Tom Lehman says LIV Golf pros looking to return to the PGA Tour should come back with zero status and earn their way back through the Korn Ferry Tour.
The 1996 Open champion criticized the Tour’s current re-entry process in a recent Skratch interview, calling it a “terrible idea.”
“I would have a policy that says if you leave the PGA Tour for more than 12 months to play in a competing Tour, and then you want to come back, you can come back, but you don’t come back with any kind of status whatsoever,” Lehman said. “You’re at the bottom of the barrel.”
“So if you went away as a top 50 in the world rankings, major champion, I don’t care what your status is, when you come back you go behind the Tour School. You start from the bottom of the barrel.”
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“But to leave and then to come back and be able to just jump right in and play at any point, I don’t care if you sit out a year, is wrong. Totally against that. And if I was playing right now I would be very vocal about that,” he told Skratch. “I think that’s a terrible idea to let the guys who were not loyal to the PGA Tour leave and then walk back in with just a slap on the wrist and then ‘let’s go boys.’ I think that’s wrong. Start over, earn your way back up. That’s what I would do.”
Saudi Arabia’s PIF announced it would pull funding from LIV after the 2026 season, meaning a wave of players could soon be looking for a way back. Brooks Koepka left LIV in December 2025 and returned to the Tour in January under the Returning Member Program. His penalties included a $5 million charitable donation, no player equity access for five years, and no FedEx Cup bonus money in 2026. Patrick Reed followed in February and faces a one-year suspension before he can compete in Tour events.
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Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, and Cameron Smith all remain on LIV.
