Brooks Koepka was the first major name to jump ship from LIV, and that decision looks better by the day.
With the Saudi Public Investment Fund withdrawing their support of the league at the end of this season, the future of LIV Golf is clouded in uncertainty. Koepka’s departure was the first sign that this could be a sinking ship, but it looks like there are many more to come.
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Koepka, a five-time major winner, saw his form diminish drastically when playing on LIV, and since returning to the PGA Tour he’s beginning to look more like his former self. And with Patrick Reed leaving and immediately winning on the DP World Tour, it’s not a great look for LIV.
Greg Norman was CEO of LIV until last year, and was a big part of getting Koepka to join the league to begin with. The Australian weighed in on Koepka’s decision to leave LIV Golf this year.
Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images for The Showdown
Greg Norman ‘applauds’ Brooks Koepka for leaving LIV Golf
Norman has preached freedom of player movement since the beginning of his tenure as LIV CEO, and that’s why he supports Koepka exercising his right to decide where he plays golf.
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Speaking on Dan on Golf, Norman explained, “Every top player in the world has got appearance money to go and play. [Even] within the PGA Tour. There are ways around it, right? Very crafty management companies can work the system pretty well.
“Even though they say you couldn’t get paid appearance money, I know I got it when I played on the Tour. Was it classified as appearance money? No, it was not. But this misnomer about players getting paid to play on LIV is no different from any other professional sport.
“He gets paid to play in the NBA, NFL and in IPL. You get all these opportunities to go and then become a free agent. Look what Brooks did. I applauded that to some degree because that was free agency, allowing him to make a decision, whether his contract was up or not, to renegotiate out of the contract and go where he wanted to go.
“That was never available in the world of professional golf and now you see it and I really love it. I am fascinated. I am completely out of LIV today, but I am fascinated to see how this is going to play out over this year and the end of next year when some of these contracts are up.”
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It sounds like Norman is expecting a mass exodus from LIV Golf as players seek to get ahead of the potential collapse.
Why LIV golfers should seek to leave the tour as soon as possible
It really isn’t worth LIV players sticking around on the tour if they truly believe this will be the last year of its existence. If they seek a PGA Tour return, it’s in their best interests to leave sooner rather than later.
The PGA Tour suspends LIV players for one year, dating back to their last event played, so if a LIV player were to leave the tour now, they’d be suspended until a year after LIV Mexico.
But this suspension is extended if they play in LIV Virginia, and extended again for every LIV event they play in the future.
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So, unless a player is prioritizing the money from their LIV contract, they should stop playing events as soon as they can so they can get back on the PGA Tour ahead of next year’s PGA Championship.
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