Fred Couples has been one of the more vocal PGA Tour players in opposition to LIV Golf. Now, as reunification talks are taking place, Couples is as interested as the next player to learn how things play out. But Couples, speaking on a radio show on Thursday, said he knows five-time major champion Brooks Koepka is anxious to return to the PGA Tour but isn’t sure how many LIV players will be welcomed back.
“I talked to Brooks Koepka all the time. I love Brooks Koepka, and I’m not going to say anything extra except I talked to him all the time,” Couples told Dave Mahler and Dick Fain of KJR 93.3 FM ahead of receiving the Royal Brougham Sports Legend Award from the Seattle Sports Commission. “He wants to come back. I will say that I believe he really wants to come back and play the Tour. But for me personally, there are a lot of guys that are going to be pushed out…I don’t know how you get an elevated event with 72 people and bring seven superstars in. What do you tell those other seven? Bye-bye.”
Couples makes a good point, and clearly there are details, such as the return of LIV players, that still need to be worked out. Couples, 65, who remains active on PGA Tour Champions, explained why he has toned down his comments on golf’s civil war. “I’m not nearly as vocal as I was because everything’s kind of calmed down,” Couples said. “I want to say Jon Rahm is the last guy to leave here, maybe there’s been one or two more. Basically no one, you know.”Couples said he’s tight with Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay, two stalwarts of the U.S. Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup teams, and that Scottie Scheffler has become a superstar and still is just 27 years old. Couples see the Tour getting increasingly younger and producing new names.
“It’s succeeding,” he said. “The Tour’s age is going rapidly lower and lower and lower, so for us to throw them a bone to come back on the Tour…”
Couples’s voice trailed off but his point was made: how many of the LIV golfers does the Tour really need?
Couples was in Seattle, the city where he spent his formative years, to accept a lifetime achievement award and was joined by his University of Houston roommate and dear friend Jim Nantz. They shared a three-hour lunch. Said Nantz, “I’m so proud of Fred’s voice being heard during all of this turmoil. He’s been exceptional standing up for the game, and I believe standing up for what’s just, and I’m really proud of him that he found his voice through all this.”
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Couples on reunification: “What do you tell those other 7? Bye-bye?”
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