Shane Lowry admitted he was stiff and jet-lagged after a 17-hour odyssey from the weekend’s DP World Tour event in Dubai to Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., site of Monday night’s TGL match.
So what was the secret of his counterpart, Rory McIlroy, who looked comparatively chipper in a 9-1 Ballfrog beatdown?
“He doesn’t have his own plane,” McIlroy deadpanned.
The World No. 2 is back stateside after a couple weeks abroad, but things have already changed in his absence. Even though McIlroy’s not yet returning to the PGA Tour — that’s expected to happen in two weeks’ time, when he defends his title at Pebble Beach — someone else is. Brooks Koepka, LIV’s first reverse defector, is set to tee it up at Torrey Pines this week after working out a deal with Tour leadership.
While we’ll hear from Koepka himself on Tuesday morning — he’s scheduled to speak at the Farmers Insurance Open at noon E.T. — McIlroy praised the motive behind it on Monday night.
“I think it says more about Brooks than anything else,” McIlroy said, referencing the five-time major champ’s decision to change course. “He obviously is a very competitive person and wants to compete at the highest level. I think he made the decision that he thought competing at the highest level meant coming back to the PGA Tour.”
Koepka’s December split with LIV inspired the Tour to open up a new eligibility category called “Returning Members,” essentially leaving the light on and the door unlocked for recent major champs like Koepka to return immediately, facing only some financial sanctions. Thus far Koepka’s the only high-profile LIV star to return to the PGA Tour, but the cracks have started to show.
Patrick Reed admitted he hasn’t officially re-signed with LIV and is exploring his options, Bryson DeChambeau has been noncommittal about his future with the league and the PGA Tour is shoring up its plans as the anticipate other pros attempting a return.
“You’ve seen others say this recently,” McIlroy said. “Patrick Reed said it in Dubai last week. It seems like some of those guys are maybe starting to realize that they’re not getting everything that they wanted out of going over 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 major count (five each, the most of the post-Tiger-and-Phil generation) but they’ve been practice-round partners, too, and confidantes at home in south Florida. It’ll be interesting to hear whether Koepka consulted McIlroy or others on this particular move.
Thus far, despite admitting nervousness about his return, Koepka has found plenty of support. Standing beside McIlroy at the podium, Boston Common teammate (and reigning U.S. Ryder Cup captain) Keegan Bradley was even more effusive about the move.
“I think it’s just an unbelievably great thing that Brooks is coming back,” he said. “When I heard the news, I was thrilled. Brooks is an unbelievable competitor and somebody that really helps the PGA Tour … [he’s] another guy that I think can help the Tour get to another place.”
At least publicly, that tracks with the Tour-pro response to Koepka’s return, which has been positive or at least neutral. Two members of Bay GC’s side — Lowry and Wyndham Clark — offered something closer to a shrug.
“I sort of don’t really like, have too much of an opinion on it,” Lowry said. “I think it’s good for him that he’s back. I think it’s going to be good for certain tournaments that he’s back … he feels like that’s the right decision for him and his family. Fair play to him for being the first one to do that.”
“Yeah, I mean, we all love Brooks, at least on the USA team side,” Clark added. “I think it just helps the Tour, and whatever helps the Tour is what I think all of us want because that ultimately helps all of us.”
Back to McIlroy, then. Koepka’s return is hardly the only tweak Rolapp and Co. have planned. An overhaul of the Tour’s schedule is No. 1 on the priority list, with “scarcity” a priority as Rolapp aims to start the season with a bang rather than this year’s slow ramp.
For McIlroy, who opts to play the DP World Tour in the fall or winter anyway, that could be a perfect fit. And he described himself as a bystander rather than a decision-maker here. But he seemed to have mixed feelings on the plan.
“Keegan and I were talking about this earlier. We’ve all heard the rumblings without really knowing what’s being said in those rooms and what they’re thinking of — obviously I think we’ve all heard starting maybe after the Super Bowl and then going through to the end of August before the football season starts again,” McIlroy said. “That seems very condensed to me. Seems like a lot of golf in a pretty short period of time, depending on how many events they want to play. But that does open up opportunity for the other five months of the year around the world.
“I’m a DP World Tour member, a very proud one, and I think that opens an opportunity up for them to showcase some of their biggest events that time
of the year.”
McIlroy’s last PGA Tour start came at the Tour Championship last August; he’s played eight DP World Tour events since then. An extended PGA Tour “offseason” could present opportunities for those events to get bigger, for expanded world tour offerings or for increased collaboration between the PGA Tour and its friends abroad.
Or those in south Florida.
“We’ve tried to do a good job of starting [TGL] earlier this year so this season doesn’t run so much into the PGA Tour season,” he said. “I think if the Tour does go to that condensed schedule, it does open opportunities up for others to take advantage of those other five months of the year, for sure.”
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