Brooks Koepka will be announced as the Saudi rebel circuit’s latest high-profile signing and is expected to play in the first LIV Series event on US soil next week.
The four-time major winner will join brother Chase on Greg Norman’s breakaway tour and will be banned from the PGA Tour as a result. His LIV debut in Portland, Oregon wil be another blow to the US Ryder Cup team, who will face five members of 2018 team and three from 2021 being ineligible for next year’s match in Rome.
Koepka, 32, has been in talks with the Saudi-funded series for months and sources have confirmed that the deal has finally got over the line. Dustin Johnson, another former world No 1, signed for a £120 million ($150m) up front fee and Koepka will have also commanded a seven-figure sum as he takes his place alongside not only Johnson, but Phil Mickelson, Sergio García, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter.
The roster is getting stronger by the week and will worry the PGA Tour and DP World Tour – formerly the European Tour – who were on a high after a gripping US Open on the weekend, that apparently had highlighted the need for the sport to put money before glory.
Koepka’s move comes less than a week after the world No 19, rounded on journalists for questioning him on LIV in the build-up to a major.
“I’m here at the US Open,” said Koepka, who won America’s national championship twice. “I’m ready to play US Open, and I think it kind of sucks, too, you are all throwing this black cloud over the US Open. It’s one of my favourite events. I don’t know why you guys keep doing that. The more legs you give it, the more you keep talking about it. Y’all are throwing a black cloud over the US Open, and I think that sucks.”
The 32-year-old American, who won the US Open in 2017 and 2018, and the PGA Championship in 2018 and 2019 was world No 1 for 47 weeks from 2018.