Strange weather at Augusta National this week. There have been days of heat, cold, wind and rain, and yet the sun has never left one particular corner of the golfing world. It has brought new life to LIV.
Many of us have been guided by anecdotes and logic to assume the breakaway circuit was sport’s resting home for the greedy and jaded. We have also suspected on the same basis that 54-hole golf with no cuts could never sharpen the irons enough for major reunions.
More than those points, we have seen and heard how the wider caper of Greg Norman’s Saudi-funded dream was in danger of fizzling away.
Alas, the big white leaderboards of Augusta National have told different tales, and they have done so at a time when Norman and more meaningful figures within that bruised organisation desperately needed it.
They needed a jolt of relevance. They needed a charger. They needed Brooks Koepka and he might just have saved their entire circus.
Brooks Koepka led the Masters for most of the weekend as he produced some outstanding golf
Koepka (left) battled with the PGA’s Jon Rahm (right) on the final day of the Masters at Augusta
Koepka was back on familiar turf in Atlanta, Georgia as he tried to claim a first green jacket
At the time of writing, it was too early to know whether that included a new jacket in his wardrobe. Or if Jon Rahm had clawed back the two shots he required going into the fourth round. Or if Viktor Hovland had reeled in those two giants to become the newest major winner in the game.
But on some level Koepka had already delivered for LIV irrespective of the final order, because make no mistake this had been shaping into a woefully embarrassing week for the Saudis’ golfing takeover.
In one snub, we saw Norman being knocked back for an invite to the grounds where he has contributed to some of the greatest moments of Masters drama.
In another, more telling rejection last Thursday, we saw a cohort of rebels knocked back in their efforts through arbitration to keep a door open at the DP World Tour.
That stung LIV and it also undermined them beyond the obvious complications of shrinking their playgrounds — they had been assured with some confidence that these were legal battles they would not lose.
More than a few of the rebels have had cause to privately doubt what they were sold when entering those lucrative but iron-clad contracts.
So what a time for Koepka to rock up and wake up. His personal story is compelling in its own right – he was the dead-eyed assassin of that time between 2017 and 2019 when he won four majors.
Those made way for the sad eyes of a lost soul telling Netflix how his knees, confidence and game deserted him in the subsequent years, which we have learnt this week was his catalyst for joining LIV.
But the bigger picture here is what this week meant for his tour, regardless of finishing the deal.
Koepka jumped ship to join the LIV Golf competition and his performances at the Masters may have saved the show
Koepka won a huge LIV Golf even in Orlando prior to heading to compete at the Masters
LIV Golf is currently only broadcast on the tour’s website, and the CW Network in the USA
There has been a recurring line of speculation for some time that the Saudis might eventually write off this hostile, $2billion takeover as a bad investment and it has been easy to see why. They never anticipated so much resistance to their money in the mechanisms of an invasion.
It is also possible they never forecast how Norman, now understood to be more peripheral, would so often wedge a foot in his own mouth.
Or how headlines around Jamal Khashoggi might bleed into such regular reminders of Saudi Arabian involvement in 9/11, as demonstrated by scathing press conferences by prominent survivors’ groups, including one just last Tuesday in Atlanta.
Sportswashing works, we know that, but some stains are near enough impossible to remove.
So with all of that, there has been a theory, shared with Sportsmail by folk with vested interests in the traditional tours, that carries a question: why would the Saudis need the hassle of golf when they already have Cristiano Ronaldo on their billboards?
Enter Koepka and what we said earlier about new life in a weakened concept, because his performances here have legitimised the sporting side of LIV.
There has been speculation that LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman’s dream could be written off as a bad investment
But Koepka has proved that the sporting ability of LIV Golf players hasn’t dwindled
LIV Golf’s leading rebel Phil Mickelson was another name that impressed at Augusta
The other aspects, and whatever we think of sport and its relationship with certain regimes, and likewise the chaos these golfers brought to the traditional ecosystem that made them rich, will continue to draw debate. But as a sporting entity LIV had been mocked and derided.
That never fully made sense because the likes of Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson and Koepka would always be recognised among the best in the game, wherever they hit golf balls.
But the mystery concerned their ability to remain titans in their new environment. Koepka answered that quite emphatically.
So did Phil Mickelson and Patrick Reed, former Masters champions who were both prominent on the leaderboard going into the final round. Of 18 LIV golfers present, 12 made the cut, which is no small achievement – ask Rory McIlroy.
We don’t need to know if there was a mass invasion of the 18th green to celebrate a LIV victory – the week has already proven a point, regardless of whether some folk can stomach it.