Brooks Koepka has added an interesting tournament to his PGA Championship preparation.

The ONEFlight Myrtle Beach Classic, an alternate event on the PGA Tour, announced Wednesday that Koepka has committed to its event. The tournament will be contested next week, coinciding with the tour’s signature event, the Truist Championship at Quail Hollow.

As part of his return program to the PGA Tour from LIV Golf, Koepka is not allowed to accept sponsor exemptions into signature events. He was a first alternate at the RBC Heritage on his FedEx Cup ranking, but ultimately no one dropped out and he didn’t get into the field.

A win at Myrtle Beach would get Koepka into the two remaining signature events—the Memorial and Travelers Championship—but next week’s appearance allows Koepka to get competitive reps before the PGA, which begins May 14 at Aronimink Golf Club outside of Philadelphia.

Since winning the Wanamaker in 2023 at Oak Hill, Koepka has struggled at majors, although he did post a T-12 earlier this month at the Masters. Koepka’s won the PGA Championship three times, and has three other top-five finishes at the event.

In eight starts since his return, Koepka has one top 10 and four top 25s, and ranks second in strokes gained: approach.

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But it was Chris Gotterup who made birdie on the last hole to shoot a final-round 64 and then beat Hideki Matsuyama on the first hole of a playoff with another birdie to collect his second PGA Tour victory of the year. Yes, it was a hard-earned win, but Matsuyama bogeyed the 72nd hole to back into a playoff and then hit his drive into the water on the first extra frame. Gotterup rolled in the birdie from outside 20 feet and adds this trophy to that from the Sony Open just a few weeks ago. It’s his fourth career win.

Gotterup, for his efforts, walked away with $1.728 million from the overall $9.6 million purse and heads to Pebble Beach next week on a roll.

Here’s the rundown of what each player earned who made the cut.

