Brooks Koepka made headlines earlier this month as the first big name to leave LIV Golf and rejoin the PGA Tour.

He’s been cleared to return under the Returning Member Program, which applies to players who’ve won a major since 2022. The 35-year-old falls into that category, giving him a path back onto the Tour.

The 35-year-old is one of four players who qualify for the program having won a major championship since 2022.

Given Koepka’s high profile, it’s another setback for LIV Golf. And it raises fresh doubts about whether the league can sustain itself as a top-level competition going forward.

Greg Norman was instrumental in the early days of LIV, serving as the tour’s first CEO before Scott O’Neil took over the role. He stepped away from the organisation altogether towards the end of 2025.

Speaking on The Big Swing with Jimmy Roberts, Norman gave his thoughts on Koepka’s decision to leave.

“I was intrigued by it as well. I knew Brooks very, very well. I spent a lot of time with Brooks understanding team value in Smash, and how to build it and where to go. Brooks was very engaged on how to understand how to build that value. So I was surprised to be honest with you,” he said.

Norman went on to explain: “Oh absolutely [he bought into the team concept]. The conversations I had with him, it would just be one-on-one, he’d come to my room for dinner and we’d sit and talk about, ‘hey, how did you build your brand, how did you do this, how did you do that?’ I would explain to him it takes time.

“I said for my brand, from Reebok days to when I was an endorsed player to the Greg Norman collection coming out, it takes 15 years to build a brand of any significant value where it goes on perpetuity. But there’s a process of going through [it], the foundation of how you build on that.”

He continued: “The team around you – I said ‘Brooks your priority is [to] be the best golfer you can possibly be. You cannot run a team, you cannot be the best player in the world winning major championships.’

“I was surprised if there might have been other reasons but no… and I’ve not spoken to Brooks either.”

Norman’s influence was a major factor in LIV establishing itself as a legitimate force in the golfing world.

He wasn’t shy about challenging the status quo and took plenty of criticism along the way. But there’s no doubt that LIV owes much of its rise to Norman.

Signs that Koepka wasn’t completely happy with LIV had been around for a while. He became the first player to publicly say that the league hadn’t met expectations during an interview before the 2025 season.

At the time, he noted that new leadership had put the league on a better path, which seemed to support O’Neil’s approach over Norman’s.

The comment could have been seen as a swipe at Norman, and given they haven’t spoken since Koepka left, it might not be all that surprising.