Ahead of the all-important weekend, the Ryder Cup pre-tournament press conferences have been going about recently. Not surprisingly, quite a few questions about LIV Golf came at the desk of Brooks Koepka. But then it makes sense since he is the only LIV golfer on the scene. With no LIV golfer playing on the European side, the onus ended up on Koepka to answer all questions related to his league.

Among them, one question took Koepka back in time and addressed his decision to move to LIV Golf. Speaking of his mindset about the Ryder Cup when he decided to join LIV golf back in 2022, Koepka sort of threw a reality check at the golf world. How did he respond to the question?

Ryder Cup was not Koepka’s priority

Ryder Cup is obviously a big deal for star golfers and to risk a spot in the team would certainly be a huge decision. However, Brooks Koepka didn’t say much about his thoughts on how it played with his decision to join LIV. He just spoke about how after the Masters this year at Augusta, his motivation to make it to the Ryder Cup took off.

Koepka shared the second position with Phil Mickelson at the Masters this year, finishing below Jon Rahm who won the title. A follow-up question addressed the point he skipped though. It specifically mentioned last June and focused on his mindset back then.

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Koepka sort of blew the bubble and confessed that the Ryder Cup actually was not on his mind when he made the decision. “I had a lot of other things going on in my mind. I don’t think Ryder Cup was one of them at that particular moment.” He added that as time went by the event sort of moved up to the front of his mind.

Looking back at his interviews from the time, it does seem like he is being honest about his mindset back then. He left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf amidst a number of concerns. Koepka may actually have had a lot on his mind that Ryder Cup didn’t make it to his priority list. 

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Among other things, the injuries he sustained and the stress he suffered probably played a major role. During the past couple of years, before he made the shift, he struggled quite a bit.

The real reason why Koepka moved to LIV

“It’s not been an easy last couple of years,” Koepka had said when he was questioned about the reasons for his move to LIV golf back in June last year. The golfer suffered a series of injuries during 2019 and 2020. The constant issues lined up one after the other and likely slowed down his recovery, leading to further injuries.

It all started with a left knee injury that happened in 2019, that later grew more serious in comparison to the initial assessment. Later, playing with that impact resulted in a hip injury due to uneven weight shifting on his body. 

One thing led to another and he practically spent many months healing and injuring himself by playing before he properly healed. This loop distressed Koepka considerably. He claimed that sufficient breaks and a more relaxed schedule changed his mind.

Well, Ryder Cup is definitely important but not more than his health and career though, and it makes a lot of sense. However, Koepka didn’t really give up on it either. He fought his way and made it to the team eventually. Very inspiring story, indeed! 

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