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Mark Schlabach
Five-time major champion Brooks Koepka pushed back on Fred Couples’ recent comments that he was unhappy playing in the LIV Golf League and wants to return to the PGA Tour during a news conference in Singapore on Wednesday.
But Koepka didn’t exactly squash speculation that he’s content on the breakaway circuit that focuses on team golf, uses shotgun starts and plays 54 holes.
“I’ve got a contract obligation out here to fulfill, and then we’ll see what happens,” Koepka told reporters in Singapore. “I don’t know where I’m going, so I don’t know how everybody else does.”
It is believed Koepka’s contract runs through the 2026 season. He left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf in June 2022.
Earlier this month, Couples told a Seattle radio station that Koepka “wants to come back. I believe he really wants to come back and play the tour.”
“Yeah, Fred texted me after, I guess, the comments came out,” Koepka said. “I don’t know when it was, sometime last week. Yeah, everybody seems to have their own opinion, and no one asks me. I talked to Fred quite a bit, but we don’t go too much into detail about what’s going on.”
The PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund have been negotiating a potential reunification of men’s professional golf for months. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, player directors Tiger Woods and Adam Scott and PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan met with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Feb. 20.
On Tuesday, Scott said that how team golf fits into the sport in the future remains one of the biggest hurdles in negotiations.
“I think the biggest hangup is in how we see the highest level of competitive golf going forward,” Scott said. “The product of LIV and the product of the PGA Tour work in very different ways. So, I think the challenge is figuring out how that can come together and be really reunification, which is kind of what everyone is shooting for.
“We’re starting from two different sides of this, so I think it’s hard to find the balance that’s acceptable for everybody. And it also may not be ultimately possible.”
Koepka, the captain of the Smash GC team, is 22nd out of 55 players in LIV Golf’s individual standings. His best finish was a tie for seventh in Adelaide, Australia, on Feb. 16.
Koepka, who won his third PGA Championship title in 2023, is currently ranked 181st in the Official World Golf Ranking because players aren’t receiving world-ranking points for their LIV Golf finishes.
“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,” Koepka said. “It’s the same thing. It’s just a revolving cycle. I’ve got nothing. Everybody else seems to know more than I do.”
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