There he was — LIV’s poster boy, its success story, its avatar that its golfers could still compete for major championships — and even then, Brooks Koepka refused to lean in.
It’s Friday at the 2023 Masters, the first major since golf’s schism began. Koepka has a two-shot lead while going for his first green jacket. Every question thrown Koepka’s way is about his road back from knee injuries, how the then-32-year-old golfer went from a shell of himself, uncharacteristically vulnerable for Netflix cameras, to looking like the old Brooks again. He opens up on the pain, the frustration, the feelings that he just might never get it back. He signed on that dotted line for north of $100 million as a man who didn’t know if he’d ever be that guy again.
So he’s asked, “If you had been as healthy as you are right now, would the LIV decision have been more challenging?”
“Honestly, yeah, probably,” he said in his typical shrugging style. “If I’m being completely honest. I think it would have been.”
This is what we should all return to as we try to make sense of Brooks Koepka leaving LIV Golf, which he announced on Tuesday. It’s all right here. None of this means as much as you think it means. Just as his leaving the PGA Tour didn’t represent what we thought it did in 2022. In an era of polarizing acolytes proselytizing for their side (and their bank accounts), Koepka was never Bryson DeChambeau or Phil Mickelson. He wasn’t Rory McIlroy, either.
He was simply a guy who took a deal because he thought it made sense. He did not buy in.
Because Brooks Koepka doesn’t care.
That’s his whole schtick. His persona. His identity. And that’s not an insult. That’s been his charm, for better or worse. The golfing great who didn’t like golf. The one who proudly only cared about major championships in such a way that he won five majors and only four PGA Tour events. He never fully committed to any equipment brand because it gave him better flexibility to do what’s best. In a modern era in which mythmaking is hard to come by, he pulled it off. Tip of the cap.
Signing Koepka in the 2022 exodus was a coup for LIV. No doubt about it. He was the biggest surprise of the group and likely the most glaring sign to the PGA Tour that this Saudi-backed problem wasn’t going away. But LIV only ever really purchased Koepka’s resume. His future accomplishments. His physical body. It never succeeded in buying his unwavering commitment. It never really got his mind.
As we head to the next step in this saga — if Koepka does indeed apply to rejoin the PGA Tour and we wait to see how the tour handles it — it’s crucial to make this clear: He’s not buying into the PGA Tour, either.
Official Statement from the PGA TOUR pic.twitter.com/DkYCPnwRSg
— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) December 23, 2025
Koepka does not represent some massive momentum shift, and he’s not (theoretically) going to arrive as an apostate defector torching LIV on his way out. There’s not even a clear sign that this is an opening of the floodgates. It all might be as simple as Koepka is a golfer who took the money, didn’t love it and isn’t desperate to stay. In Koepka’s lingo, he just wasn’t feeling it, man.
No, this isn’t good for LIV. Between failed negotiations with a handful of PGA Tour notables and backlash to expanding to 72 holes, it’s been a rough few months for the league. I’m just not sure Koepka is the type of loss that cripples them, either. As one person around LIV put it, “It’s not Bryson.”
Koepka was not selling LIV, and in reality, LIV needs salesmen. It needs DeChambeau and Jon Rahm promoting their respective teams. It needs Mickelson opining on growing the game or a frustrated Joaquin Niemann vocally bemoaning the lack of OWGR points. When those players succeed, it’s LIV succeeding.
Brooks Koepka never felt like a LIV Golfer. He famously didn’t even wear the gear of the Smash GC team he owned, instead rocking his simple Nike scripting. He didn’t campaign for the league’s hot-button issues or cheer on his contemporaries. As recently as April, he responded to a question about LIV’s growth by saying: “I think we all hoped it would have been a little bit further along, and that’s no secret. No matter where you’re at, you always hope everything is further along. But they’re making progress and it seems to be going in the right direction.”
For DeChambeau, LIV is a we. For Koepka, it was always a them.
We’ll learn the most about Koepka and what he really wants by what happens over the next year. His statement said the move is to focus on family, and that’s an admirable thing after a difficult year personally, in which his wife, Jena, had a miscarriage.
Brooks Koepka with son Crew and wife Jena Sims during the Masters Par 3 contest last year. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
Sources with knowledge of the situation, granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, tell The Athletic that because Koepka simply didn’t renew his PGA Tour status at the end of 2022, he would need to reapply, and indications are he plans to. The question then is how the PGA Tour — under new leadership in CEO Brian Rolapp — decides to discipline him. The precedent often cited is a one-year suspension for past LIV golfers, but none of those were PGA Tour card-carrying members who left in the specific way that Koepka did.
What happens if he does have to wait until, say, August, and the anniversary of his final LIV appearance? He’s still exempt in all four majors. Does he grind on the DP World Tour to regain form after a poor 2025?? Does he actually spend this time away from golf and focus on his family? There is no right or wrong, and he has every right to do what’s best for him. He’s 35, lived a whole lot of golfing life, and has one of the best careers of his era to show for it.
But whatever he decides, we’re all still going to care about Brooks Koepka. We’ll just find out what he cares about.
