Brooks Koepka’s LIV Golf drama spotlights the game’s inner struggle

Brooks Koepka has again brought some attention to LIV Golf, but this time by taking one of his trusty mid-irons and jamming it directly onto the third rail of modern sensibilities: The mental struggle.

You couldn’t help but notice in recent years, more than ever, emphasis is often directed toward the athlete’s psyche and the need to destigmatize the occasional and/or constant need for emotional support.

Entire industries — from pharmaceuticals to literature to self-help gurus — have welled up from the cracks in our collective psyche.

That’s good, some will say, since previous generations reflexively ignored such things and lots of lives were negatively affected.

That’s bad, say others, suggesting something worth doing is almost always seen by some as worth overdoing. We’ve gone quickly into the over-coddling realm, they say.

Take your pick.

The emotional aspect of sports found a new headline this past week in perhaps the most mental sport of them all — golf, where fractions of fractions can mean the difference between success and near-crippling failure.

Ever since yips with the putter ruined the game for Old Tom Morris, even the world’s best golfers have dealt with periods of self-criticism, self-doubt and occasionally self-hate. They’ve either ratcheted up their grind and dug hard in the dirt to find answers, or took a couple weeks off to find the flaw, fix it, then bury the fix into their game through thousands of practice shots.

Matthew Wolff, just a few years ago considered an up-and-comer if not a can’t-miss, has openly dealt with the mental side. He even took two months off in 2021 to get away and make things better. In a Golf Digest interview two years ago, he said at times he just wanted to “stay in my bed and not be in front of everyone and not screw up in front of anyone.”

Last year, either to make a clean break or to cash in while the cashing was good, he made the jump to the LIV tour. Given LIV’s insistence on introducing a team concept to professional golf, complete with semi-juvenile team names, Wolff found himself on the four-man team known as Smash GC, “captained” by Brooks Koepka.

Unfortunately, Wolff’s game hasn’t much improved. In fields of 48, including some highly overmatched golfers, Wolff has finished outside the top 30 in the last five tournaments.

Also unfortunately — unless you’re among those who’d rather say “fortunately” — Wolff’s team captain apparently comes from the school of tough love, which would surprise no one who has paid attention to his demeanor on and off the course.

“When you quit on your round, you give up and stuff like that, that’s not competing,” Koepka said in an interview. “I’m not a big fan of that. You don’t work hard. It’s very tough.”

It was never gonna be easy to build a team dynamic in professional golf — especially in a mega-money league playing 54-hole shotgun events — but it’s impossible, Brooks said, “when you’ve got one guy that won’t work, one guy is not going to give any effort, he’s going to quit on the course, break clubs, get down, bad body language … it’s very tough.”

A lot of us were withholding payment when it came to buying into the whole team thing, but for other good reasons, not because we anticipated this kind of nastiness. And it got nastier, by the way.

At the collegiate level, plenty of coaches channel their football and basketball cohorts and play Bad Cop, but this was new territory, brought about by Greg Norman’s insistence on selling year-round team golf.

“I’ve basically given up on him,” Brooks said of Wolff. “A lot of talent, but I mean, the talent’s wasted.”

Yikes.

USA’s Brooks Koepka hits a shot during the second round of the LIV Golf tournament in Adelaide on April 22, 2023. (Photo by Brenton Edwards / AFP)

Golf isn’t football. If it were, Wolff could perhaps tighten his laces, tape up and redouble his physical efforts in an effort to overcome his mental hurdles.

Instead, his captain’s comments appear to have had the opposite effect.

“To hear through the media that our team leader has given up on me is heartbreaking,” Wolff said in a statement delivered to SI. “But I’m moving forward and won’t ever give up on myself. While on-course results may not appear now to be positive indicators, I’m trying to win an even bigger game with my life.”

Even imagined negativity can ruin a day of golf, so consider the potential (and continued) damage done to Wolff’s game through such a public critique. Well, don’t just imagine it, consider it: In Friday’s opening round of this week’s LIV tournament in London, Wolff shot 2-over 73, tied for 38th out of 48, 10 shots behind the leader.

His score was, yet again, wasn’t among his four-man team’s three best and therefore wasn’t counted on the team leaderboard.

The great Bobby Jones famously declared golf as a game played on a 5½-inch course — the one between your ears. No way he could’ve ever imagined this specific scenario, but he knew of the struggle because, even though he conquered it in the biggest manner ever, it ate at his guts every step of the way.

If you pay attention to golf at its highest levels, you’re likely familiar with the legions of greats, near-greats and could’ve-beens who couldn’t beat back whatever particular demon got into their bloodstream.

For all its hoopla and all of its hundreds of millions, LIV Golf has finally given us something to observe. Hopefully, it eventually turns out well for Matt Wolff, a young golfer who obviously has the necessary skills.

But golf’s only guarantee is stress and more stress. All respect it, some manage it. And some don’t.

— Reach Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com