Matthew Wolff Responds To Brooks Koepka’s Unhinged Comments, Touches On Mental Health Battles

The most drama-filled year in the history of professional golf continues with Brooks Koepka and Matthew Wolff adding their own chapter to the story that’s still very much being written.

Koepka is the captain of Smash GC, the LIV Golf team that consists of himself, his brother Chase, Jason Kokrak, and Wolff. But that didn’t stop the five-time major winner from calling out his teammate.

Ahead of this week’s LIV Golf London event, Koepka decided to get his thoughts and feelings about Wolff off of his chest and did not hold back. Koepka went so far as to say that he’s “given up on him” and that Wolff is wasting his talent.

“I mean, when you quit on your round, you give up and stuff like that, that’s not competing,” Koepka told Sports Illustrated. “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.”

Outside of Koepka adding a few curse words in the rant, it’s hard to imagine a more brutal criticism than the one he handed out to Wolff.

Matt Wolff’s Inconsistency And Battles Off The Course

Wolff took time away from the game as a whole before leaving the PGA Tour for LIV Golf. He has spoken about his struggles off the course. Koepka is certainly aware of that. Either he doesn’t care or believes that some harsh criticism may light a fire under his teammate that has been lacking for many months now.

Understandably so, Wolff didn’t appreciate Koepka’s comments.

“To hear through the media that our team leader has given up on me is heartbreaking. It’s not what a team member looks to hear from its leader. And I think we all know these comments should have been handled much differently,” Wolff said in a statement to Sports Illustrated.

“This has been quite difficult for me. My challenges on and off the golf course with my mental health has been well documented. I deal with those challenges every day.”

Koepka Bashing Wolff May Be A Tactic

It’s worth noting that Wolff sits 25th in LIV Golf’s standings heading into the weekend while Koepka’s own brother and teammate sits 47th out of just 52 players.

As OutKick’s Dan Zaksheske previously pointed out, Brooks has to know that Wolff’s ceiling on the golf course is well above that of his brother’s. Hence the harsh and public criticism.

Wolff won the 2019 3M Open on the PGA Tour. He has two Top Four finishes in majors on his resume. Things were clicking along very nicely for the Oklahoma State product early in his career but he has hit a bit of a rough patch over the last 18 months or so.

Maybe Koepka’s public bashing is what he needed.