As off seasons go – and admittedly, it’s a small sample size to judge – LIV’s was going pretty well, all things considered.
The signing of Victor Perez was a decent one, and bringing Laurie Canter back into the fold just when he’d played his way onto the PGA Tour was another mini win. It was a long way from landing Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, but a significant step back in the previous window was a strong indication that the brakes were being applied and the focus was switching to bolstering the lower ranks.
Perez and Canter ticked that box, as did the Tom McKibbin acquisition the year prior, but strengthening the rank and file means little when one of the league’s stars turns on his heel and abandons ship.
We’ll never know for sure, but had he not been injured and doubtful if he’d ever again be the player he was when he won four majors in less than 24 months, it’s unlikely that Brooks Koepka would’ve joined LIV in the first place. Rumour has it that he repeatedly rebuffed their advances until they made him an offer that he couldn’t refuse.
Over the following 12 months, his troublesome knee made a full recovery and he landed a fifth major title at the 2023 PGA Championship, but he never went above and beyond the minimum requirement on LIV, and rumours persisted that he was suffering buyers’ remorse. Those rumours have now proven to be more than just that, and though it’s likely cost him a significant chunk of money to vacate his contract, he’s done exactly that.
Brooks has won five times on LIV – and only Joaquin Niemann with seven wins has been more successful – but having overtaken Rory McIlroy as this generation’s most decorated major player with that PGA win in 2023, he hasn’t featured in the final top 10 in any of the 10 majors that have followed, he missed the cut in three of the four last year, and watched McIlroy tie his tally and Scottie Scheffler move within one with his two major wins in 2025.
Koepka and his wife, Jena, revealed that she suffered a miscarriage at 16 weeks in the latter half of last year, and you can’t dismiss the possibility that the tragedy was a considerable factor in Koepka’s decision, but though he has yet to officially state it, it’s hard to think that it’s not heavily motivated by his desire to compete to the best of his abilities in the majors.
The bar is continually being raised in major championships, and if he’s to get closer to the double-figure tally that he covets, then the major championships need to be his primary focus. Competing on LIV, he must feel, doesn’t prepare him the way he needs to be prepared.
Make no mistake – this is a crushing blow for LIV Golf as a whole.
Koepka, along with 2024 U.S. Open winner DeChambeau, has done more to legitimise LIV as a competitive entity than any of the other 70-plus players who’ve teed it up over its four-year span.
And now he’s gone. Not because he was relegated, not because the league didn’t want him anymore, and not because he lost interest in competitive golf – he’s gone because he wanted to go, and the message it sends is crystal clear. If you want to earn a lot of money – and it’s ok if you do, it’s a profession, after all – then you can earn plenty playing on LIV, but if you want to be able to compete at the highest level on a regular basis, it’s not.
Koepka’s exit leaves Rahm and Bryson as the two undoubted Kingpins at LIV. Niemann’s seven wins, while being extremely impressive, mean little in the overall grand scheme of things when he’s only got one major top 10 finish to show for it.
Replacing Brooks with anything less than a genuine top 10 player in the world is a significant stepback, and it effectively hands Rahm and DeChambeau the keys to LIV Golf’s future.
By virtue of his later addition and lengthier contract, Rahm is unlikely to follow in Koepka’s footsteps anytime soon, but Bryson – like Brooks – has one year left on his deal and is reportedly in negotiation to extend.
When he joined in 2022, he too was coming off an injury layoff, hadn’t won on the PGA Tour in more than a year, and was a big name but not yet a global icon. That’s all changed since.
Now, Bryson is a superstar, one of the most recognisable players in the game, and, against all odds, one of the most popular golfers on the planet. His value to LIV is immense, and he knows it. Somewhat ironically, given their past public squabbles, Koepka’s departure has strengthened Bryson’s bargaining position immeasurably because if he leaves too, then what then?
The house of cards comes down, right? It has to.
The alternative, even for pockets as deep as those of the Public Investment Fund, isn’t too pretty either. The venture has been haemorrhaging money left, right and centre over the four years, and they may now have to break the bank to keep Bryson on side.
At some stage, LIV has to become a viable financial venture. Putting somewhere close to a billion dollars in Bryson’s pocket kicks that can further down the road, and raises the bar for every other contract negotiation, even if there’s a zero or two less in the figures for most conversations.
The one positive for LIV is that, while Koepka never seemed fully bought into the concept, Bryson did. Is he willing to accept an offer lower than his worth to ensure the league’s survival – or a stay of execution, at least – or is he going to look out for number one?
But looking out for number one is the reason he and all others joined in the first place, right?
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