Brooks Koepka, the first LIV Golf player to be crowned a ‘big’ champion, acknowledged on Tuesday that neither he nor his teammates knew “nothing” about the merger between his circuit, the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour announced last week, that once again shook the world of international golf.
Brooks Koepka, statements
“There was a surprise because we didn’t know anything about it. I think that was what struck us the most,” said Koepka, winner of five ‘big’ in his career, including the last PGA Championship, at a press conference prior to the start of the US Open in Los Angeles.
Koepka was one of the great golf figures who decided to leave the PGA Tour last year to join the new LIV Golf circuit, financed by the Saudi Arabian government and with million-dollar economic prizes.
“The parties have entered into an agreement combining the golf-related business and rights of the PIF (including LIV Golf) with the business and commercial rights of the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour into a new for-profit entity, owned by collectively, to guarantee that all interested parties benefit from a model that offers maximum excitement and competition between the best players in the game”, the three circuits announced in a statement at the time.
This news has been poorly received by some golfers who stayed loyal to the PGA Tour in the midst of the earthquake, but Koepka considered that there was more tension in the media than among the players themselves. “I don’t think there has been a lot of tension between players in general.
I think it’s something that has been raised in the media, more than between the players. I didn’t pay much attention to it. I tried to prepare for this week,” Koepka said. “I wasn’t going to waste time watching the news that came out last week,” he said.
Brooks Koepka is an American golfer. Winner of the U.S. Open in 2017 and 2018 and the PGA Championship in 2018, 2019 and 2023, he became the first golfer in history to hold two Major titles simultaneously for two consecutive years.
