For the past month or so, questions have surfaced regarding Matthew Wolff’s status with the LIV Golf Smash team captained by Brooks Koepka. The team’s Twitter bio scrubbed a mention of Wolff, and Wolff also withdrew from LIV’s Washington DC event after an apparent injury – which, as reported by the Shotgun Start podcast, was rumoured to have come after a very intense Koepka-led workout on Saturday at 6:30am.
Koepka spoke to Sports Illustrated ahead of this week’s LIV event in London, and he didn’t have many glowing things to say about his teammate.
Here’s the full quote from Alex Miceli’s report:
“I mean, when you quit on your round, you give up and stuff like that, that’s not competing,” Koepka told Sports Illustrated. “I’m not a big fan of that. You don’t work hard. It’s very tough. It’s very tough to have even like 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.”
As recently as last week, Wolff was part of Smash GC, struggling at Valderrama with rounds of 77-72-76. Koepka didn’t clarify Wolff’s status moving forward.
Koepka’s remarks could be considered particularly harsh given Wolff’s documented mental health struggles. He took most of 2021 off, sharing with Golf Digest that he ‘struggled to get out of bed’ while dealing with the rigours of professional golf.
The 24-year-old rose to stardom on the PGA Tour, winning the 2019 3M Open just a few starts removed from turning pro. He was also in the final group of the 2020 US Open, finishing runner-up to Bryson DeChambeau at Winged Foot.
Wolff started the 2023 LIV season off strongly, finishing in the top 15 in his first three starts. He was also a late WD from the US Open qualifier at Pine Tree Golf Club in Florida.
