Another star golfer has told the PGA to pound sand and will join the new Trump-endorsed LIV Golf Series instead, according to reports.
Brooks Koepka is the latest golf star to join the new Saudi cash-funded professional league.
According to a new report from The Telegraph, “Brooks Koepka will be announced as the Saudi rebel circuit’s latest high-profile signing and is expected to play in the first LIV Series event on US soil next week.”
Koepka has won four major championships and is in the prime of his career.
He also scrubbed the PGA Tour from his social media platforms, according to The New York Post.
Other leading golfers making the move include Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Kevin Na, Lee Westwood, Louis Oosthuizen, Martin Kaymer, Charl Schwartzel, Talor Gooch, Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed
Trump announced his support for the new league and after the PGA of America yanked a major tournament from his club in Bedminster.
“The PGA of America Board of Directors voted tonight to exercise the right to terminate the agreement to play the 2022 PGA Championship at Trump Bedminster,” said Jim Richerson, PGA of America President.
“Bryson has always been an innovator. Having the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of something unique has always been intriguing to him,” DeChambeau’s agent Brett Falkoff said.
“Professional golf as we know it is changing and it’s happening quickly.”
DeChambeau won the 2020 US Open at Winged Foot. Reed is the 2018 Masters champ,
Greg Norman, the frontman for the new league said of Phil Mickelson joining:
“Phil Mickelson is unequivocally one of the greatest golfers of this generation.
“His contributions to the sport and connection to fans around the globe cannot be overstated and we are grateful to have him.
“He strengthens an exciting field for London where we’re proud to launch a new era for golf.”
Mickelson said earlier “this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.
“They’ve been able to get by with manipulative, coercive, strong-arm tactics because we, the players, had no recourse.
“As nice a guy as Monahan comes across as, unless you have leverage, he won’t do what’s right.
“And the Saudi money has finally given us that leverage.
“I’m not sure I even want the SGL to succeed, but just the idea of it is allowing us to get things done with the PGA Tour.
“I don’t know where things are headed, but I know I will be criticized.
“The media rights are but a small fraction of everything else.
“And it is the Tour’s obnoxious greed that has really opened the door for opportunities elsewhere,” he said.
Dustin Johnson also joined the LIV Golf league.
“I resigned my membership from the Tour and I’m going to play here, for now. That’s the plan,” Johnson said in a news conference Tuesday morning.
“What the consequences are going to be I can’t comment on how the Tour’s going to handle it.
“I can’t answer for the majors, but hopefully, they’re going to allow us to play.
“The Ryder Cup is unbelievable and has definitely meant a lot to me,” Johnson added.
“I’m proud to say I’ve played and represented my country and hopefully I will get a chance to do that again, but I don’t make the rules.”
“If someone wants to play on a Ryder Cup for the U.S.,” PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh said last year.
“They’re going to need to be a member of the PGA of America, and they get that membership through being a member of the PGA Tour.”
“Dustin’s been contemplating this for the past two years and decided it was in his and his family’s best interest to pursue it,” Johnson’s agent David Winkle said.
“He’s never had any issue with the PGA Tour and is grateful for all it’s given him but in the end felt this was too compelling to pass up.”
The full list of events in the LIV series is below:
- 1-3 July: Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club – Portland, USA
- 29-31 July: Trump National Golf Club Bedminster – New Jersey, USA
- 2-4 September: The International – Boston, USA
- 16-18 September: Rich Harvest Farms – Chicago, USA
- 7-9 October: Stonehill Golf Club – Bangkok, Thailand
- 14-16 October: Royal Greens Golf Club – Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
- 27-30 October: Team Championship, Trump National Doral, Miami, USA
