Graeme McDowell faced being left out in the cold by the world of elite golf, but he has been handed an unexpected lifeline by five-time major champion Brooks Koepka to stay in LIV Golf
Ryder Cup hero Graeme McDowell has been brought back from the brink of a LIV Golf exile by Brooks Koepka when it appeared the Northern Irishman had lost all hope of having a roster spot for 2024.
McDowell, the 2010 US Open champion, finished 40th in the 48-man field in LIV’s second season, bringing him to the end of his contract with the Saudi Arabia-backed tour. Only out-of-contract players who finished in the top 24 in the standings were guaranteed a place on the 2024 roster.
And when McDowell was let go from his team, Cleeks Golf Club, by captain Martin Kaymer earlier this month, it appeared he was out of options and his brief stay with LIV was over.
That would have left McDowell with precious few options, with settling a seven-figure fine to return to the DP World Tour – as former LIV member Bernd Wiesberger did last week – perhaps his only way of playing on a big stage in 2024. But unlike Wiesberger, McDowell would have had to pay the fine out of his own pocket, with the Austrian having a clause in his contract that LIV would pay his fines from other tours if he lost his LIV place.
But according to The Telegraph, McDowell has been thrown a lifeline by five-time major champion Koepka, the captain of Smash Golf Club. The 44-year-old, who banked $2.5million in prize money in 2023, is set to be announced as Smash’s new signing imminently.
McDowell is set to replace Koepka’s brother, Chase, who finished in the bottom four of LIV’s standings and being relegated from the circuit. His only chance of playing on the tour in 2024 is a top-three finish at next month’s LIV Golf Promotions qualifying tournament.
McDowell will join Jason Kokrak and Matthew Wolff on the Smash team, who finished eighth in the standings at the end of the season. The Cleeks finished 10th, and with Koepka – undeniably one of the best players in the world – on his side, McDowell appears to have landed in a better position to enjoy a stronger season in 2024.
“I’m not sure McDowell can believe his luck,” a source told The Telegraph. “Obviously, all was not rosy on the Cleeks and with G-Mac and Kaymer. He thought he was out of LIV and would have to be participating on the Asian Tour next year. Playing alongside Koepka – probably the best player on LIV – is a massive result for him.”
McDowell, a key member of Europe’s Ryder Cup wins in 2010, 2012 and 2014, was one of LIV’s most prominent spokesmen when the tour launched in 2022. The Portrush native often faced the music at press conferences, and he admitted in September he had “regrets” over how he handled the probing questions about Saudi Arabia’s human rights record and more that came his way.
“I was not a paid ambassador for Saudi Arabia’s human rights. I was a paid ambassador for a golf tour,” McDowell told The Thing About Golf podcast. “You start answering questions that can’t be answered. I regret those answers, not that they were necessarily wrong; that was what we had been prepped to say by this golf tour that’s paying me.
“This new start-up golf tour is paying me, not the Saudi human rights organization. This is a financially advantageous opportunity for me at this point in my career. The conclusion. It was all about the money, of course. It was unnecessary to say. That was my primary purpose, of course; it was a business decision.”
With Wiesberger and McDowell gone, the Cleeks have two open roster spots; the only players signed for the upcoming season are Kaymer and Richard Bland of England.