Captain Koepka: Brooks to lead four-man team in his first LIV Golf event
Brooks Koepka has been called a lot of different things recently, including "duplicitous" by Rory McIlroy.
Koepka, the Jupiter resident who on Wednesday defected from the PGA Tour to join the LIV Golf Series, has another title: Captain Koepka.
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Koepka has been named one of 12 captains for his first LIV event. The 54-hole, no-cut tournament starts Thursday at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club outside of Portland, Oregon, LIV's inaugural event in the United States. Like each of the eight LIV events, it includes 12 four-man teams that take part in a team portion aside from the individual competition.
Brooks Koepka's LIV Golf team name is Smash
The captains hold a draft on Tuesday to fill the three open positions The question is not if Brooks drafts his brother, Chase, but when? With 45 of 48 players announced for the field, Chase Koepka, who lives in West Palm Beach, has the second-worst World Golf Ranking at No. 1,607.
Koepka is joined by Jupiter's Dustin Johnson (4 Aces), Phil Mickelson (Hy Flyers), Louis Oosthuizen (Stinger), Bryson DeChambeau (Crushers), Lee Westwood (Majesticks), Hideto Tanihara (Torque), Martin Kaymer (Cleeks), Wade Ormsby (Punch), Graeme McDowell (Niblicks), Sergio Garcia (Fireballs) and Kevin Na (Iron Heads) as captains.
Oosthuizen's team won the team competition in the inaugural LIV event played outside of London, the four players splitting the $3 million first-place prize money. Palm Beach Gardens' Charl Schwartzel was part of the winning team. Schwartzel won the individual competition and took home $4.75 million, $4 million for the individual prize and $750,000 for being a part Oosthuizen's team.
The best two scores from each team in the first two rounds, along with the best three scores in the final round, are used to determine the team winners. The second-place team shares $1.5 million and third place shares $500,000.
“To be able to be part of a four-man team and go out there and know it’s not just for yourself — it means your guys do well as a team this week as well — I think that’s exciting," Oosthuizen said.
Koepka, DeChambeau, Westwood and Tanihara replace Sihwan Kim, Jupiter's Peter Uihlein, Ian Poulter and Talor Gooch as captains for LIV's second event.
Of the 45 players on the LIV Tour announced to date, eight hold a spot in the top 50 of the world rankings and 20 in the top 100.
LIV's offices in West Palm Beach
LIV and CEO Greg Norman did not have to reach far to recruit Brooks Koepka or any of the other area players who have joined the series. Not that it really matters.
LIV Golf Investments' offices are located in West Palm Beach. Norman, who has a home in Palm Beach Gardens, is the first and founding CEO of LIV. LIV was picked as the name because it is the Roman numeral for 54, which is the number of holes in each LIV event and the score if someone birdies every hole on a par-72 course.
LIV is receiving $250 million from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and offering purses of $25 million for the first seven events and $50 million for the series finale Oct. 27-30 at Trump National in Doral.
The company's LinkedIn page reads:
"LIV Golf Investments is a newly formed company, with group companies in the USA and UK, with Asian offices to follow. Its remit is to holistically improve the health of professional golf on a truly global scale and support existing stakeholders to help unlock the sports’ untapped potential."
How to watch LIV Golf Tour
TV: LIV Golf has no broadcast deals. Stream on LIVGolf.com, LIV Golf's YouTube channel and LIV Golf's Facebook page.
Tom D'Angelo is a journalist at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at tdangelo@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Brooks Koepka captain for next LIV Golf Series event Portland, Oregon
