Merger talk is PIF-PGA Tour, not LIV: Brooks Koepka

SINGAPORE: Seemingly stalled merger talks could build a bridge between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour, but nearly 11 months since the potential agreement became public, Brooks Koepka cleared up what he believes is a public misconception.

“I mean, the merger is also between PIF (Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund) and the PGA Tour,” Koepka said Thursday at Sentosa Golf Club, site of LIV Singapore. “I think that’s the difference. It’s not LIV Golf, it’s the PIF and the PGA TOUR. I think that’s something that needs to be well known. “Look, we have no idea. The PGA Tour has no idea. Our job is to go play golf, and that’s it. That’s what we’re here to do. But I think it’s important that the merger is that way.”

Koepka said he’s focused on fixing his putting this week with the PGA Championship at Valhalla two weeks away. He is the defending PGA Championship winner, taking his third Wanamaker Trophy at Oak Hill in 2023. But his game isn’t in the same place by his own assessment following a 45th-place finish at Augusta National last month. Koepka was 20 shots off the pace of winner Scottie Scheffler. Koepka is 16th in LIV Golf’s individual standings and working primarily on his short game. He lamented Thursday that he left Georgia last month with the feeling he wasted the four-month buildup to the tournament, which was anchored by a transition from a button-back style putter in his bag for a dozen years to a mallet putter.

“Something we’ve just been putting some work into, so trying to find some answers,” Koepka said. Asked to describe the main issues with his putting at the moment, Koepka quipped: “The ball doesn’t go in the hole, that is usually one of them. I don’t know how else to simply put it. I feel like I’m hitting good putts, they just keep burning lips. Eventually it starts to wear on you after a while. All you can do is hit a good putt and see where it goes from there. Hopefully they start falling soon.”

Bryson DeChambeau was in the final pairing with Max Homa on Saturday at the Masters but was left in Scheffler’s wake and tied for sixth. He said more LIV golfers are certain to be in contention in majors with three on the schedule in the next three months. “I think us LIV golfers are prepared as ever to play major championships,” DeChambeau said, adding the lighter tournament scheduled “allows us the opportunity to have a little bit more time every once in a while to get ready for those majors.

But I think we all have the firepower to play well and win a major championship. There’s a lot of major champions over here that know how to get it done, so it’s just a matter of time.” DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson agreed with Koepka’s statement that LIV Golf is strong and has staying power, regardless of how “merger” talks progress.

Mickelson was among the players hailed with a rock-star treatment last week at Adelaide in Australia and finds Singapore to be more energetic about LIV’s arrival this time around. “There’s also a lot of uncertainty. I think the things that I do know is I think the quality of the players will continue to get better each year,” Mickelson said of the future of LIV Golf.