Although Brooks Koepka has been open about his recent falling out with Matt Wolff, his teammate at LIV Golf, it looks like the two will play together once more in 2024.
Matt Wolff has stayed on the Smash GC roster through 2024, according to LIV Golf, despite his contentious split from team captain Brooks Koepka.
LIV declared on Thursday that it had moved into the free agency phase of its off-season transfer window. Ten spots are still open among the 12 teams; three will be taken by the top three finishers at LIV Golf Promotions next month, and one has already been taken by Andy Ogletree, the International Series winner on the Asian Tour.
After his brother Chase was demoted from the breakaway league at the end of the 2023 season along with James Piot, Sihwan Kim, and Jediah Morgan, Koepka is one of several captains who have a spot up for grabs.
Though it was widely predicted that fellow Smash star Wolff was going to move on, the five-time major champion actually only has one spot left to fill, which surprised a lot of people. A notorious falling out occurred between Koepka and Wolff earlier this year, as the former targeted the latter ahead of LIV London in July.
During the days preceding the Centurion event, Koepka called Wolff a “wasted talent” in an interview with Sports Illustrated. In an astounding outburst, Koepka said of Wolff, “It’s very tough to have even like a team dynamic when you’ve got one guy that won’t work.”
“One guy is not going to give any effort, he’s going to quit on the course, break clubs, gets down, bad body language, it’s very tough. I’ve basically given up on him—a lot of talent, but I mean the talent’s wasted.” Wolff himself was quick to respond, admitting he was ‘heartbroken’ by the comments.
The feud continued at last month’s Team Championship, when Koepka brutally snubbed Wolff as part of the Smash setup. “There’s only three of us on our team,” he said. “I mean, obviously, I’m pretty tight with my brother [Chase], and I’ve been pretty close with Jay [Kokrak] for maybe the last three years.
“I’ve enjoyed being around him. He’s a good player, super talented. It’s been fun to be around him, and he’s played pretty solidly this year. Yeah, I can’t say anything bad about him.” For now though it seems Koepka is going to have to continue to put up with the troubles within his team, with Wolff still part of the roster.
Many players from the LIV setup entered free agency, and as of right now, they have no team to return to in 2024. With one year remaining on his contract, Wolff has stayed with the Smash team despite placing in the ‘Open Zone’ (2023, between 25th and 44th).
Even though Wolff is currently still with Smash GC, he may still leave the setup during the transfer window by being traded to a different team. In order to compete in the third season of the breakaway league alongside Jason Kokrak, Koepka would then require two more players.
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