LOS ANGELES — To the extent that Brooks Koepka chose a side in golf’s soon-to-be-settled civil war, it was limited to cashing a check. It was one year ago, a couple days after the U.S. Open, that he bolted to LIV Golf. The 12 months since have been fraught with litigation, suspensions, fines, public bickering and bruised feelings — much of it involving his fellow LIVers who took up cudgels for the cause on social media. Through it all, Koepka has maintained his customary aloof detachment.
That 122nd U.S. Open at Brookline was contested under the LIV shadow, coming one week after the Saudi-funded league’s inaugural event near London. The 123rd national championship arrives under a similar June gloom that provides no greater clarity on the future of the elite professional game. Arguably, things are even more uncertain after the June 6 announcement of a deal between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which owns and bankrolls LIV.
The haziness at Los Angeles Country Club owes in part to the secrecy with which the PGA Tour-PIF negotiations were conducted and the shock revelation of the agreement, but also to the dearth of details about what has actually been agreed.
“I don’t know anything. So I’ll talk about my FORE Youth project that we’re doing,” Collin Morikawa said Tuesday, a tart pivot to his personal charitable endeavor that signaled his frustration with the situation.
“For a lot of different parties, there’s a lot of different reasons of why it’s happening. So we all want to know the why. We’re so interested in the why,” he eventually added. “I don’t think we’ll ever really get an answer. But we don’t even know what’s going to happen.”
World No. 2 Jon Rahm made it sound like a Norma Rae-style unionization drive is underway against the man. “I think it gets to a point where you want to have faith in management, and I want to have faith that this is the best thing for all of us, but it’s clear that that’s not the consensus,” he said. “I think the general feeling is that a lot of people feel a bit of betrayal from management.”
The alliance was just as much of a surprise to LIV golfers as it was to their once (and likely future) colleagues on the PGA Tour. Koepka learned of it watching the news while eating breakfast at Grove XXIII, Michael Jordan’s club near Jupiter, Florida. Soon thereafter, he met Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler on the range. They too were just hearing the news, if not the details. “I haven’t paid too much attention to it, honestly,” Koepka said when asked his reaction. “I’ve been trying to prep for this week. So I wasn’t going to waste any time on news that happened last week.”
Pushed on whether he felt vindicated by the Tour’s volte-face, which saw somber talk of 9/11 give way to boilerplate banalities about commercial co-operation, Koepka held fast: “It didn’t matter to me. Like I said, I’m trying to focus on this week.”
What scant details that have emerged in the last week suggest that a pathway will be created to recycle LIV players back into the PGA Tour, a process likely to involve sanctions and penalties. Would Koepka be willing to spend some of his Saudi riyal to return to the Tour? “Like I said, it’s a lot of what-if games. I’m not going to play the what-if game,” he said with a shrug. “If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen.”
If it happens, would he want to bring LIV’s oft-mocked team concept to the big league? “Like I said,” he repeated, “I’m not going to go into the future. I don’t have a crystal ball with me. I’m just worried about the U.S. Open. If I can get to number six pretty quick, that would be nice.”
The assembled media turned his attempt at a flex into another piece of chum in the water. Major No. 5 came at last month’s PGA Championship in New York, but even when served up a softball opportunity to tout his employer – Does LIV’s schedule make it easier to rest and prepare correctly for majors? – Koepka passed. “I have my own routine. That’s it. It’s plain and simple,” he said. “I’m pretty sure I know what it takes to compete in majors.”
So LIV’s schedule makes no difference for majors, a reporter gamely continued. Another shrug. “Just golf, man.”
As he rose from the podium, Koepka cracked a funny. “See you guys at Travelers next week,” he said, referencing next week’s PGA Tour stop in Cromwell, Connecticut. A year ago, he was on site at TPC River Highlands when he finally withdrew, announced his move to LIV and left the property. We didn’t see him last year and we won’t see him this year either. So, next year? No one seems to know.