Koepka to join LIV; PGA Tour scrambles
Brooks Koepka, one of the first players to denounce a rival league for only 48 players, reportedly is the latest PGA Tour player to sign with the Saudi-funded LIV Golf series.
It was another step — and a big name with his four major championships — that added to the roster of the LIV Golf series that includes Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau. And the PGA Tour is feeling the pressure: Commissioner Jay Monahan announced at a players meeting Tuesday at the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Conn., the framework of a plan to shorten the tour’s schedule and increase earnings.
Koepka was not at the players’ meeting at the TPC River Highlands, and later withdrew from the field for the Travelers Championship.
The next LIV Golf event starts June 30 outside Portland, Ore. Koepka’s younger brother, Chase, who is No. 1,607 in the world ranking, played in the inaugural LIV event outside London this month.
Koepka was the second player, behind Rory McIlroy, to criticize a rival league in March 2020 when he said, “I have a hard time believing golf should be about just 48 players.
“Money isn’t going to change my life.”
LIV Golf has not announced Koepka’s signing amid speculation that a few others were soon to join. One was Abraham Ancer of Mexico, the No. 20 player in the world who won a World Golf Championship last year in a playoff, along with the Australian Open in 2018.
According to two players in the meeting with Monahan, the PGA Tour plans to return to a calendar season that would start in January — not in September, when the Fortinet Championship at Silverado Resort in Napa is set to open the 2022-23 season. Additionally, the FedEx Cup playoffs would be eligible for only for the top 70 players.
Currently, the top 125 make the postseason, with the top 70 advancing to the second playoff event and the top 30 to the Tour Championship. The new plan is for the top 70 at the start, then top 50 and top 30.
LPGA Tour: The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship is doubling the size of its purse to $9 million, another boost to the women’s game that brings prize money for the five majors to nearly triple the amount from a decade ago.
The increase in prize money for the LPGA Tour’s secondoldest major is a 300% increase from 2014, the year before KPMG and the PGA of America partnered with the LPGA Tour to raise the prize money and the profile by taking it to fabled courses.
The Women’s PGA Championship starts Thursday at Congressional Country Club, which has hosted the U.S. Open three times. The winner will get $1.35 million.