Four-time major winner Brooks Koepka is officially leaving the PGA Tour to join the new Saudi-backed LIV golf tour, according to a tweet from ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Jumping Ship: Koepka joins a growing list of PGA stars who are leaving the American golf league to join the new Saudi Arabian league, which has been offering PGA stars extremely generous contract offers.
According to reports, stars like Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau each earned more than $100 million to join the LIV tour. In addition to the high signing bonuses, players will compete for more money per tournament on the LIV Tour, and play less golf. Each LIV tournament is only 54 holes, or three rounds, compared to the PGA Tour’s standard of 72 holes, or four rounds of golf.
There was a lot of speculation Monday night that Koepka may leave the PGA Tour after he took “PGA Tour” out of his bio on social media accounts. Collin Morikawa, the 25-year-old two-time major winner, similarly scrubbed “PGA Tour” from his social accounts, leaving many fans to believe that Morikawa will also be leaving the PGA Tour.
Why It Matters: Many fans were fine with some of the PGA players that left for the LIV Tour. Phil Mickelson, 52, and Johnson, 37, are likely past their primes. But, if more and more young stars like Koepka and Morikawa leave the PGA Tour, it will lower the level of golf on the tour, making it a lesser product for fans. It will be interesting to see how the PGA plans to court its own players to try and keep them in the American golf tour.
Photo: Courtesy of Jim Kerr on Flickr
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