Report: Smashing heads? Brooks Koepka on Matthew Wolff: ‘I’ve basically given up on him’
Is Brooks Koepka in the market for a new teammate?
According to a Sports Illustrated report, Koepka isn’t happy with fellow Smash GC member Matthew Wolff, who could be on the move following LIV Golf’s second season.
Wolff, the 24-year-old former NCAA individual champion who won on the PGA Tour in just his third pro start in Summer 2019, has struggled over the past few years – and especially in recent months on the Saudi-backed circuit, which he joined a little over a year ago. He enters this week’s LIV event in London having not cracked the top 40 in his past five starts; LIV’s tournaments feature 48-player fields.
Wolff’s low point came during LIV’s event outside Washington, D.C., in May. After a pair of grueling team workouts before Rounds 2 and 3, both initiated by Koepka, Smash’s captain, Wolff, sitting 46th on the leaderboard, opted to withdraw prior to that Sunday’s final round, citing an undisclosed injury. That decision apparently didn’t sit well with Koepka, and Wolff’s handles were later removed from Smash’s Twitter and Instagram pages (Wolff’s name remains absent from those bio sections).
While Wolff has continued to play under the Smash flag, both last week in Spain and this week in London, that didn’t stop Koepka from publicly criticizing Wolff on Thursday at Centurion Golf Club.
“I mean, when you quit on your round, you give up and stuff like that, that’s not competing,” Koepka told SI. “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.”
With six events remaining, Wolff sits No. 25 in LIV’s player standings, his rank boosted by a strong start to the season that included a T-5 in Orlando, Florida. Koepka sits second in points while the other two members of Smash, Jason Kokrak and Chase Koepka, are Nos. 17 and 47, respectively.
The top 24 players are guaranteed a spot in LIV Golf next season, so with Wolff’s future with Smash uncertain, SI also caught up with Wolff to ask him if he wanted to be on another team.
Wolff reportedly shook his head and walked off, but not before saying, “I’m just here to focus on myself and try to play some good golf … and then if that helps your team it’s great.”
Click here to read SI’s full story.