According to multiple reports, four-time major champion Brooks Koepka is the latest golf superstar to decline the PGA Tour for LIV Golf. In doing so, Koepka joins Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed, Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson as the biggest names to join the Saudi Arabia-backed competition round.
Koepka LIV Golf is giving more momentum as the PGA Tour attempts to rally forces for this week’s Travelers Championship. There is a players meeting only on TuesdayPGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan is believed to be speaking on Wednesday.
According to the TelegraphKoepka received a similar seven-figure deal as those received by Mickelson, DeChambeau and Johnson when they jumped.
Koepka is the second best ranked player to have joined the league. Johnson is currently ranked No. 16 in the official world golf rankings, while Koepka is ranked No. 19.
Joining him on Tuesday in announcing a move to LIV Golf is Abraham Ancer, the one-time 31-year-old PGA Tour winner at the 2021 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational.
Koepka’s move could portend more to come. Rumors ran through the veins of the 2022 US Open in Brooklyn last week, suggesting that Koepka won’t be the last name announced ahead of the LIV Golf event scheduled to be hosted in Portland next week. In fact, he is almost certainly not the last 20 players to be announced in the world.
Koepka’s brother, Chase, was part of the first event in London at the Centurion Club, and that factored in all of this.
Last week at the US Open, Koepka wasn’t happy with the questioning streak he received about LIV, but he wasn’t adamant about his commitment to the PGA Tour either. In retrospect, it was easy to see this coming (heck, in Moment It was easy to see it coming.)
“There was no other choice at this point, so where would you go then?” Asked.
When pressed around LIV, Koepka became defensive.
“As of last week,” he said. “That’s it. I wasn’t playing last week. I’m here. I’m here at the US Open. I’m ready to play the US Open, and I think it’s kinda bad, too, you’re all just throwing this a black cloud over the US Open. It’s one of the My favorite events. I don’t know why you guys keep doing this.
“The more legs I give, the more I keep talking about it.”
He was more defensive later in the press conference.
He said, “I don’t understand.” “I’m trying to focus on the US Open, man. I don’t get it legit. I’m sick of conversations. I’m sick of all this stuff. Like I said, you’re going to throw black clouds at the US Open. I think that’s bad. I feel bad for them already for once. One because it’s a bad situation. We’re here to play, and you’re talking about an event that happened last week.”
With Koepka gone, LIV rounded up all the bad guys on the PGA Tour. DeChambeau, Reed, Koepka, and even players like Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter at some point in their careers were considered heroes. It has created a good versus bad dynamic between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, which is among dozens of interesting stories as the future of professional golf continues to be redefined.