[Photo: Cliff Hawkins]
By now, you’ve heard the news shouted from every rooftop in Florida’s Ponte Vedra Beach and beyond: Brooks Koepka, after his shock exit from LIV Golf, has, even more shockingly, been reinstated as a member of the PGA Tour, effective immediately. Koepka’s return was announced overnight as part of a new policy that will allow major championship and Players Championship winners between 2022 and 2025 to rejoin the PGA Tour provided they meet the given criteria. Koepka has reportedly committed to playing the Farmers Insurance Open, the WM Phoenix Open and a total of least 15 PGA Tour events this season.
The announcement is potentially seismic for professional golf. It opens the door for Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and our own Cam Smith to return the PGA Tour as early as this season (the reinstatement window is said to close on February 2) and could shift the balance of power in golf’s ongoing tug-of-war insurmountably in the tour’s favour. As popular X/Twitter user Rick Golfs points out, there is one very big name the policy leaves out in the cold, however:
Phil Mickelson.
Brooks is back!!!
Haha this is too funny and a huge middle finger to Phil Michelson.
Major champs from 2022-2025 are eligible to return…this means Brooks, Rahm, Bryson, Cam…specifically one year after Phil.
Brooks has to donate $5M to charity and can’t get PGA Tour equity.… https://t.co/Qqn9s8MrsX
— Rick Golfs (@Top100Rick) January 12, 2026
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Something or nothing? On one hand, Mickelson was one of the first big names to leave the PGA Tour for LIV Golf and did so loudly. While players like Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Jon Rahm were up front about leaving for financial and family reasons, Mickelson cited his grievances with the PGA Tour as a contributing factor, publicly calling out the tour’s “obnoxious greed”. Even if that very public break-up has nothing to do with the reinstatement policy announced overnight, it’s worth noting that Mickelson would be eligible to return if the policy extended back just 12 more months to accommodate his 2021 PGA Championship victory at Kiawah Island. The fact that it doesn’t is, at the very least, notable.
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On the other hand, LIV Golf’s first season began in June 2022, which may be the reason for the timeline laid out by the PGA Tour. The curious case of Johnson also provides an interesting rebuttal. Like Mickelson, Johnson was once one of the PGA Tour’s biggest stars, and he won his last major in November 2020. Unlike Mickelson, however, when Johnson left the PGA Tour, he didn’t lash out at leadership or beat the “grow the game” drum. In typical DJ fashion, he just did it, arguably creating less of a stir than Koepka, DeChambeau, Smith or Rahm. Despite that, Johnson is also ineligible for reinstatement under the tour’s new policy, suggesting there isn’t some sort of Phil-specific agenda at work.
No matter what you think about the specific conditions of PGA Tour reinstatement or the reasoning behind them, the fact is Mickelson will not be afforded a victory lap under the current rules. From a golf perspective, that may not matter. Mickelson is 55 now and his best playing days are behind him. However, for Lefty’s many fans hoping to one day see him back on the tour where he became a legend, it’s surely disappointing. But who knows; maybe another whip-smart, bomb-hitting stud will be back to fill those shoes sooner rather than later…
