Brooks Koepka's LIV Golf team appeared to have felt the effects of their pre-tournament fallout, after struggling out on the course at LIV London last weekend.
Koepka launched an astonishing on his Smash GC teammate Matthew Wolff, just days before the breakaway circuit kicked off its ninth tournament of the season at Centurion. The six-time major champion admitted he had "given up" on Wolff, whom he labelled a "wasted talent".
The Smash GC captain told Sports Illustrated : "I mean, when you quit on your round [LIV Washington DC], you give up and stuff like that, that's not competing I'm not a big fan of that. You don't work hard. It's very tough. It's very tough to have even like a team dynamic when you've got one guy that won't work, one guy is not going to give any effort, he’s going to quit on the course, break clubs, gets down, bad body language, it's very tough.
"I've basically given up on him—a lot of talent, but I mean the talent's wasted.” In response Wolff described his captain's comments as "heartbreaking", having struggled both physically and mentally in recent years with his golf game. "I read the SI [Sports Illustrated] interview with our Captain Brooks Koepka and it was beyond disappointing to me," Wolff responded.
"My challenges on and off the golf course with my mental health has been well documented. I deal with those challenges every day. However, while my 2023 season has not been all I had hoped for to this point, I have made positive strides in managing my life and feel Ike my game is turning for the positive.
"To hear through the media that our team leader has given up on me is heartbreaking." There is no doubt Koepka's words did nothing for team morale, and this looked to have seeped into their performances on the course, as Smash stumbled to a second from bottom finish in St Albans.
Koepka is so used to battling it out at the top of the leaderboard, but this week proved tough for the American and his teammates. Individually the six-time major champion finished inside the top 20, but this papered over the cracks of his team's performance.
Smash GC finished just one shot ahead of rock-bottom HyFlers (captained by Phil Mickelson), with their three top scores totalling 14-under-par for the week. In Sunday's final round, Koepka's team could only shoot a collective score of three-under for the day, with the captain's round of 68 counting, alongside Jason Kokrak's one-under and Koepka's brother Chase who evened things out at one-over.
The struggling Wolff meanwhile was the one man who was unable to contribute on Sunday, as he carded a nightmare seven-over 78 to finish off his tournament. Both Wolff and the younger Koepka, Chase are both at risk of relegation from the breakaway league as things stand, with the pair currently outside the top 24 of the season standings.
