Brooks Koepka has slammed fellow American golf star Phil Mickelson over his accusations against the PGA Tour, after Mickelson criticised the leading circuit of ‘obnoxious greed’.
Mickelson took aim at the PGA Tour in a week that has been heavily dominated by the newly proposed Saudi Golf League, which is looking to lure some of the game’s biggest players to join their breakaway series.
It is no secret that the Saudi-backed series is well opposed by the sport’s leading circuits, the DP World Tour (Was European Tour and PGA Tour, with the new League set be a blow for both.
And in the wake of mega-money deals being offered, Mickelson has taken aim at the PGA Tour - the circuit he has spent nearly all of his professional career on - for their supposed poor financial treatment of players.
More specifically speaking about the Tour’s protection of a player's media rights he told Golf Digest : “It’s not public knowledge, all that goes on.
“But the players don’t have access to their own media. If the tour wanted to end any threat [from Saudi], they could just hand back the media rights to the players.”
He later added: “The media rights are but a small fraction of everything else.
“And it is the tour’s obnoxious greed that has really opened the door for opportunities elsewhere.”
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Following his slamming of the PGA Tour, many have been left to question Mickelson’s ‘greed’ comments, with the American having won an eye-watering £70 million in earnings whilst playing on the circuit.
One man in particular who found the six-time major champion’s dig a little rich is his former Ryder Cup teammate Koepka.
The four-time major champ took to Instagram to share his thoughts on Mickelson’s ‘greed’ comments, as he wrote: “DK [don't know] if I'd be using the word greedy if I were Phil."
A number of golf’s biggest stars have been linked with a big-money move to the Saudi circuit, with the most lucrative reported to be Bryson DeChambeau, who according to the Mail was offered £100 million to be the League’s ‘poster boy’.
DeChambeau has since disregarded the claim, labelling it ‘wrong’ in an Instagram comment, however it is unknown as to whether the 28 year-old is referring to the figure offered, or an actual deal being on the table.
Prior to the DeChambeau reports, European stalwart Ian Poulter also found his name linked, with the Telegraph reporting he had been offered a cool £22 million to join up with the series.
As well as this Dustin Johnson and Lee Westwood have also been involved in the conversation, but refuse to comment, with the latter admitting he had signed a non-disclosure agreement.
What once seemed a pipe dream to many, is now looking like a real possibility with some of golf’s biggest names being linked to the Saudi series day-by-day.
And according to Mickelson these rumours will most likely not be going away anytime soon, after the 51-year-old revealed that ‘every player in the top 100’ had been contacted.
He commented: “Pretty much every player that is in the top 100 in the world rankings has been contacted at some point.
“I think everybody is looking at it and seeing parts of it that can really help and benefit their situation, their life, their career, and then there’s parts they are probably concerned with.”
