Pro golfer Brooks Koepka has delivered a key reason for jumping off the PGA Tour to join the new LIV golf league.

Ahead of this year’s PGA-backed U.S. Open, Koepka blasted the media for constantly peppering him with questions about joining LIV. In addition, he scolded the media for helping to overshadow the tournament with its obsession over LIV.

“I think it kind of sucks, too, y’all are throwing this black cloud over the U.S. Open,” Koepka said a few weeks ago. “I mean, it’s one of my favorite events, and I don’t know why you guys keep doing that. But the more legs you give it, the more you keep talking about it.”

But after the Open concluded, Brooks courted the questions by announcing that he was joining LIV, despite his protestations of a week earlier.

Now, the pro golfer who was ranked 19th in the world is defending his new allegiance by explaining that the money is undoubtedly one reason, but another is that he will have more time away from the road.

The higher winnings in the new league are important to Koepka because, after a few years of injuries, it seems he’s worried about his immediate future in pro golf.

“What I’ve had to go through the last two years on my knees, the pain, the rehab, all this stuff, we realized you need a little bit more time off,” Koepka said, according to the BBC.

Brooks Koepka hits a shot from the bunker at Augusta (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

More time between tournaments will help him heal, he added.

“I’d be the first one to say it’s not been an easy last couple years. I think having a little more break, a little more time at home to make sure I’m 100% before I go play in an event and don’t feel like I’m forced to play right away.”

The top player also insisted that he didn’t make his final decision until after the U.S. Open.

“…we didn’t have the conversation until everything was done at the US Open and figured it out. I just said I was going to go one way or another. Here I am,” he added.

Still, several weeks ago, he also said the money wasn’t a top issue for him.

“It’s not something that’s important. I just want to be happy. Money’s not going to make me happy. I just want to play against the best,” he said at the time, the New York Post reported.

“If somebody gave me $200 million tomorrow, it’s not going to change my life. What am I going to get out of it? I already have [enough money] that I could retire right now, but I don’t want to. I just want to play golf.”

LIV Golf will host its second tournament, and its first in the U.S., at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in Portland, Oregon starting Thursday.

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