LIV Golf hoped Koepka’s major win would kickstart their revolution but it’s the same old story in DC

With a fifth major win in the form of his third PGA Championship triumph, $3.1 million in prize money and adoring fans, five days ago Brooks Koepka was flying high. How far and how fast he must feel now that he has fallen.

For all the furore and controversy, tit-for-tat and digging between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour, much like The Masters, the supposed bitterness between the two warring sides did not spill over from media mouthpieces. and the court on the course at the PGA Championship.

Koepka was welcomed with open arms. A champion embraced by the hundreds of thousands of fans at Oak Hill as respectful spectators, despite the missed ‘sold’ call, showered him with the praise he deserved on the 18th green.

But after a week of flaunting the Wanamaker trophy around South Florida, Koepka snapped back to reality.

The 2023 PGA Championship winner wasn’t fighting the likes of World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm again. Instead, he was at Trump National Golf Club in Washington, DC, back with his rebellious cohort of brother Chase, Jason Kokrak, and Matt Wolff on the LIV Golf series.

Five days later, the American returned to reality on his return to the LIV Golf circuit.

However, there seemed to be more enthusiasm for Donald Trump among the fans at the LIV event.

And while the fans were just as excited to see him play, they had dwindled significantly, a far cry from the thousands that gathered last week.

Most of the spectators naturally gravitated towards Koepka on the driving range to watch the 2023 PGA of USA winner warm up.

Similarly, Koepka’s group of himself, Open champion Cam Smith and Dustin Johnson drew the largest crowd around his tee box in the first for the shotgun start of the controversial breakaway.

But again, this could hardly constitute a crowd compared to the hordes of last week. Just two rows deep and barely past the tee, some 100 people watched Koepka begin his campaign to carry on his Grand Slam-winning form for another week.

Most claimed that they had always intended to come to LIV this weekend for the standard reasons; Turns out they lived nearby, or it was an excuse to see the professionals up close and personal. They certainly didn’t have to fight crowds to fight their way to the front of the ropes this week.

In fact, many viewers said they weren’t even there for Koepka. Some cited Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau or, better yet, Donald Trump, as the names that drew them to the outskirts of the nation’s capital.

The LIV Golf show had apparently drawn its usual numbers, for the usual reasons. And what a spectacle or, perhaps more appropriately, what a fanfare it was.

The 33-year-old greeted a group of children wearing Smash GC jerseys, his team.

LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman had greeted Kopeka with a number 5 balloon prior to the tournament.

Unsurprisingly, Trump pushed his way into the spotlight, waving to his loyal subjects from his golf cart, with more chasing the former president and his motorcade of around 15 golf carts as he left the shooting range than the others. who followed Koepka on his way to the first jersey.

And as Koepka, Smith and Johnson waited on the tee, the line of patrons cheered as the Frog-X skydiving team descended carrying the crashed banner and the LIV Golf flag at the same time.

All the while, music played throughout the course, a continuous thud of heavy beats and even an upbeat remix of Oasis’ Don’t Look Back In Anger, a message Greg Norman should take note of.

But perhaps LIV felt the need to blast the tunes since the cheers certainly weren’t building atmosphere. Ian Poulter’s effort to irritate the crowd when he arrived on the driving range was met with lackluster derision and the announcer on the tee also failed in his attempt to “make some noise in the capital”.

It had nothing to do with the raucous New York state crowds that celebrated Koepka just five days ago and even high-fived and fist-pumped club pro Michael Block, who, ironically, was the one to make an appearance at the PGA Tour this week in place of the big winner.

While Block was back on TV screens, Koepka was not. The week after he had a newly crowned Grand Slam winner on his books, no less than a five-time Grand Slam winner, the breakaway couldn’t even show him on national television.

Former President Donald Trump is back in the spotlight

The 45th President of the United States was followed by a motorcade of about 15 golf carts.

The morning of Round One in DC, LIV announced that it would return to its YouTube coverage. The Saudi-backed breakaway tried to sell it as an attempt to provide even more coverage for its fans, but it smacked of a regression with the PGA Tour rival returning to where it started in 2022.

LIV’s multi-year revenue-sharing deal with the CW Network, which it signed in January, remains in effect, meaning viewers in the US, Canada, Mexico and South Korea will have to pay $3 per day to watch the tournament on Youtube. to protect the circuit’s existing transmission agreements.

But the CW’s coverage, which has seen ratings drop but 24 percent week-over-week, was restricted to its app for Friday’s round, while Saturday and Sunday would be lucky to hit linear and digital platforms. of the network.

What Norman and his band of merry men no doubt hoped would be a defining moment for the LIV revolution turned out to be nothing more than another flop, with even one major 2023 champion not being a big enough magnet.