There had been a lot of speculation surrounding Brooks Koepka throughout what proved to be his final year on LIV Golf.

Brooks Koepka, of course, became the first big name to leave LIV Golf, with his departure being confirmed in December.

In hindsight, it has felt as if the five-time major champion’s departure has been some time coming. Koepka was one of the first players to come close to criticising LIV, admitting ahead of the 2025 season that the league is not as far along as it should be.

He also seemed to embrace being a team captain. Much has been made of Koepka not wearing the same clothing as his Smash GC teammates.

What Brooks Koepka was spotted doing at several LIV Golf events in 2025

Unfortunately, Koepka had a poor year on the course. He missed the cut at three of the four majors, while his last top 10 on LIV came in March.

Obviously, it has to be noted that Koepka dealt with some tragic news off the course. That would have inevitably had an impact on how he performed in LIV events.

It certainly seems that his form was not for the lack of trying. Speaking on The Rick Shiels Golf Show, Rick Shiels suggested that the 35-year-old worked incredibly hard to turn his fortunes around.

“I think with Brooks, this is what I saw on the ground last year, he seemed very frustrated with something. Something was bothering him. And he was trying really, really, really hard to perform out on the golf course,” he said.

“I saw him on multiple occasions throughout the year being the last person to leave the driving range. As I’ve said a million times before, these guys practice like crazy. I really felt like he wasn’t happy with something. He wasn’t happy with his game, he wasn’t happy with his performances, he wasn’t happy with how maybe he was being treated.

“He was kind of quite quiet last year, quite subdued, didn’t really show a lot of his own personality. We didn’t see the performances out of him out on the golf course that we’ve come to expect from Brooks Koepka. We didn’t see him perform at the majors as we’ve come to expect from Brooks Koepka. And he just seemed really, really frustrated.”

The ‘wild’ role Brooks Koepka took on while with LIV Golf

With Koepka wearing different attire to his teammates, it would be easy to assume that he never bought fully into the team aspect of LIV.

But perhaps that is well wide of the mark.

One of the problems with LIV has been the lack of transparency when it comes to how the teams operate. It is not clear whether it is the teams or the league making signings.

In truth, the teams running as businesses almost appears to be a gimmick. But Shiels explained just how involved Koepka was in running Smash GC.

“I just want to go back on a comment I just said there about him feeling like a lone wolf, and he kind of was a bit, but also what was very unique with Brooks Koepka, as much as I’m saying all those things that it didn’t feel like he was part of a team, never mind the captain, he was actually the GM of his team,” he said.

“Again, this isn’t what the public often see with LIV teams, let’s say with Majesticks for argument’s sake, they have a full team behind Majesticks. You have the captains, but you have a full team behind them. They have social media teams, they have a fantastic team. Brooks Koepka was behind the scenes in meetings with other GMs. Smash didn’t have anyone that was solely managing their team. It was actually Brooks Koepka, which was wild.”

With that, you can understand Koepka’s reasoning for leaving LIV even more. Golf wise, he can concentrate on his own game now rather than worry about running a team.