BROOKLINE, Mass. – Brooks Koepka is one of professional golf’s alphas. He comes to the U.S. Open having lost this particular major championship to just four people the last four years. But being part of the top of professional golf’s mountain comes with responsibility.
And the responsibility of those most notable have been to answer for the growing collection of colleagues who are defecting the PGA Tour and choosing to play on the LIV Golf Invitational Series – many of whom are taking nine-figure paydays to do so.
A Hollywood movie is playing out in real time in men’s pro golf, it seems, with the LIV golfers and the PGA Tour golfers both staking their claims as which route is good and which route is evil.
And that’s getting on Koepka’s last nerve.
“I don’t understand. I’m trying to focus on the U.S. Open, man. I legitimately don’t get it. I’m tired of the conversations. I’m tired of all this stuff,” he said. “Like I said, y’all are throwing a black cloud on the U.S. Open. I think that sucks.”
That undeniable storm is brewing, though.
Golf is unique. Do you know how hard it is to begin an entirely new sports league with full-roster teams? With enough money (all the money, it appears) and a few big names, the first LIV Golf Invitational event went ahead last week and Charl Schwartzel won the richest prize ever awarded in golf - $4 million (USD) for the 54-hole event.
Schwartzel, who won the Masters in 2011, was one of the marquee (well, “marquee”) golfers who defected.
Phil Mickelson is likely the biggest headliner of the bunch, earning a reported $200 million for leaving the PGA Tour, of which he is a life-time member.
Dustin Johnson is ranked No.16 in the world and reportedly got $150 million to leave the Tour. Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed were added to the roster last week. Graeme McDowell, Martin Kaymer, Louis Oosthuizen, and Sergio Garcia were amongst the major champions who made the leap, too.
Many of those guys are teeing it up this week at the U.S. Open, as the United States Golf Association put out a statement that said, in part, that it felt players who earned a spot in the 2022 championship should not be punished for playing another event. USGA CEO Mike Whan did say Wednesday at The Country Club just outside Boston that he foresees a time in the future when golfers on alternative tours will have a harder time playing in the U.S. Open.
The PGA Tour took more immediate action. It announced suspensions of all the golfers who teed it up at the LIV Series opener last Thursday, which coincided with the RBC Canadian Open’s first round (“There’s no doubt that it stinks,” said Canadian Mackenzie Hughes last week of the timing). That doesn’t include Garcia, Johnson, McDowell, Kaymer, Oosthuizen, and Branden Grace, who informed the Tour that they resigned their memberships.
"These players have made their choice for their own financial-based reasons," wrote PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan in a memo to its membership.
This week at the U.S. Open it was the first time members of golf’s two competing factions were seeing each other face-to-face. There didn’t seem to be much animosity. It may get increasingly awkward - there was a post circulating on social media that Jordan Spieth completely ignored Kevin Na, another defector, on the driving range on Tuesday - but Jon Rahm played a practice round with Mickelson, for example. Rahm also showed support for his countryman – Garcia – especially when it came to the Ryder Cup.
But, boy, was he ever against the idea of playing LIV golf. The PGA Tour should keep Jay Monahan on the sidelines and just let players like Rahm do the talking.
“I've always been interested in history and legacy, and right now the PGA Tour has that,” said Rahm. “Truth be told, I could retire right now with what I've made and live a very happy life and not play golf again. So, I've never really played the game of golf for monetary reasons. I play for the love of the game, and I want to play against the best in the world.”
One golfer who has been doing a lot of talking, on behalf of the PGA Tour and otherwise, is Rory McIlroy. He called being the de-facto leader of the pro-PGA Tour faction, “the right thing to do.”
“The PGA Tour was created by people and tour players that came before us, the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer,” said McIlroy. “They created something and worked hard for something, and I hate to see all the players that came before us and all the hard work that they've put in just come out to be nothing.”
McIlroy, who won the RBC Canadian Open on Sunday – defending his title from 2019 in front of a raucous Canadian crowd – had a pointed reply that night about why that victory was so important.
Twenty-one wins on the PGA Tour gave him one more than Greg Norman, the head of the LIV Golf series. He called his comment “petty,” with a smile, but also re-stated how important the buzz from St. George’s was for the long-term success of the PGA Tour.
“Look at those crowds on Sunday in Canada. LIV is never going to have that,” McIlroy told RTE Ireland. “Last week meant something. What they’re doing over there doesn’t really mean anything apart from collecting a ton of money.”
Money talks, of course, and the conversation about LIV Golf is getting louder – especially with its first event now completed.
But Koepka, like many others, are trying to stay focused on just this week’s U.S. Open. The sun is shining through the cloud.
“I know,” said Koepka when asked about LIV Golf one last time, “but you can’t drive a car looking in the rear-view mirror, can you?”
