Brooks Koepka views the exemptions created for LIV golfers at the US Open and Open Championship is a huge step forward for the breakaway tour.
The top player, who is not otherwise exempt and is in the top three of LIV’s individual standings on 19 May, will earn a place in the field at the US Open at Oakmont from 12-15 June while the leading player who is not already exempt from the top-5 of the individual standings following the completion of LIV Golf Dallas at the end of June, will be awarded the spot at Portrush this summer,
“Yeah, this is the first step of many I think we’re looking to take,” said Koepka ahead of LIV Golf Adelaide at The Grange Golf Club.
“The opportunity is there. I think the organizations around the world, the R&A, the USGA, they’re looking at LIV Golf as part of the golf ecosystem now. With that is a huge, huge step forward for us.
“Hopefully we have a player that’s not exempt that’s up there ready to go and gets in another major because all it does is just add value to this league and to each team.”
New LIV Golf CEO, Scott O’Neil has already overseen two major championship exemption as well as television broadcast deals with Fox Sports in the US and ITV in the United Kingdom during his forty days at the helm since replacing Greg Norman.
The Saudi backed tour didn’t make any major blockbuster signings over the off season, rather focusing on commercial deals like clothing, Rick Shiels coming in as content creator for all 14-events and the broadcasting deals, while the major championship exemptions have given the tour a sense of legitimacy that it never had.
Many feel that LIV is going to be around for the long term and that is why they have not pumped major money into plucking players from the PGA and DP World Tour with a framework agreement rumoured to be very close and O’Neil is excited by LIV’s position as the PIF enter negotiations with the PGA Tour.
“PIF, they’re the investor and creator of LIV, okay. PIF is a sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and they are likely to make an investment into PGA Tour Enterprises, a new structure that a collection of U.S. investors invested in,” said LIV CEO O’Neil.
“For us at LIV, we are hoping that that unlocks opportunity. That may unlock opportunity with markets, with courses, with marketing partners, with television networks, with growing the game, with competition opportunities, with new formats.
“But we’re pretty — I grew up in New York, if you haven’t been able to tell so far by my funny accent, and the state motto is “Excelsior,” which means kind of onwards and upwards effectively, and we’re very excited about the potential investment with PIF and PGA Tour Enterprises.
“But I will tell you, and it’s been a short 40 days here, but in the 40 days I’ve seen a U.S. agreement with FOX, broadcast agreement, I’ve seen a UK agreement with ITV to get us over the air in the UK. It’s the only golf that’ll be over the air in the UK. I’ve seen our first pillar partnership with Madden. I’ve seen stars extended. I’ve seen a successful event in Riyadh. I’ve seen interest from all over the world. We’re now broadcast in 100 countries and territories, over 800 million households.
“So I see momentum. You don’t have to look too far from here to feel like we’re going to have the largest event in the history of LIV Golf here, right here in Adelaide.
“So from my perspective, we have incredible interest with television broadcast networks, which has been a bit of an achilles heel for us, sponsors, marketing partners as we call them, seems to be interest like the group has never seen before, attendance seems to be something that’s going in this trajectory.
So I’m excited about the agreement. I think that right now we are going to the moon and back, and I hope that’ll help as an accelerant, but I’m very confident in where we are in this business and the interest we have currently.”
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