The timing couldn’t have been better. Koepka had just won the PGA Championship in May for his fifth career major victory. If ever there was a time to bet on a horse’s name, this was it.

“I’m like, mate, this is a perfect horse for you,” McDowell said about the sales pitch. “You just won your fifth and this boy’s called Givemefive.”

On Tuesday, McDowell and Koepka became partners again – this time on a turf more suited to their own abilities, as G-Mac signed a contract to join Koepka’s Smash GC for the 2024 LIV Golf League season.

McDowell, the 2010 U.S. Open champion, fills the vacancy left by Koepka’s brother Chase, who was among four LIV golfers relegated after finishing the 2023 season ranked 45th or below in the season-long Individual points standings (otherwise known as the Drop Zone).

The move ends McDowell’s time with Cleeks GC, the team he played for in his last 20 LIV Golf starts dating back to the third event of the inaugural beta-test 2022 season. McDowell’s contract expired after the 2023 season, and since he finished in the Open Zone as the 42nd-ranked player, he entered free agency with some uncertainty.

“It’s been a difficult time the last couple of months, obviously being out of contract and looking at the rankings and doing the math and realizing there wasn’t really going to be a lot of open opportunities and open slots within LIV for me to be able to slot into,” McDowell said. “Being able to have relationships and have respect levels from guys like Brooks was really, really important. …

“I was disappointed that the Cleeks wanted to move in a different direction, didn’t want to pick me up. But I guess sometimes things happen for a reason. I couldn’t be happier than I am right now.”

Unlike Chase, G-Mac isn’t family, but Koepka’s caddie Ricky Elliott is practically an older brother, the two having grown up in Portrush, Northern Ireland, and now living near each other in Orlando, Florida. G-Mac even helped Elliott land Brooks’ bag. They’ve been together for pivotal moments in each other’s lives.

McDowell was careful not to lean too heavily into his friendship with Elliott to land the Smash roster spot, but … well, it never hurts to chat with a fellow Ulsterman over a pint.

“I obviously didn’t want to put Ricky in a tough situation with Brooks and kind of be an advocate for me coming to Smash next year,” McDowell said, “but certainly there were plenty of whispers in the ears over a few beers, trying to kind of say, Hey, listen, how cool would this be? Can you put a good word in for me with the chief?”

Just as instrumental – if not more so – is that McDowell and Koepka have been close friends for many years, bonding over their shared competitive mindset. They fall into the same category of golf’s grittiest performers despite the disparate ways they attack the golf course off the tee.

Although Koepka won the individual title at LIV Golf Orlando and finished in a bonus-paying third position in the season-long standings, his Smash team fell short of expectations, finishing eighth in regular-season points and failing to advance out of the quarterfinals at the Team Championship.

Adding the 44-year-old McDowell should pay dividends not only inside the ropes but also in the team room. If the 33-year-old Koepka needs a sounding board or help for organizational matters, he can lean on G-Mac.

“He likes great competitors,” G-Mac said of his new captain. “I think that’s why we’ve always had a little bit of mutual respect for each other. He sees a little bit of himself in me, and vice-versa. …

“I feel like I bring that little bit of experience and that little bit of grit and determination and hopefully can help Brooks carry some of the load and carry some of the water and give him the opportunity just to go and be the best he can be. Help him handle some of the team logistics and the team media stuff and whatever it is he needs me to be, I’m certainly ready and willing to be that guy for him. And obviously first and foremost, play as hard as I can and see if I can go and be competitive next season and win a tournament.”

Koepka’s wager is that McDowell will produce improved results with his new team. In 20 stroke-play LIV starts, McDowell remains without a top-10 points finish; his best result in 12th. He’s finished inside the points-producing top 24 just five times – three in 13 regular-season starts in 2023.

A classic U.S. Open-type 72-hole grinder, G-Mac acknowledged the difficulties of adjusting to LIV’s 54-hole tournaments that generally require a fast start out of the gate and a shorter backstretch to make up ground. A poor round is severely penalized with the reduced competition timeframe.

He’s worked on changing his style, playing more aggressive – and he thinks the fresh start with Smash and teaming up with Koepka will generate better finishes.

“I know what I’m still capable of,” McDowell said. “I really feel like I’ve started to play great the last few months and I’m just missing that little bit of X factor – and I feel like the X factor’s going to come from the pressure of trying to hang with a guy like Brooks Koepka, who’s one of the best players in the world, the intensity and the mentality that he brings. I think it’s just what I need for myself to see if I can produce the golf that I know I’m still capable of.