WIN: Chris Gotterup, -16/268, $1.728 million

P2: Hideki Matsuyama, -16/268, $1.0464 million

T-3: Scottie Scheffler, -15/269, $439,680

T-3: Akshay Bhatia, -15/269, $439,680

T-3: Si Woo Kim, -15/269, $439,680

T-3: Michael Thorbjornsen, -15/269, $439,680

T-3: Nicolai Hojgaard, -15/269, $439,680

8: Jake Knapp, -14/270, $300,000

9: Matt Fitzpatrick, -13/271, $280,800

T-10: Pierceson Coody, -12/272, $242,400

T-10: Viktor Hovland, -12/272, $242,400

T-10: Ryo Hisatsune, -12/272, $242,400

T-13: $Zecheng Dou, -11/273, $188,000

T-13: Kevin Roy, -11/273, $188,000

T-13: Maverick McNealy, -11/273, $188,000

T-16: Daniel Berger, -10/274, $160,800

T-16: Jordan Smith, -10/274, $160,800

T-18: Michael Kim, -9/275, $122,720

T-18: Jacob Bridgeman, -9/275, $122,720

T-18: Rickie Fowler, -9/275, $122,720

T-18: Mac Meissner, -9/275, $122,720

T-18: Sepp Straka, -9/275, $122,720

T-18: Sahith Theegala, -9/275, $122,720

T-24: Ryan Fox, -8/276, $82,320

T-24: Rico Hoey, -8/276, $82,320

T-24: Kurt Kitayama, -8/276, $82,320

T-24: Rasmus Hojgaard, -8/276, $82,320

T-28: Harris English, -7/277, $62,948.57

T-28: A.J. Ewart, -7/277, $62,948.57

T-28: Nick Taylor, -7/277, $62,948.57

T-28: Ben Griffin, -7/277, $62,948.57

T-28: Mackenzie Hughes, -7/277, $62,948.57

T-28: Stephan Jaeger, -7/277, $62,948.57

T-28: Min Woo Lee, -7/277, $62,948.57

T-35: Sam Stevens, -6/278, $46,800

T-35: Wyndham Clark, -6/278, $46,800

T-35: Alex Smalley, -6/278, $46,800

T-35: Tom Kim, -6/278, $46,800

T-35: J.T. Poston, -6/278, $46,800

T-35: John Parry, -6/278, $46,800

T-41: Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, -5/279, $34,080

T-41: Keith Mitchell, -5/279, $34,080

T-41: Cameron Young, -5/279, $34,080

T-41: Johnny Keefer, -5/279, $34,080

T-41: Sami Valimaki, -5/279, $34,080

T-41: Kristoffer Reitan, -5/279, $34,080

T-41: Xander Schauffele, -5/279, $34,080

T-48: Christo Lamprecht, -4/280, $24,608

T-48: Zach Banchou, -4/280, $24,608

T-48: Max McGreevy, -4/280, $24,608

T-48: Chad Ramey, -4/280, $24,608

T-48: Michael Brennan, -4/280, $24,608

T-48: S.T. Lee, -4/280, $24,608

T-54: S.H. Kim, -3/281, $22,272

T-54: Sudarshan Yellamaraju, -3/281, $22,272

T-54: Joe Highsmith, -3/281, $22,272

T-54: Brian Campbell, -3/281, $22,272

T-54: Kensei Hirata, -3/281, $22,272

T-54: Collin Morikawa, -3/281, $22,272

T-60: Patrick Rodgers, -2/282, $21,312

T-60: John VanDerLaan, -2/282, $21,312

T-60: Takumi Kanaya, -2/282, $21,312

T-60: Adrien Saddier, -2/282, $21,312

T-64: Davis Thompson, -1/283, $20,736

T-64: Gary Woodland, -1/283, $20,636

T-66: Chandler Phillips, E/284, $20,352

T-66: Max Homa, E/284, $20,352

T-68: Bud Cauley, +1/285, $19,872

T-68: Hank Lebioda, +1/285, $19,872

T-68: Neal Shipley, +1/285, $19,872

71: Keita Nakajima, +3/287, $19,488

72: Patton Kizzire, +4/288, $19,296

73: Cam Davis, +7/291, $19,104

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It was an audacious consideration, because Rose was headed to the more brutish South Course on Friday in the Farmers Insurance Open, and it had played more than three strokes harder in the first round. To eclipse the tournament’s best midway mark of 129, Rose would need at least a 66.

He did better than that.

The 45-year-old made an eagle and six birdies, including two to finish his round, to score seven-under-par 65 and lower the Farmers’ 36-hole record by two shots at 17-under 127. With those numbers, Rose has not surprisingly put some distance between himself and the chasing pack, with Irishman Seamus Power (66 on the North Course) standing the closest to him at four shots behind. The distance to make up for the next two players, Joel Dahmen (63, North) and Max McGreevy (67, North), is six strokes.

Late in the day, when Dahmen saw Rose on the practice putting green, he stated the obvious: “Just trying to keep up with you.”

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In a week that began with a hot spotlight on Brooks Koepka and his return to the PGA Tour from LIV Golf, it is the American’s Ryder Cup rival who has put a stranglehold on the leaderboard. Yet Koepka, who hadn’t played on the tour in 3½ years, no doubt achieved one big goal this week when he rallied with two birdies on his back nine on the North Course to shoot 68 and make the cut on the number at three under.

Rose has been 14 shots better than Koepka so far, but all of field can only bow in admiration at a remarkable performance. Consider: The midway leaders in last week’s The American Express, Scottie Scheffler and Blades Brown, also stood at 17 under. Anybody who understands the difference in difficulty between the desert courses and their conditions and Torrey Pines should be dumbstruck at what Rose has pulled off.

Rose does have reason to be confident any time he plays at Torrey Pines. Twice the site of U.S. Opens, the South can be a major-like test, and Rose has 23 top-10 finishes in majors, including his 2013 U.S. Open win. In 15 starts in the Farmers, he had four top-10s and achieved his 10th career victory here in 2019 with a 21-under total.

