Brooks Koepka combative in press conference ahead of LIV Golf event
Of all the pro golfers to receive heat for defecting from the PGA Tour and joining LIV Golf , Brooks Koepka has caught quite a bit of it. Things didn't get better for the four-time major champion during his press conference earlier this week ahead of LIV's second event, which kicks off in Portland, Ore. on Thursday.
Koepka, along with fellow pros Patrick Reed and Pat Perez, were peppered with questions on Tuesday about leaving the PGA Tour for Greg Norman's Saudi Arabia-funded LIV Golf, and Koepka became particularly perturbed when asked why he joined the breakaway league after previously calling other golfers who defected "sellouts."
"My opinion changed," Koepka said in a defensive start to the presser. "That was it. You guys will never believe me, but we didn't have the conversation until everything was done at the U.S. Open, and figured it out and just said I was going to go one way or another. Here I am."
Koepka also played the pity card, saying the injuries that have plagued him the last couple of seasons made the PGA Tour more difficult for him to navigate.
"What I've had to go through the last two years on my knees, the pain, the rehab, all this stuff, you realize, you know, I need a little bit more time off," Koepka said of the PGA Tour calendar, comparing it to LIV's more relaxed schedule. "I'll be the first one to say it: It's not been an easy last couple of years, and I think having a little more breaks, a little more time at home to make sure I'm 100 percent before I go play in an event and don't feel like I'm forced to play right away. That was a big thing for me."
While other big-name golfers like Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson have also caught grief for joining LIV Golf, the criticism toward Koepka mostly stems from him speaking ill of the breakaway league at the U.S. Open — just days before it was announced he was joining it.
Koepka maintained in his hostile press conference appearance that he has been a fan of LIV Golf since the start.
"[The idea of LIV Gold has] been around a lot longer than you guys have figured it out or when you guys first heard about it," Koepka said. "There was a bunch of stuff going on, and all of a sudden, this became real. This is a whole different thing when it became real. And like I said, my opinion changed. I'm allowed to have my opinion change."
The 32-year-old hasn't won an event since the 2018-19 season when he came in first at the PGA Championship and the World Golf Championship-St. Jude Invitational. The best he placed this season was a third-place tie at the Phoenix Open in February. He placed 55th at both the PGA Championship and U.S. Open before joining LIV Golf.
Koepka has yet to announce that he has left the PGA Tour.
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