Brian Rolapp's comments come a week after reports surfaced that funding to keep LIV Golf running is drying up


Getty Images

PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp revealed Monday during an appearance on "The Pat McAfee Show" that the league is "thinking about" potential pathways for members of LIV Golf to return to the PGA Tour. His comments came after multiple reports last week that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund is planning to withdraw its investment from LIV Golf as it reevaluates its financial commitments over the next five years.

"We're thinking about it. We are reading all the same headlines you're reading," Rolapp said. "We don't know what's going on over there. We know those guys are under contract, we'll respect that. Brooks [Koepka] came back to the tour because he made a phone call and said, 'Look, I'm out of my contract and I want to come back.' So, we are thinking about it. We'll react when we have an opportunity to react, but right now we're focused on making the PGA Tour better.

"I've said it publicly, and I will say it again: I am interested in whatever makes the PGA Tour better. That's what my job is, that's what I am interested in doing, and that has no limits, so that's what I am focused on."

Koepka was the first player to officially return to the PGA Tour in early 2026 after a stint with LIV Golf. The PGA Tour concocted the Returning Member Program out of thin air and targeted not only Koepka but also Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith. Those players were given a deadline to decide and ultimately chose to remain with LIV Golf for the 2026 season.

Patrick Reed soon followed Koepka, albeit through a different avenue. After winning the Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour and revealing he was still without a contract for LIV Golf, the former Masters champion decided to forgo play on LIV Golf in 2026 and play full-time on the DP World Tour with eyes on a PGA Tour return in 2027. Already with status in hand, Reed ranks No. 1 in the Race to Dubai and will assuredly improve his status once he is eligible to return come the FedEx Cup Fall.

While Rolapp hopes to be prepared for the moment the rival league dissolves, LIV Golf CEO Scott O'Neil has said otherwise. O'Neil told staff members in an email that the league is fully funded through 2026 and will continue as planned for the rest of the year.

"I want to be crystal clear: Our season continues exactly as planned, uninterrupted and at full throttle," O'Neil wrote in the email. "While the media landscape is often filled with speculation, our reality is defined by the work we do on the grass. We are heading into the heart of our 2026 schedule with the full energy of an organization that is bigger, louder, and more influential than ever before."

O'Neil was interviewed multiple times this past weekend during the LIV Golf Mexico City broadcast about the league's status. He projected strength while in the broadcast booth but did reveal the other side of the coin when talking to TNT Sports.

"The reality is you're funded through the season, and then you work like crazy as a business to create a business and a business plan to keep us going," said O'Neil in an interview that has since been removed from social media. "But that's not different than any other private equity business in the history of mankind."

While appearing on McAfee's show, Rolapp offered rare praise for LIV Golf, calling it a change agent that has pushed the PGA Tour toward improvement, comparing it to "what the AFL did for the NFL years ago, maybe what the USFL did for the NFL years ago."

"Competition makes you better," he said. "Whenever you get competition, you figure out what you do well and what you don't do well. ... In a lot of ways, I think LIV did the professional golf world a favor."

Source