\/p>\n

Watson claims the PGA Tour has “made a decision to renege” on what they promised to those who stayed loyal.<\/p>\n

“When the players left, they violated the number one rule, which is to protect the sponsors,” said the 1977 and 1981 Masters champion.<\/p>\n

“Sponsors need players. They need the names to be able to promote their tournaments.<\/p>\n

“When the players left for LIV, I think it was basically over. <\/p>\n

“They chose to go for the money, which is fine. To return to the Tour, I thought, was a nonstarter. Apparently it’s not.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Koepka, 35, has been welcomed back to the PGA Tour after applying for reinstatement under a new ‘Returning Member Programme’, facilitated for those who had won a major – or The Players Championship – since 2022. The five-time major champion also smoothed his return by paying fines said to be worth around \u00a363m. Reed, who<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}