“I’m hoping ‘24 is going to be the comeback season for me. Compete, try and win an event or two. Like I say, perfect timing for me right now.”

Even more perfect timing – Givemefive may be running his first hurdles race on Saturday at Newcastle Racecourse in England. After months of training, it’s time to compete as a hurdler during the United Kingdom’s winter jump season when the track is a bit softer. The multi-race program – that includes a distinguished Grade 1 hurdle race called The Fighting Fifth – could make for a nice coming-out party for the horse.

“He’s a two-miler plus,” McDowell said. “So he’s a little grinder as well.”

Sounds like another terrific fit for the Smash stable.

Image: LIV Golf

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What is looking clear, should the 2024 season play on, is the unlikelihood that Matthew Wolff will remain on the Smash GC team captained by Brooks Koepka.

On Friday, after the opening round of the LIV Golf Invitational event in Saudi Arabia, Koepka was asked a question about the “brotherhood” between the members of his team, which includes Wolff, Chase Koepka (Brooks’ younger brother), and Jason Kokrak. His response was telling.

“There’s only three of us on our team,” said Koepka, who would go on to win the tournament in a playoff over Talor Gooch. “I mean, obviously my brother, I’m pretty tight with him, and then—I’ve enjoyed being around Jay for the last—I’ve been pretty close with Jay for maybe the last three years. I’ve enjoyed being around him. He’s a good player, super talented. It’s been fun to be around him, and he’s played pretty solid this year. Yeah, I can’t say anything bad about him.”

But in saying nothing about Wolff, Koepka sort of said a lot.

In July, Koepka did specifically call out Wolff during an interview with Sports Illustrated.

“I mean, when you quit on your round, you give up and stuff like that, that’s not competing,” Koepka said. “I’m not a big fan of that. You don’t work hard. It’s very tough. It’s very tough to have even like a team dynamic when you’ve got one guy that won’t work, one guy is not going to give any effort, he’s going to quit on the course, break clubs, gets down, bad body language, it’s very tough. I’ve basically given up on him—a lot of talent, but I mean the talent’s wasted.”

Wolff, who has been open about mental-health challenges he has faced since turning pro in 2019,  responded in a statement by saying Koepka’s comments were “beyond disappointing”: “When I chose to join his team in 2023, I did so with much optimism about my new home as part of Team Smash and equally as important the chance to be around and learn from a player of Brooks’s stature. Like everyone who has ever played the game at the highest level, I have had competitive moments in the past that I feel I have let myself down and even others in our new team environment. This has been quite difficult for me. My challenges on and off the golf course with my mental health have been well documented. I deal with those challenges every day.”

Wolff is scheduled to compete for Smash at this week’s LIV Golf team championship event in Miami. But with his T-38 in Jeddah, he wrapped up the regular season in 27th place on the individual points list. Outside the top 24, it means he can be traded or released from his team during LIV’s offseason.

Main image: Chris Trotman/LIV Golf

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It was a unique opportunity for the Koepka brothers, who had rarely seen each other in recent years as Brooks focused on winning majors and playing on the PGA Tour while Chase sought to make his mark on various developmental tours around the world.

“Our schedules never matched up,” Chase said. “Now they’re matched up and it’s awesome being able to spend time together. Our relationship has gotten better.”

But now a potential break-up looms. Not by choice, of course, but by performance.

Chase enters LIV Golf Chicago as one of four players in the Drop Zone on the individual points standings. Non-captains ranked 45th or worse after the regular season will be relegated out of the league. Chase currently ranks 48th with just one point. He has this week’s event and next month’s tournament in Jeddah to climb out of the Drop Zone.

Otherwise, he’ll be relegated, which means he’ll have no status for the 2024 LIV Golf League unless he plays his way back in during the promotional tournament later this year.

In essence, Brooks may be forced to jettison his own brother from the Smash line-up unless things improve.

LIV Golf

The situation is urgent, to say the least. That’s why they’ve practised together every day the past two weeks in the lead-up to Rich Harvest Farms. While Brooks has been priming his game for next week’s Ryder Cup, he’s also been helping Chase solve the issues that have led to this predicament.

It’s a perspective that’s familiar to Brooks, as he struggled with his own play while battling injuries before pulling himself out of it in the last year with two LIV Golf wins as well as his fifth major victory in May at the PGA Championship.

“I told him, I’ve been through that stretch where you’re not playing well,” Brooks said. “He’s working hard, I’ll give him that. That’s why I haven’t gotten on him. I’m proud of him. He’s gutted through this thing, and eventually it’s going to turn right side up, and that’s what I just keep telling him. I’ve been in those shoes two years ago. It will come around.”

