Brooks Koepka has declared a LIV winner at next week’s Masters would be a “pretty big statement” for the breakaway league.
While PGA Tour players like Matt Wallace and Rickie Fowler will make a final bid to qualify for Augusta at the Valero Texas Open on Thursday, the third LIV event this year will start in Orlando on Friday.
Stars who signed up for the Saudi-backed league are banned from the PGA and DP World Tours pending legal cases. But 18 LIV players will be allowed to tee up in the first Major of the season next Thursday and compete against the stars still on the traditional tours in a tournament within a tournament.
Cam Smith won the last Major at the 150th Open at St Andrews last July - and signed for LIV the following month.
Asked if it would be a big statement for LIV to have the Masters and Open champion, former world No.1 Koepka said: “Yeah, I would say so, right? Anytime you win the Masters or the Open, that's usually a pretty big statement. Yeah. For anybody. If you win a major, that's a pretty damn good statement. I know. I've got four of them.”
The 2018 Masters winner Patrick Reed, one of six former champions who have signed for LIV, said: “It's one of those things, obviously the media and the storylines are going to be obviously LIV versus PGA Tour and all that kind of stuff.
“For us, at least for myself, it's going to be business as usual going out and playing. Of course would I like to have LIV be up at the top? Of course. But really at the end of the day, it's all of us going in there and just trying to play the best golf we can and be ready for the four biggest weeks of the year.”
And two-time winner Bubba Watson said: “I'm trying to beat them all. I have nothing against anybody. If you change jobs, I'm not mad at you. If you start reporting for somebody else,, it's a better decision for you and your family.”
Rory McIlroy has been a vocal critic of LIV Golf while former champion Freddie Couples last week called his fellow former winners Phil Mickelson “a nutbag” and Sergio Garcia “a clown”.
But Koepka claimed: “I also don't think that means anything personal with any of us. I've known JT (Justin Thomas) since maybe 13, 14 years old maybe. Rory for the last 10 years. I was talking with Rory for probably about 30 minutes just about the ball and all the other stuff that's going on.”
Four-time Major winner Koepka finished tied second behind Tiger Woods in 2019 but has since suffered hip and knee injuries - and he revealed his mental fragility in the Netflix Full Swing series.
But the American, now 32 and the captain of Smash GC, insisted he will finally be fully fit for Augusta after playing only two LIV events so far this year.
“Everything is different, right?” he said. “ I'm able to move how I want to move, get the swing in positions that I want to get it in, everything becomes a lot easier, and the game becomes a lot easier than it's been over the past three years.”
The 2021 Masters winner Hideki Matsuyama and Padraig Harrington are the only Major winners in San Antonio for a non-designated event squeezed between the WGC Match Play and the Masters.
