Brooks Koepka Realizing the Grass Isn’t Always Greener

LIV survived its first year, but before it’s even held the first event of the second season, rumors are surrounding one of its headline golfers that he’s having buyer’s remorse on leaving the PGA TOUR for the Saudi-backed alternative league.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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4-time Major winner and current Smash GC team captain Brooks Koepka has, supposedly, expressed concerns about whether he made the right decision and if there’s a possibility he could return. 

The rumors were broke by Alan Shipnuck—the journalist who broke the Phil drama that, arguably, accelerated the LIV-TOUR feud—on The Fire Pit Collective, stating that he’s “hearing a lot of rumblings that Brooks Koepka has buyer’s remorse,” and that Koepka “took the money when his brittle body was still being put back together, and in private he has confided to folks he wasn’t sure if he would ever get fully healthy again. But now Koepka is feeling frisky and supposedly rethinking his career choice. The guy has one of the biggest egos in golf, and as the PGA Tour creates ever-increasing buzz with its elevated events and even the state-sanctioned TGL, Koepka has to feel like he’s on the outside looking in.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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If the rumors are true, LIV—who many think is already troubled by the recent en masse exit of several high-level executives—has a serious problem on its hand that, perhaps, could be solved by finding a way to get its golfers Official World Golf Ranking points (which has many of its own flaws) in the very, very near future.

Alternatively, the PGA TOUR has, perhaps, a very unique opportunity to capitalize on its feud with LIV. Indeed, if one of its more accomplished golfers who left decides to come back, it speaks volumes about the fact that the PGA TOUR’s heritage and legacy can not be supplanted by money. PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, however, has been very open about being anti-LIV and hinted at the possibility of lifetime bans. Many, though, have found that Monahan has poorly handled the LIV situation and perhaps this is the exact situation that can let him save face.

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Despite being a devout Koepka fan myself, I agree that he should not be allowed to just walk back onto the TOUR and that some punishment is appropriate. Fines, I think, are not the right solution and, perhaps, revoking Koepka’s OWGR points or imposing a brief ban from certain events.

I remind you, however, that the TOUR does not have direct control over the Majors; the Masters is an invitational by and at Augusta National Golf Club, the PGA Championship is hosted by the PGA of America, the U.S. Open by the United States Golf Association (USGA), and Open Championship by The R&A.

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The legitimacy of these rumors, which are already being dispelled by LIV’s principal, Greg Norman, will certainly reveal themselves at some point in the future, but, if true, this may be the opportunity the TOUR has been craving for to demonstrate that LIV is just a short-lived, sideshow, cash-grab that can never replace the TOUR.