Brooks Koepka furious NBC and LIV Gulf critic Brandel Chamblee after PGA and Saudi-backed series merger, asking for analyst ‘prosperity check’
- Koepka was the first LIV player to win a PGA event at The PGA Championship
- Chamblee is involved in a $750 million lawsuit over outspoken criticism of LIV players
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Brooks Koepka rubs salt in the wounds of Brandel Chamblee, one of his biggest critics, following an announcement that the PGA Tour, LIV and DP World Tour are merging.
“Welfare Check on Chamblee,” tweeted the 33-year-old, who recently became the first LIV player to win a PGA event by claiming victory at the PGA Championship.
Chamblee, a former PGA Tour pro, has previously criticized the Saudi Foreign Investment Fund (PIF) for backing newcomer LIV Golf.
He has also regularly questioned the love of the game for several players, including Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed and Bryson DeChambeau after they were paid large sums to join the Rebel circuit and accused the former members of the PGA Tour of helping Saudi Arabia with its “sports washing” strategy.
Last year, Chamblee and the Golf Channel were slammed with a $750 million lawsuit brought by Reed, with the 2018 Masters winner alleging the 60-year-old’s “calculated, malicious” remarks on-air that “had a direct effect on his livelihood.’
Brooks Koepka rubbed salt in Brandel Chamblee’s wounds after LIV and PGA merged
Koepka became the first LIV player to claim a PGA event by winning the PGA Championship
Brandel Chamblee – an ex-PGA pro – is a put-by-put analyst for Golf Channel and NBC Sports
Often outspoken, Chamblee is now the target of the wrath of LIV golfers, but that hasn’t stopped the TV personality from doubling down on his attacks on the rival tour.
Koepka’s coach, Claude Harmon III, also recently went public with his comments about Chamblee, calling him a “paid actor by NBC and Golf Channel.”
“Brandel is a paid actor by NBC and Golf Channel… And I mean I love him, I think Eamon is a great writer, but for Eamon Lynch and Brandel Chamblee, who worked for NBC Golf Channel to get the words out” sportwashing “when the company they work for televised the last two Winter Olympics in Russia and China with the same leaders they’ve had,” Harmon III said via Golfweek.
It’s not like they were good leaders back then. It’s not like Putin was a good guy, is it?’
The announcement of golf’s largest merger comes one year after the creation of LIV Golf. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan was at the Canadian Open that week and emphatically said of any player who joined or thought about joining LIV, “Have you ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour?”
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan struck a deal with LIV without informing the PGA players
Now they are partners, giving Saudi Arabia a commercial voice in the premier golf organization.
“They followed their path, we followed ours, and after a lot of introspection you realize that all this tension in the game is not a good thing,” Monahan told The Associated Press via a telephone interview. “We have a responsibility for our tour and for the game, and we felt the time was right to have that conversation.”
The deal had been in the works for the past seven weeks, when Monahan first met Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the PIF. Players generally approve schedule changes and other match matters. They were omitted in this one.
“Nobody’s heard of this,” Monahan said. “Our players expect us to operate in the best interests of the tour.”