Rory McIlroy believes there should be no punishment for LIV defectors wishing to play again on the PGA Tour.
McIlroy’s star peers? Many of them disagree.
Rickie Fowler recently told the New York Post that the path back to the Tour for LIV members should not be a “direct road.” Justin Thomas then backed up his pal by saying Tuesday in Phoenix, “There’s a lot of us that made sacrifices … I would have a hard time with it (welcoming back LIV guys with no penalty).”
Now, world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is taking the opposite side of McIlroy – though only slightly.
“That’s definitely a complicated issue that I’m not sitting too far on one side of the fence with that,” Scheffler told Golf Channel on Wednesday. “I think there’s a different level of player that left – you had some guys that left our Tour and then sued our Tour, that wasn’t really in great taste; and then you had some other guys that just left and they wanted to do something different, and everybody made their decision, and I have no bad blood toward the guys that left. But a path toward coming back, it wouldn’t be a very popular decision, I think, if they just came back like nothing ever happened. They did kind of leave and – they left our Tour, that’s just part of it. There should be a pathway back for them, but they definitely shouldn’t be able to come back without any sort of contribution to the Tour.”
Scheffler, who shares an agent with Brooks Koepka, was pressed to elaborate what that “contribution” should be. He didn’t bite.
“I’m not really sure what that is, but there should be something,” Scheffler added. “I think that’s going to be the opinion of most of the players that stayed. You know, we remained loyal to a tour, a tour that was loyal to us. I built my entire career here on the PGA Tour, and I wasn’t willing to leave it. I dreamt of playing on this tour. Some of the guys that left, maybe that wasn’t for them, but I think if they want a pathway back, there should be one, but it definitely shouldn’t just be coming back in first week they want to come back and play. There should be some sort of caveat to them getting back on our tour.”
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