With three rounds of the tournament played on the South, its narrow fairways and deep rough would seem to serve the Englishman well. In an effort to back up his opening 62, Rose went over to the South and gained more than three strokes in both approach and putting, leading the field in both categories.

“I’m feeling great. Obviously, yeah, that was two special rounds of golf,” he said. “Today probably even more so just given it’s hard to often follow up a low one. Obviously, this week you kind of go from the easy course to the tough course, but it was really kind of cool to keep momentum up out there.”

Rose noted that when he got into slight trouble, he didn’t fire at flags and his putter came through on occasion. “So I felt like I managed the game pretty well, more than played perfectly,” he said.

After opening the tournament with a one-over 73 on the South Course, Koepka had ground to make up to reach the weekend, and though he didn’t light up the North the way others had, the five-time major winner shot 33 on his front nine after starting on 10 (with an eagle and birdie). A bogey at the par-4 second put Koepka below the cut line, but he birdied the par-5 sixth and par-4 seventh, moving into the group of 17 players who were tied for 58th.

“Just wanted to play four days this week; I think that was important,” Koepka, 35, said. “Played really solid today. Drove it a lot better. Putting, I feel like I hit a lot of great putts, they just didn’t go in. I felt like I was all over the lip today. But that’s golf.”

He admitted that maybe he was a bit too conservative on his putting, and that the North’s greens might have felt a touch slower. “But it’s all right,” he said. “Got two days to figure it out and kind of really see where my game’s at, kind of take the reins off and go.”

Koepka’s wife, Jena Sims, was at Torrey Pines on Friday with their son, Crew, and when Brooks walked off his last green, he swept up the boy and carried him to the scoring area.

“Yeah, it was great,” Koepka said of his family’s presence. “I don’t know the last time I’ve actually made a cut and they’ve still been there. … I wasn’t making the cuts on the weekends [last year] at the majors when they were there. … It felt good. My son doesn’t really know what’s going on, but it’s cool for me to have them here.”

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Around 9:30 a.m., 30 minutes before his tee time, Koepka stepped out of a black SUV at Raleigh Country Club. Behind him was an overnight odyssey—Scotland to Florida to North Carolina, the brief stopover in West Palm Beach to deliver his family home. “He was tired, but he said, ‘Whatever the family needs me to do, I’m here.'”

Much has been made of Brooks Koepka’s return to the PGA Tour this week. That it happened, how it unfolded, what it signals for a sport fractured by five seasons of civil war. What’s been largely ignored is the man at the centre of it, which tracks, because the relationship between golf and Koepka has always resisted easy analysis. His résumé commands respect and he played with swagger in a sport that worships decorum. Still, he struggled with the public’s affection, called golf his profession but not his passion, won with such crushing inevitability he drained the suspense from the outcome. All of this shapes Koepka’s public persona, the version assembled from news conferences and televised rounds.

But as he tees off at Torrey Pines, it’s worth recounting a day witnessed beyond the cameras.

***

While not necessarily close, Koepka and Grayson Murray maintained an easy rapport. Murray kept a rental in Jupiter near Koepka’s place, and the two traded texts about hockey, their shared obsession. They played a practice round together at the 2024 PGA Championship, a week before Murray’s death at age 30.

Maness carried that pairing in his mind as he organised last year’s tournament to honour Murray. The invitation went to Koepka with tempered expectations. Securing tour professionals and celebrities had proven far more difficult than Maness anticipated, commitments evaporating as quickly as they materialised. Koepka’s response arrived swiftly: Count me in, and he never wavered. And the moment he materialised at Raleigh Country Club, Maness says, “it changed the whole vibe.” Not just because a major champion had shown up, but because of what that presence signalled about Murray and the gravity of loss.

“There were other celebrities and pros there, but this was a five-time major winner,” Maness says. “We’re all there to honour Grayson and to continue his life through the foundation, but having Brooks there gave credibility to what we were trying to do.”

