Matthew Wolff, who was accused by LIV Golf teammate Brooks Koepka of quitting the course, said it was “sad” to be criticized by the Smash GC leader amid Wolff’s mental health challenges “on and off the golf course”.
Earlier this week, Koepka told Sports Illustrated that he had “basically given in” to Wolff, who has finished among the top 30 against par-48 players in the past five LIV Golf League events, including withdrawing before the final round of the tournament. LIV golf event out of Washington last month with an undisclosed injury.
“I mean, when you quit on your tour, you quit and stuff like that, that’s not a competition,” Koepka told Sports Illustrated. “I’m not a huge fan of that. You don’t work hard. It’s very difficult. It’s very difficult to have such a team dynamic when you have one guy who’s not going to work, one guy who’s not going to make an effort, who’s going to quit the course, break up the clubs.” , and getting down, and bad body language, it’s just so hard.”
Wolff, who is 25th in the points standings entering the LIV Golf event outside London this week, responded on Friday with a Statement to Sports Illustratedsaying it was “disappointing” to read Koepka’s criticism.
“Hearing from the media that our captain has abandoned me is heartbreaking,” Wolf said. “It’s not what the team members are looking forward to hearing from their captain, and I think we all know those comments should have been handled very differently. But I’m moving forward and will never give up on myself. During the course results may now not seem like positive indicators, I’m trying Winning the biggest game with my life.”
Wolf won the Jack Nicklaus Award as the nation’s top collegiate player as a sophomore at Oklahoma State in 2019, turned pro and won in his third PGA Tour start at the 3M Open. He had a 54-hole lead at the 2020 US Open at Winged Foot before closing with 75 to finish runner-up to Bryson DeChambeau.
But he began to struggle and then took a two-month break in 2021 to address his mental health, at one point telling Golf Digest that year that he just wanted to “stay in my bed and not be in front of everybody and not mess it up in front of anybody.”
On Friday, Wolff told Sports Illustrated that his mental health challenges “have been very difficult for me” and that he deals with them every single day.
“While my 2023 season hasn’t been everything I could have hoped for up until this point, I have made positive strides in managing my life and feeling it. [like] “My game is edging towards the positive,” Wolfe told SI.
“I am confident that Brooks wants the best for our team. But it is difficult to imagine his comments in his last interview at SI in any way aligned with these priorities. This will be my final comment on the matter.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.