Brooks Koepka became the first LIV Golfer to win a Major Championship, dispelling the consensus amongst many enthusiasts and others that claim the 54-hole Tour is filled with those who have accepted lesser competition for greater sums of money and that the length of a tournament is not enough to prepare those players for Major tournaments.

Koepka’s win, finally, was a breakthrough moment for LIV golfers in terms of competing with their PGA Tour counterparts. Bryson DeChambeau said Koepka’s performance “validates” LIV, but others used stronger words.

Claude Harmon Iii rips into legacy golf media: “Listen, there are a lot of people that having gone through this whole LIV versus the PGA Tour, there are a lot of people that you guys on the Tour side of this, I mean, blow smoke up their asses like their F—ing world beaters.…

— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) May 23, 2023

Claude Harmon Iii, Koepka’s coach, spoke to Golfweek and had more than just justification for LIV through his player’s victory. His comments were more about how the media has treated LIV since it started last year and how Koepka’s breakthrough, without a doubt, shows the narrative surrounding the tour is wrong:

“You guys all think LIV’s, maybe you’ve changed your tune, but initially, it was all just bullsh*t, a bunch of guys playing who didn’t care, who got the money, who got the bag, and it’s 54 holes and there’s no competition and all that. So it was easy for you guys to just pretend like these guys just weren’t good players anymore. And I think you guys largely did that because you drank the Kool-Aid of everybody else. But how you guys all thought that these guys just weren’t going to show up and be great players is beyond me. I think it is an interesting Jedi mind trick that they played on you guys, and you guys fell for it. Because you guys were all, ‘These guys were all washed up. They took the bag. They’re insignificant. They play against no competition.’ And that’s just not the case.”

He even went on to cast stones in the direction of Will Zalatoris because of the media’s narrative that he’s “the second coming of Christ.”

“My point with that is you guys all acted like Brooks was a sh—y player and Will Zalatoris was great, but the guy has won one [expletive] golf tournament. Yeah, he’s finished second in a bunch of tournaments. So have a lot of players, but you guys are ready to crown him as if he’s the second coming of Christ, and you guys are acting like Brooks Koepka was a bum.”

It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get back up! Congrats @BKoepka pic.twitter.com/EcLAJYKhqI

— Claude Harmon III (@claudeharmonIII) May 22, 2023

Harmon’s frustrations are understandable. Koepka has been one of the most dominant golfers in terms of Major Championships in the past five years, winning five of them, including three PGA Championships and two United States Opens.

Koepka was in a bit of a slump last year due to injuries, and we reported earlier this year that things may have been different if he had not dealt with these issues, especially with his knee. Kopeka was in the running at the Masters and appeared to be in the driver’s seat, at least, until he was overtaken by eventual champion Jon Rahm.

Without a doubt, the golfers on the LIV Tour deserve the respect of everyone, and Koepka is no different, especially as he showed this past weekend things are more than back to normal with his dominating performance. He will likely be a mainstay on Major Leaderboards for maybe years to come, but there will always be a dark cloud over those who defected simply because of the sentiment surrounding LIV, including its funding.

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