Tour players at pro-ams and celebrity events often operate on autopilot, their presence more contractual than genuine. But from the moment he stepped onto the grounds, Maness and others observed, he was fully present, spending unhurried time with the Murray family and an emotional support animal group central to the foundation’s mission. When the round began, Koepka drew a pairing with some of Grayson’s closest family friends, including Phil Hilldale. After the standard pleasantries, Hilldale mentioned his 15-year-old son Tyler was a fan. Koepka’s response was immediate: Pull him out of school. Bring him here. Let him ride in the cart.

Tyler arrived, and Koepka handed him the day. He let the kid test his putter, pressed him into makeshift caddie duty, gave him access to the player he’d only watched from a distance. It wasn’t performance. It was generosity that cost Koepka nothing except attention, which made it worth everything.

Brooks Koepka spending time with Tyler Hilldale. (Courtesy Phil Hilldale)

“On TV he always looks intense and focused, but in real life he was really nice and relaxed, he talked to me the whole time,” Tyler says. “He answered all my questions and gave me some swing tips.”

“Brooks completely changed my perception of him. I did a full 180,” Phil adds. “The guy we see on in the ropes, so intense and focused, isn’t the one we played with that day. He was great, down-to-earth, present, and chose to play from our tees so he could hang with us for the day.

“My biggest ‘aha’ moment came when he explained that during a competitive round, he’s 100 percent locked in on golf and struggles to engage with fans. But once he taps in that final putt, he relaxes and becomes more social and outgoing. That instantly made sense of his business-like TV persona, because in person, he was the complete opposite.”

After the round, Koepka lingered. He found the family and Maness, asking questions that couldn’t be answered with platitudes. How they were holding up, how the foundation was sustaining itself, where he could be useful. He shared his own stories about Grayson, his own processing of the loss. Before leaving, he told Maness something that carried weight beyond courtesy: Don’t hesitate. When the foundation needs something, call.

“I spent a lot of time with athletes. He is a genuine, driven person,” Maness says. “That what makes him the player he is, but he wouldn’t be there if he didn’t have character, too.” Maness also says that Koepka’s participation has already got other players at the ready to help with the foundation going forward.

In isolation, this registers as decency, a professional athlete showing up for a grieving family. Tour players dedicate themselves to charitable causes all the time. And nothing here erases or simplifies the conflicted feelings many fans harbour toward Koepka. But it does puncture the assumption that what we see during competition reveals the whole person. We judge athletes by their public performances and mistake that sliver for totality, forgetting that character often emerges in moments never televised or monetised.

There exists another Brooks Koepka, one inaccessible to broadcast cameras and post-round news conferences. We may never know him fully, but dismissing his existence flattens him into a caricature. He gets a fresh start this week. Perhaps he’s earned a more complete appraisal from the rest of us.

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Koepka, 35, has been one of the Saudi-backed circuit’s marquee names since 2022, when the upstart league became play. However, unlike Bryson DeChambeau, Koepka was never one to publicly bang the drum for the league in its war against the PGA Tour, and acknowledged at the 2023 Masters he might not have defected had his game and health been in a better state the previous year. Koepka has also not been shy about his frustrations with LIV as the league continued to struggle to garner an audience. “I think we all hoped it would have been a little bit further along, and that’s no secret,” Koepka remarked this spring.

Conversely, Koepka scored arguably the biggest win for LIV Golf by capturing the 2023 PGA Championship, proof that players could still remain competitively relevant after jumping to the league. Jon Rahm joined LIV later that year, with DeChambeau winning the U.S. Open the following summer.

There have been rumors for years that Koepka was mulling a return to the PGA Tour, although those whispers didn’t hold much weight given the length of his deal with LIV. Yet, despite another year left on his LIV contract, the league revealed that Koepka will not return to the league in 2026.

“We have amicably and mutually agreed that Brooks Koepka will no longer compete in the LIV Golf League, following the 2025 season,” read a statement from LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil. “Brooks is prioritizing the needs of his family and staying closer to home.”

