ADVERTISEMENT
Brooks Koepka has been called many different things recently, including “duplicated” by Rory McIlroy.
Koepka, the Jupiter resident who defected from the PGA Tour on Wednesday to join the LIV Golf Series, has another title: Captain Koepka.
ADVERTISEMENT
Why did Koepka defect? What was behind Brooks Koepka’s decision to leave the PGA Tour for LIV Golf? | Angelo
The PGA Tour prohibits golfers from:LIV golfers banned from the PGA Tour. Now what will Rickie Fowler do? | Angelo
Koepka has been named one of 12 captains for his first LIV event. The 54-hole uncut tournament kicks off Thursday at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club outside Portland, Oregon, LIV’s inaugural event in the United States. Like each of the eight LIV events, it includes 12 four-man teams participating in a team portion in addition to individual competition.
Koepka’s team name is Smash.
The captains hold a draft on Tuesday to fill the three open positions. The question is not if Brooks will select his brother, Chase, but when? With 45 of 48 players announced for the course, Chase Koepka, who lives in West Palm Beach, has the second-worst World Golf Ranking at No. 1,607.
Koepka is joined by Dustin Johnson (4 Aces), Phil Mickelson (Hy Flyers), Louis Oosthuizen (Stinger), Bryson DeChambeau (Crushers), Lee Westwood (Majesticks), Hideto Tanihara (Torque), Martin Kaymer (Cleeks), Wade Ormsby (Punch), Graeme McDowell (Niblicks), Sergio Garcia (Fireballs) and Kevin Na (Iron Heads) as captains.
The Oosthuizen team won the tag team competition at the inaugural LIV event played outside of London, with the four players splitting the $3 million first place prize money. Charl Schwartzel from Palm Beach Gardens was part of the winning team. Schwartzel won the individual competition and took home $4.75 million, $4 million for the individual prize and $750,000 for being part of the Oosthuizen team.
Each team’s best two scores from the first two rounds, along with the best three scores from the final round, are used to determine the team winners. The second place team shares $1.5 million and the third place team shares $500,000.
“To be able to be part of a four-man team and go out there and know it’s not just for you, it means your guys are doing well as a team this week too, I think that’s exciting,” Oosthuizen said.
Koepka, DeChambeau, Westwood and Tanihara replace Sihwan Kim, Jupiter’s Peter Uihlein, Ian Poulter and Talor Gooch as captains for LIV’s second event.
Of the 45 LIV Tour players announced to date, eight hold a spot in the top 50 of the world rankings and 20 in the top 100.
LIV Offices in West Palm Beach
LIV and CEO Greg Norman didn’t have to go far to recruit Brooks Koepka or any of the other area players who have joined the series. Not that it really matters.
LIV Golf Investments offices are located in West Palm Beach. Norman, who has a house in Palm Beach Gardens, is the first and founding CEO of LIV. LIV was chosen as the name because it is the Roman numeral for 54, which is the number of holes in each LIV event and the score if someone birdies every hole on a par 72 course.
LIV is receiving $250 million from the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund and is offering $25 million purses for the first seven events and $50 million for the series finale October 27-30 at Trump National in Doral.
The company’s LinkedIn page says:
“LIV Golf Investments is a newly formed company, with group companies in the US and UK, with offices in Asia to follow. Its mandate is to holistically improve the health of professional golf on a truly global scale.” and supporting existing stakeholders to help unlock sports’ ‘untapped potential’.
Tom D’Angelo is a journalist at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at [email protected]
LIV Golf Invitational
Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club, Portland, Oregon
Thursday-Saturday (54 holes)
TV: LIV Golf does not have transmission agreements. Stream on LIVGolf.com, YouTube and Facebook