Brooks Koepka Hoped LIV Golf Would Be 'A Little Bit Further Along' in 4th Season

Brooks Koepka was one of the biggest stars to jump from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf when the latter was in its early stages, but he admitted Tuesday he wished the league was in somewhat of a better place in its fourth year.

"I think we all hoped it would have been a little bit further along, and that's no secret," Koepka said, per ESPN's Mark Schlabach. "No matter where you're at, you always hope everything is further along. But they're making progress, and it seems to be going in the right direction."

LIV is funded by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund [PIF], which led to plenty of initial criticism about potential "sportswashing" from human rights groups.

While that didn't stop notable names such as Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Dustin Johnson from leaving the PGA Tour for massive contracts, LIV is largely an afterthought in golf coverage and discussions in the United States.

As Schlabach noted, it drew 34,000 viewers for the final round of its Singapore tournament on March 16 on FS1. By comparison, the PGA Tour drew an average of 3.6 million viewers and a peak of 6.2 million viewers for its final round of the Players Championship on the same day.

It also drew 1.5 million viewers for the tiebreaker between Rory McIlroy and J.J. Spaun even though that was early on a Monday morning.

The PGA Tour is enjoying a notable bump in television ratings this year, and the major championships haven't started yet.

Those majors are when fans can still watch LIV and PGA Tour players take the course together. Koepka is a five-time major champion himself and will surely look to add to his resume this year.

As for LIV, it is undergoing some changes this year with Scott O'Neil replacing Greg Norman as CEO in January. It has also continued to meet with representatives from the PGA Tour as the two sides look to come to terms on some type of deal, although nothing has come to fruition to this point.

At this point, the PGA Tour seems to have far more leverage in any discussions, although Koepka's comments suggest there is still some optimism within LIV even if there is also disappointment.