Would you say Brooks Koepka is currently top-3 in the world or a top-10 player? He is neither! He is No. 13, which demonstrates how ridiculous the Official World Golf Ranking has become, by ignoring LIV.
In the same time period as Koepka has won five majors; only two other golfers have won two: Collin Morikawa and Justin Thomas. In the same time frame, Tiger won one major and Rory none. As a forgotten member of the LIV Golf brigade, Koepka had to prove (not for the first time) what a formidable, unsung, disrespected, player he had become.
If he stays healthy, it won’t be easy stopping Koepka from adding more majors to his total. Somebody as shrewd as the well-regarded Coach, Pete Cowen, has said he could ‘double his haul’. That would put him ahead Gary Player, Ben Hogan, Tom Watson and Arnold Palmer. How many majors do you think Rory will win before he calls it a day? It is 2014 since his last win. Time is moving on fast – if he wants to stay in step with Brooks Koepka!
LIV may not be popular in some quarters for reasons that have nothing to do with the game of golf. Golf is a game in which the ball doesn’t know who is hitting it and lowest score wins irrespective. Scorecards never tell lies (unless somebody has been cheating). Since the beginning, Greg Norman has said LIV Golfers are competing at the highest level and have the ability to win major championships. The various feuding Tours must surely get together at some point for the good of the game?
All I’m interested in is the golf. I don’t care how much they are playing for. In fact, neither do the top players. They have more than enough money already. Top golfers put winning majors above everything. Any player who has won five majors has a unique combination of athletic ability, mental toughness, and emotional stability that we do not see very often.
Koepka may love his dog but he is no smiley, cuddly, bear. On the golf course he is all business. He owns the space he occupies on it and nothing else matters. Some people seem to resent that. I don’t know why? Is it outrage fatigue over LIV?
The reaction in U-S-A Land is divided. Some want their best players playing in the Ryder Cup regardless of their LIV membership. Others vehemently oppose such an idea. If the likes of Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau qualify automatically, or are picked, I can visualise another lop-sided Ryder Cup. There is no doubt that the LIV golfers are highly-motivated by the team concept and they will be on a mission to hoover up as many points as they can to ‘stick it’ to PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, who continues to dismiss them so brusquely.
The wagons are circling around Jay Monahan. He has backed himself into a corner and hidden behind Rory McIlroy for too long. When LIV Golf sets up a ladies tour it’s going to be fascinating. Any money LIV gives the women will be in multiples of what they are currently playing for. LIV’s biggest drawback is Greg Norman but, if he succeeds in forming a Women’s LIV Tour, it would be a huge development both for women’s golf around the world and the human status of women in the Arab World in general, he will have scored two outstanding goals to benefit women in more ways than one. Who would say that would not be good?
LET player, Meghan McLaren, was very outspoken 3-years ago about not playing in the Aramco Saudi event but changed her tune “due to financial reasons”. Incentives, more like! So what? Men do the same. Women usually have shorter golf careers than men. The urgency to gather as much money as they can manage is greater and every bit as real for them. Anyone who has watched the Solheim Cup will recognise the fierceness of the competition and the high standard of play. Why shouldn’t the women be as well-rewarded as the men?
I’d say that women prefer to play on teams more than men. A LIV Women’s Tour will facilitate that concept. They will kill each other (figuratively) for the team prizes! LIV’s team golf appendage might not be such a bad idea after all? It’s overdue that the OWGR Committee made qualification for the majors a more even field by giving LIV the points its tournaments deserve. Brooks Koepka fifth major win underscores it.
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