Do not expect to find Brooks Koepka and Matthew Wolff dining together at one of our local establishments or hitting balls together on the range… unless the Jupiter residents are aiming at each other.
Koepka accused Wolff of quitting when Wolff was a part of Koepka’s LIV Golf team. The five-time major champion questioned Wolff’s work ethic and attitude, saying he has a lot of talent but his “talent’s wasted.”
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“I mean, when you quit on your round, you give up and stuff like that, that’s not competing,” Koepka told Sports Illustrated this week before LIV’s event outside of London.
“I’m not a big fan of that. You don’t work hard. It’s very tough. It’s very tough to have … a team dynamic 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, gets down, bad body language, it’s very tough. I’ve basically given up on him… a lot of talent, but I mean the talent’s wasted.”
After a solid start in which he had three top 10 finishes, Wolff has struggled recently in the league funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. He has finished no higher than 30th in each of his last five events and was 44th out of 48 players in Spain two weeks ago. In May, Wolff withdrew from the tournament outside of Washington, DC, with an undisclosed injury after the second round. He was 46th at the time.
In June, Wolff withdrew from the US Open final qualifying at Pine Tree Golf Club in Boynton Beach.
Koepka is in the midst of a season in which he won his fifth major at the PGA Championship, was runner-up at the Masters and claimed the $4 million top prize at the LIV event outside of Orlando.
Wolff joined Koepka’s Smash GC team this season as a replacement for Peter Uihlein, who left for Dustin Johnson’s team. But about six weeks ago it was reported Wolff left Koepka’s team.
Wolff told Sports Illustrated this week that he is healthy.
“I’m here, you know, trying to do what I can to play the best round of golf and that’s going to help the team,” he said. “I’m just here to focus on myself and try to play some good golf and that’s what everyone’s really trying to do, because golf is trying to put the best score up and then if that helps your team it’s great.”
Wolff is ranked 25th in LIV’s season-long standings.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Brooks Koepka calls former LIV Golf team member Matthew Wolff a quitter, says he has ‘wasted’ talent