Brooks Koepka’s coach slams Brandel Chamblee for saying no LIV player should play at the Ryder Cup
Brooks Koepka’s coach slams Golf Channel’s ‘paid actor’ Brandel Chamblee for saying no LIV star should play at the Ryder Cup for citing sportswashing after NBC showed Russia and China’s Winter Olympics
- Brandel Chamblee’s comments came two days after Brooks Koepka won the PGA
- Koepka became the first ever LIV Golf player to win a PGA Tour major
- DailyMail.com provides all the latest international sports news
Claude Harmon III – coach of PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka – has ripped off Brandel Chamblee after the Gulf Channel studio analyst suggested no LIV player should be allowed to play at the Ryder Cup this fall.
On Sunday, Koepka won Oak Hill for the third time in his career. His win made headlines in the aftermath, as the 33-year-old became the first player on the Saudi Arabian-backed LIV Golf Tour to win a major PGA Tour championship.
On the PGA Championship broadcast, Chamblee and Brad Faxon were involved in a heated argument when the latter – once ranked as high as No. 11 – said Koepka might deserve a spot on the USA Ryder Cup team, though Chamblee strongly opposes it . happens.
“The PGA of America runs the Ryder Cup,” Faxon said, explaining Golf’s governing bodies to his broadcast partner. “I don’t think this has anything to do with… they don’t play for money at the Ryder Cup, Brandle. They play for their country. He’s an American.’
After the point, Chamblee repeated the lines ‘they are playing for their country’, later adding: ‘There is a certain sense that the Europeans are playing for their tour.’ Faxon then stated that “they were playing golf,” before an awkward silence set in on the air, with both former pros staring at each other.
Brook Koepka’s coach Claude Harmon III (R) destroyed it against LIV Golfers competing for the Ryder Cup in the fall (seen with Koepka, left, in 2017)
Brad Faxon argues that maybe Brooks Koepka deserves a spot on the Ryder Cup team and that Brandel Chamblee didn’t have it.
Chamblee cannot comprehend the fact that a LIV golfer has just won a major. Uncomfortable. pic.twitter.com/PhCVp6qBV8
— Mark Harris (@itismarkharris) May 21, 2023
Brandel Chamblee, from The Golf Channel, wondered if LIV golfers would play for their country
And on Tuesday, two days after Koepka’s big win, Harmon III didn’t shy away from LIV Tour critics like Golfweek writer Eamon Lynch and Chamblee.
The latter previously used the term “sportswashing” in abundance in Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund that funded the PGA Tour rival.
“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. It’s not like they were good leaders back then,” Harmon III said via Golfweek.
“It’s not like Putin was a good guy, is it?”
Koepka became the first-ever LIV golfer to win a PGA Major championship at Oak Hill on Sunday
After Sunday’s final at Oak Hill, US Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson made it clear that he would not exclude LIV players from his 12-man roster.
“Yes, he’s on the team. He has direct control over that, absolutely,” said the 47-year-old. “Koepka could essentially earn a spot through the six automatic spots or, if he missed, through one of the six captain’s picks.”
The Ryder Cup is usually held at the end of September each year, with the US qualifying rounding off after the BMW Championship on August 20.
Whoever finishes among the top six ranked players at that point automatically qualifies, with Johnson selecting his six captain choice after the 2023 Tour Championship.
This year’s Ryder Cup will be played in Italy for the first time at the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in Rome.