LIV Golf Jeddah: Brooks Koepka tees up chance for $4.75m pay day in Saudi Arabia

Brooks Koepka is only one stroke off the pace at LIV Golf Jeddah heading into the final round at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club in Saudi Arabia. 

Ben Smith's picture
Sat, 15 Oct 2022
LIV Golf Jeddah: Brooks Koepka tees up chance for $4.75m pay day in Saudi Arabia

Brooks Koepka will begin the final round of LIV Golf Invitational Jeddah only one stroke behind the American Peter Uihlein. 

Uihlein, who is one of three players remaining in the antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour, carded a second round of 7-under 63 at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club in Saudi Arabia to sit atop the leader board after two rounds on 12-under par. 

Related: Kevin Na forced out of Jeddah Invitational

Four-time major champion Koepka carded eight birdies yesterday with a bogey-free 62 and followed that with a 67 on Saturday. 

He began the second round - which has a shotgun start - on the first hole with Charl Schwartzel (who won LIV's curtain-raising event in June) and Hideto Tanihara. 

Koepka made three birdies on the front nine, dropping his only shot at the par-3 third hole. He picked up another stroke at No. 10 but dropped two shots with a double bogey at 13, before undoing the damage with birdies at 16 and 18. 

Related: Brooks has no time for Bubba's banter

The American joined the circuit in June before their second $25m event in Portland, Oregon. 

He told the world that "opinions change" after he decided to join the breakaway tour for a fee that is said to be north of $100m. 

This week he and DeChambeau complained about the issue surrounding world ranking points on the LIV circuit. "Pick a side," Koepka side. 

After yesterday's opening round he admitted that it "sucks" that he's finally starting to find some form with only one event left of LIV's eight-event season. 

The season-ending Tour Championship, which has a $50m prize purse, will take place at Blue Monster at Trump National Doral in Miami over October 28-30. 

Related: Cam Smith says OWGR "conflicted"

On his LIV debut, Koepka finished T-16. Since then, Koepka has performed below the standard he would expect. 

He finished T-11 in Bedminster, T-26 in Boston, T-21 in Chicago and managed his first top-10 finish last week in Bangkok where he finished eighth. 

Koepka is the team captain of Smash GC which comprises of his 28-year-old brother Chase, the aforementioned Uihlien and Jason Kokrak. 

In the team element, Smash have a six-stroke advantage over Sergio Garcia's Fireballs GC side. The 4 Aces, captained by Dustin Johnson, are third on 19-under with DeChambeau's side - the Crushers -  one stroke further back. 

The winning team splits a bonus of $3m. The individual winner of this event will take home $4m. 

Just this week Johnson was confirmed as LIV's individual champion, collecting a bonus of $18m. 

Johnson provided this sarcastic response when he was asked bout that. 

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