Brooks Koepka hits out at NBC and LIV Golf critic Brandel Chamblee after merger of PGA- and Saudi-backed series, demanding ‘wellness check’ from analyst
- Koepka was the first LIV player to win a PGA event at the PGA Championship
- Chamblee is embroiled in a $750 million lawsuit after openly criticizing LIV players
- DailyMail.com provides all the latest international sports news
Brooks Koepka has rubbed the wounds of Brandel Chamblee, one of his biggest critics, on social media following the announcement that the PGA Tour, LIV and DP World Tour are unifying.
“Welfare Check on Chamblee,” tweeted the 33-year-old, who recently became the first LIV player to win a PGA event by claiming victory at the PGA Championship.
Chamblee, who is a former PGA Tour pro, has previously criticized the Saudi Foreign Investment Fund, also known as PIF, for backing LIV Golf.
He has also regularly questioned several players’ love of the game, including Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed and Bryson DeChambeau after receiving large payouts to join the Rebel Tour and blamed former PGA members. Turn to help Saudi Arabia with its “sports wash” strategy.
Last year, Chamblee and Golf Channel were hit with a $750 million lawsuit, brought by Reed, the 2018 Masters winner alleging that the 60-year-old’s “calculated and malicious” comments on the air that ” had a direct effect on his livelihood.’
Brooks Koepka rubbed salts into Brandel Chamblee’s wounds after LIV and PGA merger
Koepka became the first LIV player to win a PGA event by winning the PGA Championship
Brandel Chamblee – a former PGA pro – is an analyst for Golf Channel and NBC Sports
Often outspoken, Chamblee is now the target of the wrath of LIV golfers, but that hasn’t stopped the TV personality from doubling down on his attacks on the rival circuit.
Koepka’s coach, Claude Harmon III, also recently went public with his remarks about Chamblee, calling him “an NBC and Golf Channel paid actor.”
‘Brandel is a paid actor for NBC and Golf Channel… And I mean, I love him, I think Eamon is a fantastic writer, but for Eamon Lynch and Brandel Chamblee, who worked for NBC Golf Channel for utter the words ‘sportswashing’ “when the company they work for televised the last two Winter Olympics in Russia and China with the same executives they had,” Harmon III told Golfweek.
“It’s not like they were good leaders back then. It’s not like Putin is a good guy, is it? »
The announcement of golf’s biggest merger comes a year after LIV Golf was founded. PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan was at the Canadian Open that week and said of any player who joined LIV or was thinking about it: “Have you ever had to apologize for being a PGA Round?”
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan made a deal with LIV without telling PGA players
Now they are partners, giving Saudi Arabia a commercial voice in the premier golf organization.
“They were going their way, we were going ours, and after a lot of soul-searching, you realize that all this tension in the game is not a good thing,” Monahan told The Associated Press via phone interview.
“We have a responsibility to our tour and to the game, and we felt the time was right to have this conversation.”
The deal had been in the works for seven weeks, when Monahan first met Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the PIF. Players generally approve schedule changes and other competitive matters. On this one, they were left out.
“Nobody had heard of it,” Monahan said. “Our players expect us to act in the best interest of the circuit.”
