Hideki Matsuyama breaks silence on Brooks Koepka’s return to the PGA Tour

The 2026 PGA Tour season is off and running, and the biggest storyline on the tour already is what is going on with Brooks Koepka and other LIV golfers. Brooks Koepka was officially welcomed back into the PGA Tour this season after becoming a free agent from LIV. The move comes as a shock to most on the PGA Tour, but now that he is back, there are wider ramifications.

PGA Tour veteran and former Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama was asked about Koepka’s return. He said he has no issue with Koepka personally, but he does have a problem with the PGA Tour for allowing Koepka to return from LIV Golf as he did. Koepka’s return was expedited by the Returning Members Program, which applied only to a select few.

“I was shocked when I heard about it on the news… I thought, ‘Oh, he’s coming back…’ I guess they took that measure because he had achieved results at LIV,” Matsuyama said in translated comments.

Matsuyama displayed no animosity toward Koepka, saying of his LIV exit, “I think it’s pretty amazing that Brooks dared to make that decision.”

Matsuyama did say he was confused by the way the PGA Tour handled everything. The biggest reason is that Koepka was able to come back so quickly instead of facing the standard one-year suspension.

“While there has been a financial hit, what about the non-monetary aspects? What happened to the rule that players who participated in LIV were not allowed to compete [on the PGA Tour] for a year?” Matsuyama said. “That’s what I’m thinking about more.”

Matsuyama’s criticism is personal because he turned down a massive offer from LIV to stay on the PGA Tour, citing how it could affect his future on the tour. The criticism also aligns with what Wyndham Clark said earlier about Koepka’s return and the process as a whole.

The post Hideki Matsuyama breaks silence on Brooks Koepka’s return to the PGA Tour appeared first on ClutchPoints.