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According to Phil Mickelson, not a single player on LIV wanted a PGA Tour return. That was 2023. Not even three years have passed, and hyperbole has given way to stark reality.

Eugenio Chacarra left and scathed the top brass for selling false promises. Brooks Koepka has formally requested a PGA Tour return. The official line is that Brooks wanted to spend more time with family, and Rahm hinted that Koepka’s exit might be linked to his wife, Jena's miscarriage. Sorry, Rahm, we beg to disagree.

Koepka’s statement when he left the PGA Tour and when he left LIV are a spitting image of each other. Look at this side-by-side comparison of two statements to understand what we mean.

The fact is, despite a nine-figure contract, Koepka never fully bought into what LIV tried to sell. Money is not a factor either. LIV dangled a $100M contract, plus extras (captains earn a higher chunk of the team’s earnings), in a cushy 54-player field. Safer than Tour’s cut-day perils.

Despite LIV's tweaks, the changes didn’t make much difference. Perhaps, Koepka felt LIV’s OWGR hope is a chimera and a serious threat to his major future. Perhaps he felt that playing subpar courses across the globe was impacting his major performance.

Let’s not forget there have been demands for changes, both from Bryson and Rahm. So it is a possibility that Koepka was also in a similar position, and he decided to break the pact rather than wait for the changes to happen.

Remember, he turns 36 in May. For a player who openly admitted his legacy will be measured only by his major performance, playing the waiting game wasn’t an option.

Meanwhile, LIV Golf leans on DeChambeau and Rahm as tentpoles. A repeat, and LIV faces a serious existential crisis.

Here are yesterday's top golf headlines you might've missed.

Return: It’s hard to believe, but Jordan Spieth has dropped to 75th in the OWGR after a lackluster season, clawing back from injury and surgery. But the near-decade-long malaise strangling Spieth may finally end at the Sony Open, where he's committed.

• Spieth’s job is simple: End the gulf that yawns between next week's expectations and last season's four top-10s. And if he is back in form, he might pull off this jaw-dropping shot between two palm trees once again. Watch it below.

Inspiring: Gary Player has always championed two things: education and fitness — check out his 200-pound deadlift at the Ed Sullivan Show. As for education, via his NGO, The Gary & Vivienne Player Foundation USA, he’s launched a new initiative for inner-city youth with top-notch schooling.

• The 90-year-old suggested a decade ago giving free education to struggling people. The new initiative fulfills his dream. Player said that the foundation has already helped more than 40,000 individuals. Here’s what you need to know about it.

Shake-Up: San Diego’s PGA Tour event gets a new name in 2027; its first change since 2010. Farmers Insurance and the Tour split was no shock; two years back, they told the PGA Tour they’d bail post 2026.

• Although the event remains a marketing gem, lately, it has suffered from a lack of big names, who prefer to rest before a three-week stretch of WM Phoenix Open, AT&T Pro-Am (Signature event), and Genesis Invitational (Signature event). Not an ideal signal for the future of the Tour, and here’s what the PGA Tour said in the official statement.

Before we move to Tiger’s tips for hitting a perfect draw, tell us…

For most golfers, mastering the draw is the holy grail. Like this perfect draw from Tiger. But most amateurs go wrong in the first step: the setup. Here’s how Tiger Woods taught Nelly Korda to hit a perfect draw.

Golf isn't the stuffy sport some claim. And nothing exemplifies it better than an athlete from another sport taking an interest, and nailing it with aplomb, like the Aussie cricketer Travis Head.

While competing in a Blitz Golf event, Head sank a monster putt that rolled over a hill, hit the flagstick, and plopped in. The crowd, quite rightfully, went bonkers as you can clearly see and listen here.

But you know what? We should’ve come to expect this from the aggressive left-handed batter. His short-game is envy-worthy, and he likes to walk his putts in. Check out this moment from last year — he literally started walking seconds after hitting the putt. Stunning!