Brooks Koepka has hit out at Brandel Chamblee following news of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf merger.
The golf world was left stunned when the news broke and the two golf circuits who have been at loggerheads for the past year, will now be joined together. Now the 33-year-old, who won last month’s PGA Championship, took to Twitter to respond to a tweet from CNBC revealing the news.
“Welfare Check on Chamblee”, Koepka said, in reference to the Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee. The 60-year-old has been a staunch critic of LIV Golf, and last week described any deal the PGA agreed with the Saudi-backed circuit as a “deal with a murderous dictator.”
“As I have said many times, LIV Golf is not so much a sports entity as it is MBS / Saudi Arabia trying to hide their atrocities and launder its reputation by buying sports stars,” he tweeted. “Any yielding to or agreement with them is a deal with a murderous dictator."
Chamblee has previously called out the LIV stars such as Kopeka, Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau and accused them of helping the Saudi regime “sports wash” their image. Speaking of Mickelson, the six-time major winner wasted little time in reacting to the merger announcement, as he tweed: “Awesome day today,” with a smiley face emoji.
Last year the players who chose to defect to Greg Norman’s golf circuit had their membership revoked or were kicked off the tour. However, the news of the merger will allow LIV players the opportunity to re-apply for their PGA Tour membership following the conclusion of the 2023 season.
Amid the announcement, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan confirmed the new organisation would commence once the current golf season has ended and will be making use of LIV Golf's innovative team model. He said: “After two years of disruption and distraction, this is a historic day for the game we all know and love.
"This transformational partnership recognises the immeasurable strength of the PGA TOUR’s history, legacy and pro-competitive model and combines with it the DP World Tour and LIV – including the team golf concept – to create an organization that will benefit golf’s players, commercial and charitable partners and fans. Going forward, fans can be confident that we will, collectively, deliver on the promise we’ve always made – to promote competition of the best in professional golf and that we are committed to securing and driving the game’s future.
"We are pleased to move forward, in step with LIV and PIF’s world-class investing experience, and I applaud PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan for his vision and collaborative and forward-thinking approach that is not just a solution to the rift in our game, but also a commitment to taking it to new heights. This will engender a new era in global golf, for the better.”