There has been no direct statement from Koepka, although his representatives offered, “Brooks Koepka will be stepping away from LIV Golf. He is deeply grateful to Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Scott O’Neil and the LIV Golf leadership team, his teammates, and the fans. Family has always guided Brooks’s decisions, and he feels this is the right moment to spend more time at home. Brooks will continue to be a huge supporter of LIV Golf and wishes the league and its players continued success. Brooks remains passionate about the game of golf and will keep fans updated on what’s ahead.”

Koepka is coming off one of his more frustrating years in 2025, missing the cut in three of the four majors. He finished 31st in LIV’s individual standings.

What Koepka will do next is unclear. The PGA Tour has remained adamant about suspensions regarding LIV defectors, with players facing at least one year sidelined from the last LIV outing. Koepka, who was not part of the contingent that sued the tour in the onset of golf’s civil war, could receive an exemption, or he could compete on the DP World Tour in 2026 until it resolves its appeal case regarding LIV suspensions.

The PGA Tour posted the following statement regarding Koepka’s decision. “Brooks Koepka is a highly accomplished professional, and we wish him and his family continued success. The PGA Tour continues to offer the best professional golfers the most competitive, challenging and lucrative environment in which to pursue greatness.”

The move is another blow to LIV Golf, which is down to DeChambeau and Rahm as its tentpole players. With its 2026 season starting in February, LIV has failed to garner new star talent for the third time in its last four offseasons. Additionally, the PGA Tour has turned down recent overtures from LIV’s financial backer, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, regarding a possible unification of the professional game.

Koepka was the captain of the Smash G.C. on the LIV circuit. With his departure, LIV Golf announced that Talor Gooch has been elevated to team captain in 2026. Koepka’s spot on the four-man team roster will be replaced in advance of the February start to the 2026 season.

RELATED: LIV Golfer announces retirement from golf at 30 years old

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Koepka’s European summer swing continues. After his invite to The K Club for the Amgen Irish Open, where he missed the cut, he then crossed the Irish Sea for the BMW PGA Championship on invitation, the DP World Tour’s flagship event, where he also failed to make the weekend.

Now the 35-year-old heads to France to compete in continental Europe’s oldest national open, the 107th edition of the FedEx Open de France, taking place at Golf de Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche from 18–21 September 2025.

Brooks Koepka 2023 US PGA Championship – Newsmaker

The last time Koepka teed it up on French soil was in 2018 at the Ryder Cup, just up the road at Le Golf National, the former venue of the FedEx Open de France. Ranked World Number Three at the time, he went 3-1-0, producing the best record of the week for Team USA, despite the Americans failing to retain the Ryder Cup.

Koepka has played in France’s national open once before, in 2014, where he missed the cut. The year prior, while still grinding it out on the former Challenge Tour (now HotelPlanner Tour), he recorded a tie for 11th in the Najeti Hotels et Golfs Open at the testing Aa Saint-Omer GC.

Having finished the 2025 LIV Golf season in 31st place in the individual standings, the former DP World Tour member has now slipped to 325th in the Official World Golf Ranking. He is set to return to the Tour’s schedule in October at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at the Home of Golf.

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After his trip to The K Club this week for the Amgen Irish Open, Koepka will head across the Irish Sea to the Tour’s flagship event, which he has played only twice before, in 2014 and 2015, missing the cut once and finishing tied 72nd the other.

Brooks Koepka. LIV Golf

Koepka is one of several LIV Golf players in the field at Wentworth’s West Course. The Smash GC captain will be joined by Legion XIII duo Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, along with fellow American Patrick Reed. Joaquin Niemann will also tee it up at the BMW PGA, as will Thomas Pieters, Adrian Meronk and Dean Burmester.

Having finished the 2025 LIV Golf season in 31st place in the individual standings, the former DP World Tour member has now slipped to 306th in the Official World Golf Ranking. He is set to return again to the Tour’s schedule in October at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at the Home of Golf.

