{"id":367496,"date":"2025-12-24T12:39:04","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T12:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/367496\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T12:39:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T12:39:04","slug":"brooks-koepka-quits-liv-golf-ahead-of-2026-season-with-talor-gooch-taking-over-as-captain-of-smash-gc-golf-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/367496\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooks Koepka quits LIV Golf ahead of 2026 season with Talor Gooch taking over as captain of Smash GC | Golf News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Brooks Koepka will no longer compete in LIV Golf so he can prioritise the needs of his family and stay closer to home.<\/p>\n<p>The American was one of the Saudi-backed tour&#8217;s signature signings when the controversial league was launched in 2022 and still had one year remaining on his current deal.<\/p>\n<p>During his time as captain of Smash GC, Koepka won five trophies, including individual and team titles.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Koepka is deeply grateful to Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Scott O&#8217;Neil, and the LIV Golf leadership team, his teammates, and the fans,&#8221; Koepka&#8217;s representatives said.<\/p>\n<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sdc-article-image__item\" loading=\"lazy\" intrinsicsize=\"768x432\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/skysports-liv-golf-brooks-koepka_7118611.jpg\"   alt=\"Brooks Koepka drives the ball during day two of LIV Golf Chicago  (Photo by Joseph Weiser\/Icon Sportswire) (Icon Sportswire via AP Images)\" data-testid=\"article-image-image\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        Image:<br \/>\n        Brooks Koepka was part of the inaugural group of players that joined the league in 2022 <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Family has always guided Brooks&#8217; decisions, and he feels this is the right moment to spend more time at home.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Brooks will continue to be a huge supporter of LIV Golf and wishes the league and its players continued success. Brooks remains passionate about the game of golf and will keep fans updated on what&#8217;s ahead.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Can Koepka be lured back to PGA Tour?<\/p>\n<p>Sky Sports News reporter Jamie Weir:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Koepka has always been about prioritising his family, golf has always been a means to an end for him, it hasn&#8217;t been his life, his sole purpose has been to look after his family.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He joined LIV because his body was breaking down. When he fully recovered he was asked if he regretted the decision and intimated he kind of did.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He was a golfer that seemed to have buyer&#8217;s remorse, and I don&#8217;t think his decision to step away comes as a big surprise.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It would be a great coup for the PGA Tour if they could get back a player of Koepka&#8217;s stature, a proven champion and one of the greatest players of his generation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Is there a pathway back for him? The PGA Tour have intimated in the past that there would be a one-year mandatory suspension served on players from the last LIV event they participated in.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Koepka&#8217;s last LIV event was in August, so will it be August 2026 before he&#8217;s even eligible to play on the PGA Tour again, or will they create a little loophole for the five-time major champion to come back sooner?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He could play in the DP World Tour and he is exempt for all four major championships next year as well.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>        Twitter<\/p>\n<p>                This content is provided by Twitter, which may be using cookies and other technologies.<br \/>\n                To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.<br \/>\n                You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Twitter cookies or to allow those cookies just once.<br \/>\n                You can change your settings at any time via the <a href=\"#privacy-options\">Privacy Options<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>                Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Twitter cookies.<br \/>\n                To view this content you can use the button below to allow Twitter cookies for this session only.<\/p>\n<p>                <a href=\"#\" class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__link ui-consent-roadblock-permanently\" data-single-click-vendor-name=\"twitter\" data-show-on-fallback=\"false\" data-testid=\"consent-roadblock-allow\">Enable Cookies<\/a><br \/>\n                <a href=\"#\" class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__link ui-consent-roadblock-once\" data-single-click-vendor-name=\"twitter\" data-testid=\"consent-roadblock-allow-once\">Allow Cookies Once<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Koepka is not currently a member of the DP World Tour and has missed the deadline for applying for membership for the 2026 season.<\/p>\n<p>However, he can ask for special dispensation and &#8211; by virtue of being an honorary lifetime member as a major champion &#8211; he could be granted this.<\/p>\n<p>He played four times on the DP World Tour this season &#8211; at the Irish Open, BMW PGA Championship, French Open and Dunhill Links &#8211; all on sponsor invitations.<\/p>\n<p>He could choose this route of relying on DP World Tour invites to bolster his schedule, in addition to the four major championships for which he is exempt.<\/p>\n<p>As he was not a DP World Tour member during his time at LIV, he has no outstanding fines to pay or suspensions to serve.<\/p>\n<p>Gooch to become new captain <\/p>\n<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sdc-article-image__item\" loading=\"lazy\" intrinsicsize=\"768x432\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/skysports-talor-gooch-smash-gc_7118610.jpg\"   alt=\"Talor Gooch of Smash GC hits his shot from the first tee during the second round of LIV Golf Andaluc..a (Jon Ferrey\/LIV Golf via AP)\" data-testid=\"article-image-image\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        Image:<br \/>\n        Talor Gooch will be the new captain of Smash GC<\/p>\n<p>Talor Gooch will take over as captain of Smash GC for the 2026 season following Koepka&#8217;s departure.<\/p>\n<p>He won numerous individual titles in LIV Golf in 2023 after joining the league in the inaugural 2022 season.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I want to start by thanking Brooks,&#8221; Gooch said. &#8220;He is one of the greatest competitors in the game and I have learned so much from him while being his teammate on Smash GC.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s a friend and teammate, and I have great respect for his decision. I wish him, Jena, and their family all the best.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Looking ahead, I am incredibly honored and excited to officially take on the captaincy role for the 2026 season.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m excited and ready to embrace this new leadership and career challenge. I&#8217;m eager to build on the competitive standard Brooks established and work with our players to lead this team into this next successful chapter.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/golfnow-logo.png\" class=\"sdc-interactive-golfnow__branding-image\" alt=\"Golf Now logo.\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"sdc-interactive-golfnow__branding-text\" class=\"sdc-interactive-golfnow__branding-text\">Get the best prices and book a round at one of 1,700 courses across the UK &amp; Ireland<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brooks Koepka will no longer compete in LIV Golf so he can prioritise the needs of his family&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-367496","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}