Shane Lowry admitted he was stiff and jetlagged after a 17-hour odyssey from the weekend’s DP World Tour event in Dubai to Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, the site of Monday night’s TGL match.
So what was the secret of his opposite number, Rory McIlroy, looking relatively better in a 9-1 Ballfrog beatdown?
“He doesn’t have his own plane,” McIlroy deadpanned.
The world number 2 is back in the United States after a few weeks abroad, but things have already changed in his absence. Even if McIlroy doesn’t return to the PGA Tour yet — that’s expected to happen in two weeks, when he defends his title at Pebble Beach — someone else will. Brooks Koepka, LIV’s first reverse defector, will compete at Torrey Pines this week after inking a deal with Tour officials.
While we’ll hear from Koepka himself on Tuesday morning – he’ll speak at the Farmers Insurance Open at noon ET – McIlroy praised the motive behind it on Monday evening.
“I think it says more about Brooks than anything,” McIlroy said, referring to the five-time champion’s decision to change course. “He’s obviously a very competitive person and wants to compete at the highest level. I think he made the decision where he thought competing at the highest level meant returning to the PGA Tour.”
Koepka’s December split with LIV inspired the Tour to open a new entry category called ‘Returning Members’, keeping the lights on and the door open for recent major champions like Koepka to return immediately, with only some financial penalties. So far, Koepka is the only high-profile LIV star to return to the PGA Tour, but the cracks are starting to show.
Patrick Reed admitted he has not officially re-signed with LIV and is exploring his options, Bryson DeChambeau has been non-committal about his future with the league and the PGA Tour is backing his plans while other pros are expected to attempt a return.
“You’ve seen others say this lately,” McIlroy said. “Patrick Reed said it last week in Dubai. It seems like some of those guys are starting to realize that they’re not going to get everything they wanted by going there, and that’s obviously a great thing for the PGA Tour.”
Koepka and McIlroy have more in common than meets the eye. There’s the main count (five each, most of the post-Tiger-and-Phil generation), but they’ve also been practice partners, and confidantes back home in South Florida. It will be interesting to hear if Koepka consulted McIlroy or others on this specific move.
Despite admitting he is nervous about his return, Koepka has found plenty of support so far. Joining McIlroy on the podium, Boston Common teammate (and reigning US Ryder Cup captain) Keegan Bradley was even more effusive about the move.
“I think it’s incredibly great that Brooks is coming back,” he said. “When I heard the news, I was thrilled. Brooks is an incredible competitor and someone who is really helping the PGA Tour… [he’s] another man who I think can help the Tour get to a different place.
At least publicly, that is in line with the Tour pro’s reaction to Koepka’s return, which was positive or at least neutral. Two members of Bay GC’s side – Lowry and Wyndham Clark – offered something closer to a shrug.
“I actually don’t like it that much, I have too much of an opinion about it,” Lowry said. “I think it’s good for him to be back. I think it will be good for certain tournaments that he’s back… He feels like this is the right decision for him and his family. Honestly for him because he’s the first to do it.”
“Yeah, I mean, we all love Brooks, at least on the US team side,” Clark added. “I think it only helps the Tour, and whatever helps the Tour is what I think we all want, because that ultimately helps us all.”
Back to McIlroy then. The return of Koepka is not the only adjustment that Rolapp and Co. have planned. An overhaul of the Tour schedule is No. 1 on the priority list, with “scarcity” a priority as Rolapp aims to start the season with a bang rather than a slow slide this year.
This could be a perfect fit for McIlroy, who still chooses to play the DP World Tour in the fall or winter. And he described himself here as a bystander rather than a decision maker. But he seemed to have mixed feelings about the plan.
“Keegan and I were talking about this before. We’ve all heard the rumblings without really knowing what’s being said in those rooms and what they’re thinking about – obviously I think we’ve all heard that it started maybe after the Super Bowl and then went on until the end of August before football season starts again,” McIlroy said. “That seems very compressed to me. It seems like there’s a lot of golf being played in a fairly short period of time, depending on how many events they want to play. But that does open up opportunities for the other five months of the year around the world.”
“I am a member of the DP World Tour, a very proud member, and I think this provides an opportunity for them to present some of their biggest events of the time
of the year.”
McIlroy’s last PGA Tour start came at the Tour Championship last August; since then he has played eight DP World Tour events. An extended PGA Tour offseason could provide opportunities to make these events bigger, for expanded world tours or for more collaboration between the PGA Tour and its friends abroad.
Or the one in South Florida.
“We tried to make a good start [TGL] This season doesn’t really carry over into the PGA Tour season earlier this year. “I think if the Tour goes on that reduced schedule, it will certainly provide opportunities for others to take advantage of those other five months of the year.”
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