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It’s not been a great PGA Championship for LIV Golf’s aging crop of big-money major winners. Dustin Johnson missed the cut with a 78-76 that had the armchair warriors screaming “washed!” Phil Mickelson joined him after taking four hacks to get out of a greenside bunker on Friday, finishing his tournament at nine-over par. Then there was Brooks Koepka, who looked like a shell of his former PGA-dominating self while going 75-76 during the first two rounds Quail Hollow. It wasn’t so long ago that these men were dominating pro golf, raising the very real question:

Has LIV Golf (and it’s exorbitant, guaranteed paydays) snuffed out these superstars’ competitive fire?

Brooks Koepka, the only LIV pro not named Bryson to win a major in the post-split era, was confronted with that question on Friday at Quail Hollow when a heckler blurted out “that’s what guaranteed money does to ya Brooks!” as the three-time PGA champ walked by. Koepka considered taking the high-road for about 15 feet, before turning around and firing back, “You want to come down here and say it?” Needless to say, that shut up the peanut gallery in a hurry.

WATCH — LIV Golf’s Brooks Koepka claps back at a heckler.

Heckler: “Guaranteed money does that Brooks!”

Brooks: “You wanna come down here and say it?” pic.twitter.com/EB9dOLJPK5

— Ways To Golf (@WaysToGolf) May 17, 2025

RELATED: Here’s the record prize money payout for each golfer at Quail Hollow Club

There’s just something in the air at Quail Hollow this week. Tensions are running extremely high. We’ve seen both Tyrrell Hatton and Shane Lowry throw spectacular tantrums. Rory McIlroy got nabbed with a non-conforming driver and Hunter Mahan ignited a war of words with the club’s president after comparing the course to a Kardashian. Now Brooks Koepka is inviting fans to meet him in the parking lot after his shift. It’s not a great look for anybody, least of all the players, who have cameras trained on them every second they’re on the course.

That said, this one isn’t on Koepka. Should he have resisted the bait? Yes. Is there some truth to what the fan said? Sure. But hecklers are one of the lowest forms of humanity, down there with insurance-claim inspectors and miracle-cure grifters.

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Talks between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf have hit another impasse, raising questions if professional golf’s cold war is about to heat up. But, as witnessed in Tuesday’s practice round at Augusta National, least one schism-related beef has been put to bed.

Last month, former Masters champ Fred Couples asserted on a radio show that one of LIV’s marquee attractions was not long for the Saudi-backed circuit. “I talk to Brooks Koepka all the time. I love Brooks Koepka, and I’m not going to say anything extra except I talked to him all the time,” Couples said in a radio interview on KJR 93.3 FM in Seattle before adding a bit more that started speculation about Koepka’s status on LIV Golf. “He wants to come back. I will say that I believe he really wants to come back and play the tour.” Couples has not been shy of throwing the occasional haymaker at the defector league, although this one was not unfounded. There have been rumors of Koepka’s interest in a return for years, and Koepka hasn’t exactly been the biggest advocate of LIV has of late, saying as recently as last week that he thought the league would be further along than it is. Even at the 2023 Masters, after Koepka returned from the competitive wilderness, the bruiser admitted that—had he known his physicality would be revived after fearing his body had betrayed him—he didn’t know if he would have left for LIV.

Still, Koepka was quick to dismiss Couples’ remarks.

“I don’t know where I’m going, so I don’t know how everybody else does,” Koepka said at LIV’s Singapore event. “Right now I’m just focused on how do I play better? How do I play better in the majors, how does this team win? And then we’ll figure out next year and how to play better again. It’s the same thing. It’s just a revolving cycle.

“Yeah, Fred texted me after, I guess, the comments came out,” he continued. “I don’t know when it was. Sometime last week. Yeah, everybody seems to have their own opinion, and no one asks me. I talk to Fred quite a bit, but we don’t go too much into detail about what’s going on. Like I’ve said before, I’m not in those rooms. I’ve got a contract obligation out here to fulfill, and then we’ll see what happens.”

