Brooks Koepka joined LIV Golf back in 2022 and has now shared his thoughts on the breakaway Saudi Arabian circuit, admitting that he hoped it would have progressed further
Brooks Koepka has made a worrying admission(Image: Lauren Sopourn/Getty Images)
LIV Golf star Brooks Koepka admits that he had hoped the progress of the breakaway Saudi Arabian golf series had moved “further along” in recent times. The American had made the switch from the PGA Tour to the new-found golf circuit in 2022 as one of its first high-profile signings, agreeing a deal worth £77.2million ($100m) over four years.
His switch, along with other top golfers like Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, and Bryson DeChambeau, sparked intense debate across the golf course amid the sport’s internal civil war over the last few years.
The subsequent shocking 2023 announcement of a tentative truce, and potential merger between LIV Golf and PGA Tour marked a turning point.
However, speaking ahead of a stateside tournament at the Trump National Doral, Koepka addressed the speed of LIV’s evolution since joining, and revealed some personal doubts about its pace.
The former US Open winner said: “I think we all hoped it would have been a little bit further along, and that’s no secret.
“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.”
Koepka believed that the merger would have been further along by now(Image: Zhizhao Wu/Getty Images)
As rumours continue to circulate about a possible deal between two of golf’s biggest tours, LIV Golf chief Scott O’Neil has stamped his vote of confidence that the two former adversaries can do well working together.
During an interview with ESPN, he said: “There’s a place for LIV Golf in the world. That’s one thing I’ve 100 percent committed to.
“I think the notion of being the F1 of golf is real. It’s 100 percent real. Auto racing is a really interesting analogy because in the U.S. 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.
Scott O’Neil is confident that the two golf circuits can co-exist(Image: Zhizhao Wu/Getty Images)
“It might not be in a nice, neat bow, or it might be. We’ll see.”
O’Neil also addressed recent reports that ratings for the final round of the LIV event in Singapore were modest, as they only attracted a viewership of only 34,000.
He said: “It’s not that the facts aren’t accurate. It’s just we’re playing a different game.
“Check our ratings in the Middle East. Check our ratings in Europe when we’re playing there. I like where we are, like our positioning. I like being a global sports league. I think that’s different.
“I’m happy to be held accountable for ratings on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I’m happy to take a beating, quite frankly, if they’re not high enough. Nobody can possibly be any more critical of us than us.”
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