Who Are Smash GC? The All-American Team Led by Captain Brooks Koepka

Brooks Koepka is a very popular name in the game of golf. He has been able to rise through the ranks of golf with the immense talent that the professional has managed to showcase. Consequently, everyone would have the same, if not higher, expectations of the American-led team, Smash GC, in the Saudi-backed League.

The group has turned out to be more like a family as opposed to the other teams with a total of three top-3 finishes including a single win over the two seasons. The four golfers have thus proven that they have what it takes to win the team championship. Let us now take a quick look at the Koepka-led squad.

The initial roster of the Brooks Koepka-led Smash GC

The team currently features the likes of Koepka, Chase Koepka, Jason Kokrak, and Matthew Wolff. Moreover, the party has seen a lot of changes to its roster since its inception. The group was initially led by Sihwan Kim, who drafted Jinichiro Kozuma, Scott Vincent, and Itthipat Buranatanyarat as its members. But he was replaced by the current captain during the Portland event in 2022.

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Brooks was followed by his brother Chase, along with Richard Bland and Adrian Otaegui. By the third event in Bedminster, one of the teammates left with Kokrak replacing Otaegui followed by Peter Uihlein coming in for Bland during the fourth tournament in Boston. Although the lineup remained the same for the rest of the season, Wolff replaced Uihlein in 2023 while the latter moved on to 4Aces GC. And now, let us take a quick peek at the members of the team.

Brooks Keopka, the captain of Smash GC

One of the former World No. 1 golfers in the OWGR, the American has been instrumental in the rise of the team since his arrival into the squad during the inaugural season. The golfer boasts a total of 9 PGA Tour wins including five majors, the most recent one came at the 2023 PGA Championship.

One of the first few PGA Tour stars to join the PIF-funded league, the 5X major winner had reportedly signed a $130 million deal as a signing fee. The move turned out to be a good one for the four-time Ryder Cup star as he registered a total of two wins in LIV Golf, one coming in the 2022 Jeddah Invitational with the second one in the 2023 Orlando event. The initial win helped the 33-year-old push his team to a victory with a score of 33-under.

Chase Koepka, the skipper’s younger brother

After turning professional in 2016, the American golfer has a total of six top-10 finishes in the European Tour at the highest level. Moreover, he has a total of three amateur wins including victories at the 2013 Rees Jones Invitational, the 2014 Invitational at the Ocean Course, and the 2016 Mission Inn Spring Spectacular.

The 29-year-old has a total of 3 top 15 finishes in LIV Golf with his best coming in the 2022 event in Chicago. The golfer went on to score a 6-under 210 to place inside the top 10 during the event. Currently, he is ranked 47 in the standings and is in danger of being relegated through the ‘Drop Zone’ after Jeddah.

Jason Kokrak, Keopka’s second teammate in Smash GC

Kokrak boasts a total of 11 professional wins under his belt including three victories on the PGA Tour. The 2021 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open champ joined the squad replacing Otaegui in Bedminster where he placed at T26 with a score of 217(+4).

The professional has a total of three top-10 finishes in the PIF-funded league with his best coming in Washington in 2023. The golfer went on to register a score of 4 under 209 to finish in the fifth position. Even so, the team could only end up last on the rankings in the tournament.

Matthew Wolff, the last member to join the squad

Wolff boasts two amateur wins including the 2018 Carmel Cup, OFCC Fighting Illini Invite, and the 2019 Amer Ari Invitational, which is an NCAA Division I Individual championship. However, the golfer only has a single professional win coming from a PGA Tour event in 2019, the 3M Open.

Nevertheless, he has managed to become nothing short of a force to be reckoned with owing to his performance on the course in the league. Although not part of the current team in the year 2022, he has accumulated a total of three top-10 finishes including a T2 at the Bedminster event in the inaugural season.

During his tenure as a Smash GC member, the 24-year-old has placed a total of five times inside the top 10 positions on the leaderboard. His best finish as Koepka’s teammate came from the tournament in Greenbrier where he finished T3 with a score of 16-under 194.

Brooks Koepka and his team have, no doubt, proved to be a force in the Saudi-backed league. But can they do even better and win the team championship? Let us know in the comments section below.

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