AUGUSTA, Ga. — Look closely enough at the machinations of the Masters Tournament and you’ll notice not much happens by accident here. Trees may fall and shots may get shanked, but accidental practice-round groupings? Not so much.
All four Spaniards in the field — they played together Tuesday. Same for the four Canadians, also on the back nine. The inexperienced Hojgaard twins were focused on studying this confusing course with a savvy veteran — they found one in Charl Schwartzel. Tucked in the middle of all that was a far more interesting quartet: Fred Couples, Justin Thomas and Adam Scott, also looping the back with an intriguing fourth — LIV golfer Brooks Koepka. The context, even if it’s just on paper, is hard to ignore.
Koepka is one of the crown jewels of LIV Golf. His four-year contract with that tour is up soon…ish.
Couples hates that rival league with a passion, and has no problem saying so publicly.
Thomas is pals with Koepka — frequently finding each other on the same swanky Florida practice ranges — and a member of the Advisory Council rung of PGA Tour government.
Scott ranks even higher, a member of the Tour Policy Board and one of Koepka’s idols. He’s sat in negotiations between the Tour and LIV’s backer, the Saudi PIF. If anyone understands the designs of pro golf at the moment, and perhaps its future, it’s Scott.
Stated differently: If anyone understands the value of Koepka returning to the PGA Tour, it’s Scott.
For any other LIV golfer, the implication might be unfair. But with Koepka, it seems to have some traction. Talk to the right (or wrong) industry folks at Augusta National and you’ll hear plenty of chatter about his desire to return to the PGA Tour. The same chatter that got Couples on the hot seat a month ago.
“I’m not going to say anything extra except I talk to [Brooks] all the time,” Couples said in early March. “Where are you playing next and, you know, when you going and all this stuff — and he wants to come back, I will say that. I believe he really wants to come back and play the Tour.”
Those comments made their way to Koepka — first because Couples texted him — but secondly because he was then asked about his contract during a LIV event in Singapore. “I’ve got a contract obligation out here to fulfill, and then we’ll see what happens,” Koepka said. “I don’t know where I’m going, so I don’t know how everybody else does.”
Koepka has kept his (public) opinions of his employer rather tepid. “I think we all hoped it would have been a little bit further along, and that’s no secret,” he said last week, adding that LIV “seems to be going in the right direction.” Depending on your lean, that’s either a downer or a dose of reality. But where does it leave us in April, at this Masters?
Simply enjoying the boys enjoying the walk on a sunny, breezy afternoon — Couples and Koepka strutting down the middle of the 1st fairway, out for an emergency four-hole loop after their nine-hole loop with Thomas and Scott. How sweet is that?
At the third Masters of pro golf’s Cold War, it might be the small things we appreciate most right now. For all the TV and podcast hours spent on a possible reunification of the pro game, Augusta National is one of the few places it actually happens. Which is part of what makes the ongoing impasse so frustrating. It feels a bit like Groundhog Day, staring too hard at the camellia tea leaves down the 10th hole to see if they reveal anything. They often don’t.
At the 2023 Masters, an armistice was on the way, but none of the players knew. In 2024, we were told progress between warring sides was being made, but it wasn’t. In the interview room here in 2025, Jon Rahm summed it up perfectly: “As far as I can tell and you guys can tell, it’s not happening anytime soon.”
The truth is, Couples and Koepka have been planning to practice together for weeks. Normally, Couples plays with Thomas and Tiger Woods, but Woods’ achilles tear left space on the tee box for Scott. Eventually, Freddie and Brooksie turned from the 18th green straight onto the 1st tee, then from the 2nd green onto the 8th tee, where they joined forces with Nick Dunlap. The topics of conversation, according to Freddie, were less Tour politics and more Chase Koepka — Brooks’ brother — or modern equipment, or, as we listened in on the 8th tee: the Stanford women’s golfers who arrived via private jet for the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. Couples shook his head at the topic of NIL. Koepka said he would have flunked out if that kind of money flowed around him in school. “When I had $100 in my pocket, I thought I was rich,” he said.
That was all we got out of Koepka on Tuesday, as he declined to speak with media. Couples was more interested in a chat. He comes to the Masters to have a good time.
“It was a great foursome,” Couples said. “These guys all hit it amazing. And then to meet Nick Hardy the last couple holes was fun, too.”
Nick Dunlap; not Hardy, but we’ll cut Couples some slack. He’s been battling a virus for three weeks, but he’s ready to game it now, and that’s all that really seems to matter. He got his 13 holes in and raced off to practice chipping.