Which is why it was interesting at the Masters on Tuesday that Koepka and Couples played their practice rounds together, with Justin Thomas and Adam Scott rounding out the foresome.

Speaking after the round, Couples explained how he and Koepka have been planning this session for a couple weeks.

“Brooks and I were going to play and then Tiger and JT and I always play, so when Tiger couldn’t, I called JT and then Adam Scott and I had talked, so we got a nice little foursome,” Couples said. “And then Brooks and I wanted to play a few more and the course is awesome, so it was nice to go play 1, 2, 8, and 9, too. But it was a great foursome. These guys all hit it amazing. And then to meet Nick Hardy the last couple holes was fun too.”

Couple clarified that after the comments came out that he and Brooks discussed the headlines, and maintains that he and Brooks are good.

“A lot of times at Ryder Cups and Presidents Cups I sit with Brooks and his wife and my wife. I love Brooks,” Couples said. “Basically what I said was is what everyone else is saying, but then someone else turned it into like I wanted him to leave the LIV Tour and come play the PGA Tour. I just basically said, you know, Brooks would like to play the PGA Tour; not leave the LIV Tour.

“So anyway, he and I are great. We had a good time. We talked basically a little bit about his brother and then we were talking little bit about clubs. He just hits it so far and he hits it so solid. But basically it was a one-minute thing, but I had already talked to him before. And he’s a good man. I like Brooks.”

As one of the negotiators between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia, Scott’s presence in the group is notable. Given that Thomas and Couples are close friends with Woods, who’s leading these talks, Koepka’s inclusion might seem worthy of analysis. But that is a discussion for another day.

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“I’ve got nothing. Everybody else seems to know more than I do,” Koepka said Wednesday during a press conference ahead of this week’s LIV Golf League event in Singapore, responding to speculation that surfaced two weeks ago by former Masters champion Fred Couples, a close confidant.

“I talk to Brooks Koepka all the time. I love Brooks Koepka, and I’m not going to say anything extra except I talked to him all the time,” Couples said in a radio interview on KJR 93.3 FM in Seattle before adding a bit more that started speculation about Koepka’s status on LIV Golf. “He wants to come back. I will say that I believe he really wants to come back and play the tour.”

Koepka, a five-time winner on LIV after joining in 2022, did seem to leave the door open to the possibility of rejoining the tour, where the 34-year-old has nine career victories, including five major championships. The PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, which backs LIV, are in continued negotiations about an arrangement that could reunify the pro game, but no deal is imminent.

“I don’t know where I’m going, so I don’t know how everybody else does,” Koepka said. “Right now I’m just focused on how do I play better? How do I play better in the majors, how does this team win? And then we’ll figure out next year and how to play better again. It’s the same thing. It’s just a revolving cycle.

“Yeah, Fred texted me after, I guess, the comments came out,” he continued. “I don’t know when it was. Sometime last week. Yeah, everybody seems to have their own opinion, and no one asks me. I talk to Fred quite a bit, but we don’t go too much into detail about what’s going on. Like I’ve said before, I’m not in those rooms. I’ve got a contract obligation out here to fulfill, and then we’ll see what happens.”

It’s unclear if Koepka’s contract with LIV Golf runs through 2025 or beyond.

Koepka’s comments were more circumspect than those of reigning U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, who last week denied rumors that he sought a return to the PGA Tour and expressed his continued support of LIV.

“I’m very excited about the future of LIV Golf,” DeChambeau said at LIV Golf Hong Kong. “I’m very excited to be the captain of the Crushers and continue our legacy that we’re starting to create. That’s my goal is to create this lasting legacy where we impact millions and millions of golfers’ lives around the world. That should tell you everything you should know.”

Main Image: Warren Little

The post Brooks Koepka has interesting response to questions about his LIV Golf future, possible return to the PGA Tour appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.