After taking advantage of LIV Golf’s final week of individual competition on Sunday to win one of its typically lucrative tournaments, Brooks Koepka can focus on the team’s season-ending event — and some turmoil in his team.
When asked by a reporter Saturday about the “brotherhood” of his Smash quartet, Koepka began his answer by saying: “Well, there are only three guys on our team. »
The five-time major winner then went on to praise two other members of Smash GC, his younger brothers Chase Koepka and Jason Kokrak. Matthew Wolff, who also participated in Smash, was deliberately overlooked by Koepka – but clearly did not catch the eye of his decorated captain.
This isn’t the first time Koepka has targeted Wolff, a 24-year-old former PGA Tour champion who played on LIV’s HyFlyers team last year before joining Smash this spring. In July, weeks after it was reported that Smash had briefly removed Wolff’s name from his social media bio, Koepka accused Wolff of refusing to compete. “When you give up your rounds, you give up and things like that, that’s not competition,” Koepka told Sports Illustrated in June. “I’m not a big fan of that. You don’t work hard. It is very difficult. It’s even difficult to have a team dynamic when you have a guy who doesn’t want to work, a guy who doesn’t put in the effort, he’s going to drop the course, break the club. , quits job, has bad body language. It is very difficult.
“I almost gave up on him – a lot of talent but I mean wasted talent.”
In a statement at the time, Wolff said: “The news in the media that our team leader abandoned me is heartbreaking. »
Describing Koepka’s comments as “incredible,” Wolff said in his July statement (via Sports Illustrated):
“When I chose to join his team in 2023, I was optimistic about my new home on Team Smash and just as importantly, having the opportunity to be there and learn from a player of Brooks’ caliber . Like everyone who has played football at the highest level, I have experienced competitive moments in the past where I felt like I had let myself and others down in my new environment. team. It’s quite difficult for me. … I hope Brooks wants what’s best for our team. But it’s hard to imagine that his comments in a recent interview with SI were somehow consistent with those priorities.”
Wolff also discussed “challenges on and off the golf course related to my mental health.” The former Oklahoma State star, whose PGA Tour career is off to a strong start, explains how his quest for perfection led to failures on the course as his game slipped steep. Wolff’s move to LIV Golf in the summer of 2022 is seen by some as an opportunity for him to reset his mental approach in a less blatant direction, but if he returns to LIV in 2024 then that might have to happen with another team.
Capping an up-and-down LIV season, Wolff finished 38th among the league’s customary 48 competitors — grouped into 12 four-man teams — at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club in King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia. Out of 13 events this year, it marked the ninth time he placed 38th or worse.
Meanwhile, Koepka got his second win on the LIV circuit this season, defending his title at the tournament. He needed to birdie two of the final three holes in the 54-hole event to catch Talor Gooch and force a playoff, at which point Koepka won with a birdie on the second extra hole. With the victory, Koepka not only earned $4 million for his work Sunday, but he picked up another $4 million after moving into a third-place finish in the season-long individual standings. Gooch, who ended up atop those standings, earned an $18 million bonus.
Koepka, whose victory this year at the PGA Championship helped him become the only LIV player selected to represent the United States at the Ryder Cup, said Sunday he was “super proud of the way I played today.”
The Saudi-backed league concludes its second season next week with its team championship, set to be staged at Trump National Doral in Miami. Koepka’s squad is seeded eighth for the event, which appears likely to be Wolff’s final appearance with Smash GC.
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