But will it come around in time for Chase to keep his spot on the Smash roster? He has six regular-season rounds left to make a move.

“It’s all in my hands,” Chase said. “If I play well, I can get myself out of it. It’s not like this is the first time anyone’s been in this situation and played their way out of it. It can be done. Luckily, I’ve got two weeks. If it doesn’t happen this week, it can happen in Jeddah.”

For it to happen, he’ll need to solve the issues with his short game.

Chase is currently ranked 47th in scrambling, and 46th in putting this season. Those rankings are out of 48 LIV Golf regulars. Since he’s not a bomber like his older brother, Chase must rely on his short game to score. But it just hasn’t happened for him this season — and as he struggled to find a solution, it impacted other parts of his game.

“Honestly, it’s been bad, to the point where I felt like I had the chipping yips,” Chase admitted. “It’s not been fun.”

He and Brooks have focused on hitting the reset button. They’ve put in long hours, arriving at the gym at 6am and not returning from practice until 8pm. Putting and chipping games have been intense. The goal was to make practices so hard that playing a competitive round actually would be easier.

Meanwhile, they’ve tried to adjust Chase’s approach. Stop concentrating on the results and just go out and play golf. “Not results-focused this week,” Brooks said. The stars couldn’t be aligned more properly for a big week for Chase.

Last year at Rich Harvest Farms, he tied for eighth on the traditional leaderboard and finished ninth in points. It’s his best result in 18 regular-season LIV starts. So, he should have good vibes on the course.

There’s also the party-hole element on the par-3 17th, mimicking the Watering Hole in Adelaide earlier this year. Chase, if you recall, had the shot of the season in the final round in Australia when he produced a hole-in-one and set off a raucous celebration with flying drinks and endless chest bumps.

“Tell you what — I’m gonna get a lot of boos if I don’t repeat, which will be a tough ask,” Chase said with a smile. “But I think it’s awesome we’re able to do a hole here in the States.”

And in the first round, he’ll play with Smash teammates Kokrak and Matthew Wolff, as all non-captains will be playing together as teammates on Friday. “He’ll be comfortable with Wolff and myself,” Kokrak said. “It’ll settle him down, especially from the start.”

Ultimately, though, Chase’s fate for next season will be decided with his performance. If he can find his short game this week, he can produce a good-enough result to move outside the Drop Zone and give himself some breathing room going into Jeddah.

If he doesn’t, then he’ll go to Saudi Arabia in mid-October facing do-or-die pressure. Having just become an uncle to Brooks’ newborn son Crew, Chase dearly wants to maintain a parallel schedule to his brother, sharing in family get-togethers as well as sharing common goals as teammates.

“He’s rooting for me to play well and get out of the situation that I’m in,” Chase said. “We’re both rooting for each other. If you ask him, the first name he looks for on the leaderboard is my name. And it’s the same thing when I look for his name.

“We stick together as brothers and push each other as hard as we can. That’s why this is so special.”

Main image: LIV Golf

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Bald Head Blues, a lifestyle and performance golf brand, has been announced as the official apparel partner of LIV Golf’s Smash team.

Founded on the coast of North Carolina, Bald Head Blues takes the reins as Smash’s clothing partner for the remainder of the 2023 campaign. In addition to team members Jason Kokrak and Chase Koepka sporting the beach and lifestyle brand on-course, the team apparel line will go live for sale in merchandise tents at LIV Golf Greenbrier in early August with items becoming available on the Bald Head Blues and LIV Golf websites in the coming weeks.

“We are incredibly proud to partner with Smash GC. It’s a true thrill to be a part of this team, and to be their official on-course apparel partner,” said Bald Head Blues CEO Claude Pope. “We look forward to bringing the Bald Head Blues brand to Smash GC fans online and in-person at merchandise tents at LIV Golf events.”

Known for its iconic Golf Cart Surfboard logo, and founded on a golfcart-only island, Bald Head Blues is coined as the most authentic brand in beach and golf lifestyle. Found in over 400 resorts and country clubs, the high-performance apparel brand was built for the best golfers in the world.

“I’m very excited to be adding Bald Head Blues to the Smash GC family as our first official partner,” said Jason Kokrak. “From the first time I wore Bald Head Blues, I was very impressed with the fit, comfort and feel. I’m looking forward to introducing the custom line to LIV Golf and Smash GC fans and giving them a new way to support us both on and off the course.”

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