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Rahm would 'probably' take Koepka's terms to rejoin PGA TOUR

In his first press conference since leaving LIV Golf, Jon Rahm said he would most likely accept the penalties Brooks Koepka paid to return – an offer Rahm turned down in January. He has not yet spoken to the PGA TOUR.

“If I got offered exactly the same penalties as him, I probably would do it, yes,” Jon Rahm said at Yas Links on Tuesday when asked whether he would now take the deal that brought Brooks Koepka back to the PGA TOUR. In January he was one of four LIV players offered a place in the tour’s Returning Member Program, alongside Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith. Koepka was the only one who signed.

Koepka’s price was a $5 million donation to charity, five years without PGA TOUR equity grants and no share of the 2026 FedExCup bonus pool. The tour put the value of what he gave up at between $50 million and $85 million, GolfMagic reports. Brian Rolapp, the tour’s chief executive, said in September that he had no plans to reopen the programme. Rahm said: “I seriously doubt I get offered the same deal that Brooks did.”

He has not yet talked to the PGA TOUR about any route back for 2027. Without a special deal he would face the tour’s standard one-year suspension from a player’s last LIV event, which in Rahm’s case would run until late August 2027, according to Heavy.

Rahm’s fallback is a full season on the DP World Tour, where he is still a member. “Worst-case scenario, I get to play in a wonderful tour for a whole year,” he said, adding that he would keep playing European events even if he did get back to the PGA TOUR. He is looking at the 2027 schedule but has not settled it.

He called his three LIV seasons, each of which ended with him as individual champion, a positive experience. He said the plans for LIV 2.0 moved away from team golf and made the league more like a regular tour, and that staying had never really been a consideration.

The Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship is his first start since he signed a separation deal with LIV, under which he gave up the $7.5 million the league owed him. He arrived 51st in the Race to Dubai, one place outside the top 50 who qualify for next week’s DP World Tour Championship, which he has won three times. He said he was rusty after the long flight from Arizona. His fourth child was born in October.

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