Scheffler backs LIV stars' return to PGA Tour, with penalties

Scottie Scheffler said he would welcome LIV Golf's leading players back to the PGA Tour, as long as there is a price for having left. The world No. 1 was asked about the prospect at the BMW Championship on Wednesday, with LIV playing out a rescheduled season finale in Indianapolis and the league's future unresolved.

Scheffler said the PGA Tour's depth of talent is unmatched, but that the top end of LIV's roster contains players who would add to it.

“There's definitely some players that would provide a lot of value to the Tour,” he said.

Scheffler's condition

He attached one requirement: any return should carry some form of penalty. Scheffler declined to say what that should look like, leaving it to Tour CEO Brian Rolapp and the rest of the leadership to work out. His stated preference is simply to have the best players in the same fields more often, including opponents he enjoys facing.

Whether that happens is not close to settled. Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm are the names the question usually attaches to, and no mechanism for reinstatement has been announced.

The backdrop is a league under visible strain. LIV's original season-ending event was called off, the replacement finale landed in Indianapolis, and some of its players are reported to be preparing exits.

McIlroy takes the harder line

Rory McIlroy answered the same question at his own press conference the same day and was notably cooler, suggesting the PGA Tour has no need of LIV's stars. He did say he expects them back eventually, but that the route should be a difficult one.

His reasoning ran the opposite way from Scheffler's. McIlroy's argument was that LIV's biggest names had not added much value to their own league, and so would not add much to the PGA Tour either.

The gap between the two responses matters because both sit near the centre of Tour player politics, and because the decision will ultimately be made by executives rather than by players.

What it means for the golf you watch

Practically, nothing shifts this week or next. For viewers the question is whether the strongest fields go back to being assembled outside the four majors, where LIV players still appear via exemptions. Until Rolapp's team sets terms, the split fields stay as they are, and the BMW Championship and Tour Championship run without the players in question.