[PHOTO: Sean M. Haffey]
The date is January 4. The year hasn’t even learned to crawl and already there’s more beef on Golf Twitter (X) than inside most abattoirs. Yesterday, Brandel Chamblee and No Laying Up squared off over the economics of golf broadcasting but it was a seemingly unrelated tweet that caught the attention of golf fans across the internet:
— Brooks Koepka (@BKoepka) January 3, 2024
As most of us whippersnappers know, the Kermit-sipping-tea meme is used when a person acknowledges a controversial statement but chooses to remain above the fray, sipping tea at a cosy diner just off the high road. It’s possible that Koepka was simply enjoying a hot beverage or the Chamblee drama from afar – we know those two have a chequered past – but that would be too simple, too neat. No, no, no. This is way messier than that, and it all starts with comments Rory McIlroy made on a new episode of The Overlap this week. They went something like this…
https://twitter.com/NUCLRGOLF/status/1742538892530610269
That was just the start, too. McIlroy characterised Jon Rahm’s recent LIV Golf move as “a smart business decision”, called for him to remain a part of European Ryder Cup team and even admitted to meeting with Yasir Al-Rumayyan at the end of 2022, before PGA Tour and PIF merger talks had even began, crediting himself with the bringing the two sides to the table.
The comments were a sudden change of tune from McIlroy, one of the breakaway league’s biggest critics throughout 2022 and ’23, but Koepka didn’t seem overly troubled by the dissonance. At least for the time being. Things could get very interesting come the Masters… or perhaps even sooner if you believe the reports.
