If Brooks Koepka could play golf with the same enthusiasm as he snarls, he might be vying to become one of the greatest players in history. Instead, over the course of eight and a half thorny minutes, he was adamant that the “black cloud” hanging over this week’s US Open was not a product of the fire being stoked by LIV Golf but a media fixation. “I haven’t given it that much thought,” he insisted, even after it was pointed out that his brother, Chase, was part of the inaugural field in Hertfordshire last week.
Perhaps the Saudi-backed breakaway can buy a smile from Koepka, who offered little in the way of assurances he won’t be the next PGA Tour player to jump ship. “There’s been no other option to this point, so where else are you going to go?” he said. But the price of silence is one even all the oil in the world cannot afford and the incessant speculation about the battle for golf’s future will continue to cast a shadow long after the opening tee shot is struck on Thursday morning in Massachusetts.
