Two-Time Major Winner Shares Unique Insight Into Brooks Koepka's Outlook During Final LIV Season

Two-time Major winner Martin Kaymer says it was clear that Brooks Koepka wasn't content during the final year of his time in the LIV Golf League and hopes the American feels happy and comfortable after moving back to the PGA Tour.

Koepka announced late in December that he would be departing LIV Golf, and just over a week later it was confirmed that his intention was to play on the PGA Tour once again.

Following a swift process by those based at TPC Sawgrass, the 35-year-old was indeed allowed to come back but there were a number of penalties Koepka had to accept if he was to regain his card.

Although he stated the punishments were "harsh", the Florida-born pro also accepted they were fair and signed on the dotted line to bring his four-year absence to an end.

Like Koepka, 2010 PGA Championship and 2014 US Open winner Kaymer had been with the PIF-backed circuit since its inception in 2022 and had grown to know the five-time Major champion well during that time.

Kaymer shared with Golf Monthly that it was obvious something wasn't right with the former Smash GC captain and the German was therefore not surprised to hear of Koepka's decision.

Kaymer said: "At the end of the day, who knows what the reasons were behind Brooks’ decision to leave, or was it LIV’s decision to let him go? I don’t know, there are so many rumors flying around.

"I don’t know whether it was something to do with where he played, was it the travel, whatever it was. But we certainly saw that rules can be changed overnight and so we go from there.

"But from a human point of view, I hope that he will feel comfortable where he is. I hope he’s happy because I could sense last year… you can see it in players, whether they are happy or not happy.

"You don’t know the reasons behind it, but he clearly wasn’t the happiest player out here. So, again, from a human point of view, I hope he finds a bit more happiness where he is now."

Speaking of looking for an upturn in mood, Kaymer is hopeful 2026 will see a marked improvement from his Cleeks squad after a largely disappointing campaign last time out.

Not helped by the struggles of Frederik Kjettrup - who failed to score a point all year and finished dead last of all those who played regularly - Cleeks ended the season 12th out of 13 teams, despite a win in the opening event by Adrian Meronk.

Kaymer said: "Last year was an extremely disappointing year, I would say. Obviously with Freddy in our team, we wished we could have helped him somehow to perform a little bit better.

"Not only for team reasons but also for him as an individual player because it’s never nice to see somebody struggling and if somebody wants something really bad and he can’t get it going, we would like to help and that didn’t happen last year, so it was extremely frustrating for all of us.

"But, at the same time, it was understandable why we didn’t perform the way we wanted. [Kjettrup] didn’t have his best year, I definitely had a lot of room for improvement and even Adrian, he won an event but I think he was not super satisfied with 2025 either."

But, after the young Dane having been relegated from the league and replaced by France's Victor Perez, the former World No.1 believes his refreshed roster - which also features the evergreen Richard Bland - is ready to use its experience as a catalyst for improved results.

Kaymer continued: "This year, we are hoping for a little bit more consistency and also having the chance to maybe even win a tournament.

"I know how great it felt back in Houston when we won the tournament, and we would like to put ourselves in contention more often now with Victor on the team.

"I think we’ve already created a good team spirit in the past 48 hours since we landed in Florida. It’s fun, it’s very positive and that’s something very important to carry over for the whole year as it will make us play better, I believe."