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The mother of American golfer Brooks Koepka has slammed claims that she cried with her son after he signed a life-changing contract with the breakaway LIV Golf League. Five-time major winner Koepka turned his back on the PGA Tour in June 2022, opting to join the Saudi-funded LIV Golf. The decision drew huge criticism in America but the incentive to join the tour was obvious.
LIV Golf reportedly paid the 33-year-old a staggering £107m ($130m) to play on their tour and with that he made the switch.
American journalist Alan Shipnuck has penned a new book called ‘LIV And Let Die’ which charts the bitter feud between LIV and the PGA Tour over the past two years.
The book features reported quotes from Koepka in which he allegedly takes a swipe at Ryder Cup teammates Jordan Speith and Justin Thomas for criticising his defection to LIV.
According to Shipnuck, Koepka said: “F*** all of those country club kids who talk s*** about me. You think I give a f*** what they think? You think I care what people say about me? I just had three surgeries and I’m supposed to turn down $130 million? I grew up with nothing.”
Koepka allegedly went onto say: “After signing that contract, the first person I called was my mom. We both cried.”
But despite Shipnuck’s claims in his new book, Kopeka’s own mother surprisingly took to social media to refute them.
Denise Jakows wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “Just to clarify, the only time my son @BKoepka and I cried together was when he was born. He was testing lungs for the first time; I was glad the pregnancy ordeal was over. End of story.”
Koekpa was the only representative of the LIV Golf tour to be picked to play at the Ryder Cup for either side. Having appeared in a lack of points-earning tournaments, he dropped out of the automatic qualification places but still received a wildcard spot.
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USA captain Zach Johnson later claimed that all six of his automatic Ryder Cup team qualifiers had requested that Koepka was included in the final team of 12.
After sitting out Friday’s morning foursome session, the Florida-born start earned half a point for his team in the afternoon fourballs, playing alongside Scottie Scheffler against Rahm and Nicolai Hojgaard.
But when Koepka paired with Scheffler again for Saturday morning foursomes the US duo were humiliated by Viktor Hovland and rookie Ludvig Aberg, who inflicted a 9&7 defeat on them – the biggest single match margin in Ryder Cup history.
Unsurprisingly, Koekpa was nowhere to be seen in the Saturday afternoon session but he did manage to earn a point for the USA in the Sunday singles when he beat Aberg 3&2.
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