{"id":636439,"date":"2026-05-11T11:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T11:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/636439\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T11:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T11:12:14","slug":"brooks-koepka-is-having-fun-again-all-he-had-to-do-was-leave-liv-golf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/636439\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooks Koepka Is Having Fun Again. All He Had to Do Was Leave LIV Golf."},"content":{"rendered":"

Brooks Koepka has found his love for golf once again. <\/p>\n

Competing in South Carolina this weekend at the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic, Koepka shot a 64 in Saturday\u2019s third round to vault himself into contention heading into Sunday. He finished the round with a 29 on the back nine\u2014his first time breaking 30 on the PGA Tour since 2019. <\/p>\n

Entering Sunday, Koepka is tied for seventh place at 11-under par, five strokes behind the leader Mark Hubbard. He says he hasn\u2019t had this much fun playing the game since winning the PGA Championship in 2023 at Oak Hill Country Club.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the most excited I\u2019ve been playing golf in a long, long time,\u201d Koepka said Saturday<\/a> after shooting a 64 at Dunes Golf & Beach Club. \u201cI can tell you that much. It\u2019s been a long time since I\u2019ve had fun playing golf. It\u2019s been at least a year. I was very frustrated last year, just wasn\u2019t in a good place. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like anybody. If they\u2019re happy off the golf course, they\u2019re going to play well on the golf course. I think that\u2019s a huge piece of it. I\u2019ve found that. I\u2019ve re-found my happiness, my love for the game. All the pieces are connected. Now, I\u2019ve just got to go out and go play.\u201d <\/p>\n

HARIG: 6 Burning Questions As LIV Golf Fights to Survive<\/a><\/p>\n

Koepka departed the PGA Tour for LIV Golf<\/a> in the summer of 2022, bluntly explaining that he left \u201cfor the dough.\u201d Koepka says he landed a signing bonus of over $100 million to do so. He spent over three years on the Saudi-backed golf tour and won one of his five career majors in that span\u2014the 2023 PGA Championship\u2014but became frustrated as his game slipped the longer he competed in LIV. <\/p>\n

It turns out the soulless money grab that LIV Golf proved to be (and always was) didn\u2019t help his game … or his love for it.<\/p>\n

When Koepka announced he was departing LIV to rejoin the PGA Tour<\/a> back in December, he said he was leaving to spend more time with his family at home. His reinstatement was approved and he agreed to pay the hefty price\u2014both financially and competitively, as he has to earn his way into the PGA Tour\u2019s signature events moving forward. <\/p>\n

NEXT: LIV Golfers Are Quietly Planning Their Next Moves<\/a><\/p>\n

Koepka now is off the LIV Golf grind, spending more time with family and competing on the world\u2019s premier golf circuit once again. Everything is coming together as the 2026 PGA Championship approaches next week. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m super excited,\u201d Koepka said of the PGA Championship. \u201cIt\u2019s something I\u2019ve been looking forward to for a while. I feel like I\u2019ve been knocking on the door. It\u2019s very close. It\u2019s one piece here, one piece there. Short game wasn\u2019t there at Augusta. … Short game now is starting to come around.\u201d<\/p>\n

The PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pa., begins Thursday. When he tees off, Koepka will be swinging with that rediscovered swagger and enthusiasm that catapulted him to the top of the game before time with LIV.<\/p>\n

More from Sports Illustrated\"\"Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brooks Koepka has found his love for golf once again. Competing in South Carolina this weekend at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-636439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636439","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=636439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}