LIV Golfers Should Start At The Bottom On PGA Tour Return

Tom Lehman spoke about Brooks Koepka's PGA Tour return and why Bryson DeChambeau should start at the bottom if he comes back from LIV Golf — (Image credit: Getty Images)

If any LIV Golf players are to follow Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed back to the PGA Tour they should start "at the bottom of the barrel" according to Tom Lehman - and that includes Bryson DeChambeau.

Koepka was allowed to return immediately, with a $5m fine and some other financial restraints placed upon him in terms of FedEx Cup pool bonuses and equity in the PGA Tour.

Reed has to play a longer game, though he is eligible to return on August, 12 months from his last start on LIV Golf - but neither way is palatable to 1996 Open champion Lehman.

The former USA Ryder Cup captain believes that any player who left the PGA Tour to play on LIV should have to start right at the bottom again and work their way back up the pecking order.

Lehman told Garrett Johnston that returning players should come back "without any kind of status whatsoever“ and insisted they must start "at the bottom of the barrel".

“Get in line behind the Tour School," said Lehman. “Or better yet send them to Korn Ferry Tour.

"To leave and just come back and play at any point is just wrong. Totally against that. I think that’s a terrible idea to let the guys who were not loyal to the PGA Tour leave and just walk back with nothing but a slap on the wrist, and then a let’s go boys. I think that’s just wrong.

“Start over, earn your way back. That’s what I would do."

Tom Lehman says if LIV players try tocome back to the @PGATOUR they should have “no status whatsoever.”“Get in line behind the Tour School and you start at the bottom of the barrel.”“Start over, earn your way back.”Candid thoughts from the @championstour star. pic.twitter.com/nZ9gSRQoB8June 15, 2026

LIV Golf CEO Scott O'Neill is still chasing down financial backers to replace the Saudi PIF when it pulls funding at the end of the season - so the league remains in a state of flux until anything official comes to light.

So players will be busy weighing up their options should LIV fail to find funding, or not find enough to keep prize funds anywhere near the level they currently are.

It could lead to some wanting to return to the PGA Tour, but just how that would work is anyone's guess, with Brian Rolapp keeping his options open.

So what should be the process for LIV golfers going back to the PGA Tour? Should they have to start at the bottom? And should Bryson DeChambeau be a special case? Let us know by joining the conversation below...

Even Bryson should start at the bottom

Lehman's thoughts have been echoed by plenty on the PGA Tour, but Rolapp knows that big names would bolster their product, and as shown with Koepka return pathways are likely to be on a case-by-case basis.

It seems obvious that someone like a Bryson DeChambeau would be welcomed back almost immediately - maybe on a simialr deal to Koepka - but not if Lehman had his way.

"I don’t care what your status is," said Lehman, who would treat even DeChambeau, one of his favorite players, the same as everyone else.

“I love Bryson. One of my favorites. He’s good enough where if you put him in that position he’ll work his way back up.

"But to put [Bryson] above guys who have loyally stayed with the Tour I think is wrong.”

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Paul Higham is a sports journalist with over 20 years of experience in covering most major sporting events for both Sky Sports and BBC Sport. He is currently freelance and covers the golf majors on the BBC Sport website. Highlights over the years include covering that epic Monday finish in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and watching Rory McIlroy produce one of the most dominant Major wins at the 2011 US Open at Congressional. He also writes betting previews and still feels strangely proud of backing Danny Willett when he won the Masters in 2016 - Willett also praised his putting stroke during a media event before the Open at Hoylake. Favourite interviews he's conducted have been with McIlroy, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn, Rickie Fowler and the enigma that is Victor Dubuisson. A big fan of watching any golf from any tour, sadly he spends more time writing about golf than playing these days with two young children, and as a big fair weather golfer claims playing in shorts is worth at least five shots. Being from Liverpool he loves the likes of Hoylake, Birkdale and the stretch of tracks along England's Golf Coast, but would say his favourite courses played are Kingsbarns and Portrush.