Graeme McDowell has found a new LIV Golf team in Brooks Koepka's Smash GC, the Telegraph reports.
G-Mac didn't have his contract renewed with Cleeks GC after a disappointing season on the 54-hole circuit, where he finished 42nd in the standings and was left vulnerable in the 'Open Zone'.
Cleeks captain Martin Kaymer decided not to renew his contract, nor Bernd Wiesberger's who has now returned to the DP World Tour. It leaves Kaymer's side looking for two new players ahead of the 2024 LIV Golf League schedule getting underway in February.
McDowell's best results of the season were 12th and 13th-place finishes in the 48-man fields, but he will continue in the league next year according to the Telegraph report. The newspaper's golf correspondent James Corrigan reports that McDowell's DP World Tour's fines would not have been paid by LIV due to the contract he signed when he joined, as opposed to Wiesberger who is said to have had his $1.9m fines paid by the PIF-backed league.
It would have left the Northern Irishman needing to pay his own fines to re-join the former European Tour or face a full season on the Asian Tour.
McDowell, winner of the 2010 US Open, seems set to join Brooks Koepka's Smash GC where he would replace Koepka's younger brother Chase.
Chase Koepka was one of the four players relegated from the LIV Golf League last year after ending the season in 48th-place, ahead of just two players.
Smash GC teased a new signing on social media on Monday, saying an announcement for their new player will come at 11am ET.
McDowell would join Koepka along with Jason Kokrak and Matthew Wolff, who has a year remaining on his contract despite controversy between him and his captain last year.
Koepka labelled Wolff as a "wasted talent" back in July and said he'd given up on him as "one guy is not going to give any effort" for his team.
Wolff responded to the five-time Major champion's claims, saying he was "heartbroken" as he continued to deal with mental health challenges.
McDowell would join his fellow Portrush man in Ricky Elliot, who is Brooks Koepka's long-time caddie. It may have been Elliot who pushed for his countryman to join the quartet. Smash GC finished 8th in the LIV Golf League in 2023, with the Cleeks two spots down in 10th out of the 12 teams.
“I’m not sure McDowell can believe his luck,” an 'insider' told the Telegraph. “Obviously, all was not rosy on the Cleeks and with G-Mac and Kaymer. He thought he was out of LIV and would have to be participating on the Asian Tour next year. Playing alongside Koepka – probably the best player on LIV – is a massive result for him.”
“I feel like I’ve been a good spokesman for the league and a good ambassador for the tour and hopefully there is a captain that wants me on his team," McDowell told Sports Illustrated earlier in the fall, and it seems he has got his spot for 2024.
