LOS ANGELES — Brooks Koepka was sitting at the bar at Grove XXIII Tuesday morning having breakfast when the news that rocked the golf world came across the television.
Koepka’s reaction: He shrugged his shoulders and went to work. No time to waste any energy on wondering how the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which owns LIV Golf, would work out this shocking union when another major was days away.
“Watched a little bit of the interview, and that was it,” he said Tuesday. “Just went out and practiced.
“I wasn’t going to waste any time on (it). I’m trying to focus on this week.”
About 30 minutes later on the back of the range at Michael Jordan’s exclusive course in Hobe Sound, Florida, Koepka ran into his neighbors Rickie Fowler and Justin Thomas — two golfers who, unlike Koepka, resisted the urge to grab the (Saudi) money and run from the Tour.
All three had questions. But no one had answers.
“I asked if they knew, and they said they didn’t know, either,” Koepka said about the stunning vision of PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan sitting side-by-side.
Focuses on four weeks a year
Koepka is not going to let a little thing like the entire golf world being in an upheaval distract from his obsession of winning majors. The Jupiter, Florida, resident isn’t concerned about whether Saudi Arabia is investing a couple of billion dollars into the PGA Tour or if LIV could possibly shut down or if he’s “vindicated” from joining LIV because of the news or if the severity of the penalties he could face upon returning to the PGA Tour.
None of that matters when the possibility of getting closer to his goal of double-digit majors is in sight this week at the U.S. Open.
“There’s four weeks a year I really care about, and this is one of them, and I want to play well,” he said.
Koepka is in a good place mentally and physically (and of course financially after receiving a reported $100 million to join LIV), which is not good for the rest of the field as they tried to figure out the challenges of LACC.
Since exposing his soul last year on a documentary, and looking as vulnerable as he ever has since starting his historic run of invincibility at the majors, so much has changed.
Regaining his health had correlated to regaining his confidence. And that is all it took for Koepka to turn back the clock to when he was the game’s most feared competitor on its biggest…
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