When Patrick Reed tees off on the PGA Tour, it will be a quiet symbolic victory. But that’s for the future. For now, Brandel Chamblee has boldly claimed that LIV’s days are bad, and the PGA Tour’s are good. Reason? The old rivalries are coming back, probably bringing what the sport and fans needed.

“The next best thing is rivalries,” Chamblee told Golf Channel. “There is sort of a Rory-Patrick Reed rivalry that’s been dormant for the last few years. Maybe that comes back.”

Chamblee emphasizes that the return of LIV golfers who are “a little rough around the edges” brings their aggression, and this might bring back the Rory McIlroy-Patrick Reed saga. Well, there is no manufactured drama between the two, rather a genuine animosity, with McIlroy mostly on the losing side, that started in the 2016 Ryder Cup singles match.

Reed wagged his finger and cupped his ear to let the crowd bully the Northern Irishman and applied several other psychological tactics. As per viewers, it was an “adrenaline-fueled slugfest.” The tactics worked; the US won the 2016 Ryder Cup. The same was reaffirmed two years later in the Masters. Reed once again emerged victorious, stopping McIlroy from achieving his career Grand Slam. What insinuated it more was his major-less decade. In 2023, the rivalry reached a breaking point with the ‘Teegate’ incident.

Reed arrived at the 2023 Hero Dubai Desert Classic, just a year after switching to LIV. As per reports, Reed approached McIlroy to greet him, but McIlroy, who earlier was a staunch critic of the league, ignored him. Reed, in response, threw a LIV Golf t-shirt at McIlroy, leading to the entire feud being called ‘Teegate.’ Later, McIlroy revealed that Reed and his legal team had served him with a subpoena. They had named McIlroy as a witness in Reed’s antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour.

At the end of the tournament, Rory McIlroy ‘avenged’ his last few losses to Reed, grabbing the trophy with a 20-footer on the final hole. For him, that win was sweeter than it should have been.  Now fast forward to January 2026. Reed won the Dubai Desert Classic by 12 shots, and McIlroy finished T33.

This is exactly what Brandel Chamblee is talking about, the “dogfight.” Patrick Reed’s exit from LIV after three years will see the reorientation of the rivalry, pushing McIlroy to perform even better. The competition does that, and the fiery competition is something the fans missed for the past few years. Returning LIV golfers might add a psychological element to the competition, too.

No competition, or one-sided play, makes things boring. For instance, on the Tour’s side, Scottie Scheffler has comfortably placed himself as a dominant force. He just achieved his 20th win before turning 30 and entered the $100 million earnings club. Though Scheffler is fun to watch on the screen, it might not help too much in sustaining viewers’ engagement, as after a point, just one guy winning so frequently might make things boring.

Other than Brooks Koepka, the PGA Tour has also reinstated Kevin Na, Pat Perez, and Hudson Swafford. Perez and Swafford will regain their eligibility on January 1, 2027, after serving disciplinary penalties for violating Tour regulations. The field is getting stronger again, and with old rivalries returning, the fresh ones will also emerge.

Fans will definitely enjoy this, and this would help the PGA Tour grow massively.

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Why would fans love the competition? The business aspect behind Brandel Chamblee’s claim

Decades of sports research consistently show that rivalry-driven conflict is the single strongest driver of fan engagement. Studies show that audiences are far more likely to tune in when outcomes carry personal or emotional stakes tied to specific athletes. The 2024 World Series between the Yankees and Dodgers saw the revival of an animosity that was dormant for over four decades. That league brought in 15.2 million viewers, its highest since 2017.

That same personal rivalry is what Patrick Reed and Rory McIlroy possess. Fans don’t just watch to see who plays better golf. They watch it for the outcome of a specific competition. McIlroy fans went crazy when he won the Masters, drawing in 19.5 million viewers on CBS. Reed’s fans would love to see him back on the PGA Tour, years after his LIV exit, especially since he was one of those who filed a lawsuit against the Tour’s alleged monopoly.

And anyway, golf’s commercial success has been shaped by rivalries. The Jack Nicklaus-Arnold Palmer rivalry of the ’60s used to generate massive television viewership and gallery attendance. The same was seen with Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson during the 2000-10 era.

This narrative power has become a proven profit conversion tool. By bringing back LIV players, this is what the PGA Tour would need next.