'Play Better' – Brooks Koepka's Blunt Message To LIV Golf's Ryder Cup Hopefuls

Brooks Koepka had a two-word reply for questions on if he thought LIV Golf players had been given a fair chance of making Zach Johnson's USA Ryder Cup team: "play better".

Koepka is the only LIV player to be teeing it up in Rome this week, with the European contingent not allowed after resigning their DP World Tour memberships.

And for the USA, skipper Johnson was not a keen viewer of LIV Golf events, and not really taking them into account in his thinking, so form in the Majors was key.

And thanks to winning the PGA Championship and going close at the Masters, Koepka made the cut, with the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed and even Phil Mickelson missing out.

Many thought LIV golfers had been short changed by Johnson's approach, but Koepka thinks that playing better would have solved their problems.

"I don't make the decisions," Koepka said at Marco Simone Golf Club in Rome. "It doesn't - everybody had an opportunity to get there. I mean, I had the same opportunity as every other LIV player, and I'm here.

"Play better. That's always the answer."

And Koepka, who has never really talked down the PGA Tour or burned any bridges, insists he's not flying the flag for LIV Golf, but representing his country.

"I feel like I'm representing the USA," he insisted. "That's what I've got on the front of my hat this week, so that's what I'm representing. 

"It's not a group of individuals in that locker room. We're just all one team, and that's the way we think. That's what I believe, and I'm pretty sure everybody else there thinks that."

And despite playing team golf of sorts with LIV, the five-time Major champion does not think it will help in any way with playing in the Ryder Cup.

"I mean, you're just going to play a round of golf and then the team scores add up at the end," he added. "I don't see how that has really any translation to this format. 

"Yeah, you're in a group setting or like a team setting, but other than that, I don't see how it's - we're not playing alternate shot or best ball I think until Miami in three weeks, and that's just a match play."

USA learned from past failures

Koepka believes captain Johnson has learned from previous mistakes made by USA teams travelling to Europe, while also the fact that the group is so close in age, with many playing together as juniors, can help end their 30-year wait for an away win.

"I think they've probably learned from past failures maybe. You've got to figure out what works," said Koepka.

"Different group of guys each time, so you've got to figure out what works for the majority or what works for most, and I think they've done a really good job this week, I think, of letting us be us and do what makes us play well.

"I think from when I was on the team in '16, it was very structured of there's a lot more things we had to do off the golf course, but they've definitely toned it back a little bit.

"I think this is probably the youngest team I think I've been on, and we've all pretty much played junior golf together growing up, so it's probably the tightest group of guys that we've had."