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LIV Golf star Brooks Koepka expressed his disappointment with the breakaway league’s progress ahead of the Miami event that precedes The Masters. FOX SPORTS, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch the 2025 Masters LIVE | New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited time offer.
The five-time major winner has been a lightning rod for debate between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour ever since he joined the Saudi-backed league in 2022, but as merger talks between the two sides have taken place, the scrutiny on Koepka has intensified. Former Masters champion Fred Couples said last month that he speaks to Koepka “all the time” and “wants to come back” to the PGA Tour, which sparked a fiery response from LIV golfer Phil Mickelson on Twitter, an interesting meeting at the champion’s dinner at Augusta National awaits that pair next week. Koepka also bobbed up at TGL, Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods new indoor simulator golf league, in February and now has poured more fuel on the fire that his desire to reunite with the PGA Tour.
“I think we all hoped it would have been a little bit further along, and that’s no secret,” Koepka told reporters on Wednesday. “No matter where you’re at, you always hope everything is further along. But they’re making progress, and it seems to be going in the right direction.
” He was also asked about the state of negotiations between Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and the PGA Tour, but was not interested in providing a substantial answer on the topic. “Like I’ve said before, I’m not in those rooms. I’ve got a contract obligation out here to fulfil, and then we’ll see what happens,” Koepka said.
Koepka’s one-time arch-nemesis Bryson DeChambeau was far more positive in the same press conference about the state of LIV. The reigning US Open champion has always been a vocal supporter of LIV’s efforts to innovate and shake-up the men’s professional golf landscape. He was far more positive than Koepka, but did express his desire to have the league move to some more demanding venues.
“We don’t know everything that’s going on, but from what we’ve heard, there’s a lot of positive growth and positive momentum from a sponsorship side,” DeChambeau said. “I’d say from a golf course side we’re playing golf courses that are somewhat easier right now, and I think it’s getting more difficult as the season goes on. I hope we can continue to play some more difficult golf courses.
“But as our fourth year, look, it’s a start-up. It’s still four years in, and we’re working towards what we’ve always believed in this league, in this team golf, and we’re still individuals playing stroke play events, but there’s a team component, which is really cool. “It’s just another business vertical and another opportunity for us.
I personally like it. I’m happy with kind of where it’s at. I think there’s always going to be improvements just like any business, just like anything, whatever side you’re on.
But there definitely needs to be some continued thought around what LIV Golf is doing for the global game of golf.” With updates on the state of merger negotiations seemingly have gone quiet in recent times, LIV has been outspoken about reassuring the golf world that it is not disappearing once the feud is resolved. Its commitment to stage the popular LIV Adelaide event until 2031 was a sure sign of that in February, but before the Miami event, Greg Norman’s successor as CEO Scott O’Neil took the chance to express his view that any merger will not be as clear cut as all the players returning to the PGA Tour and LIV falling by the way side.
“There’s a place for LIV Golf in the world,” O’Neil told ESPN. “That’s one thing I’ve 100 per cent committed to. I think the notion of being the F1 of golf is real.
It’s 100 per cent real. Auto racing is a really interesting analogy because in the US you’ve got NASCAR and you’ve got the [IndyCar] Series, and then you’ve got F1, and they all work pretty well together. “The reality of the way I see the world is I see the LIV Golf League with a lot of hope and a lot of future.
“I hope that we find a way to get more opportunities to have the best players in the world playing together. It might not be in a nice, neat bow, or it might be. We’ll see.
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