Brooks Koepka: Saudi Arabian-backed breakaway league will go ahead, says former world number one

Brooks Koepka thinks «somebody will sell out» to leave the PGA Tour and join a controversial Saudi Arabian-backed breakaway league.

The super league plan has provoked anger and led to six-time major champion Phil Mickelson saying the PGA Tour was acting like a «dictatorship».

On Sunday, Rory McIlroy said he thought the proposed super league was «dead in the water» but Koepka does not agree.

«I think it's going to still keep going,» said the 31-year-old American.

Earlier this week, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau distanced themselves from a super league by reaffirming their commitment to the PGA Tour.

The big-name American pair's decision to back the established US circuit is a major blow to the upstart project fronted by former world number one Greg Norman.

The super league would be a lucrative Formula One-style tour funded by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.

It would be the next step by the Saudis, who have invested £300m in the Asian Tour to create a 10-tournament International Series, fronted by Norman's Liv Golf Investments.

Players who join the super league could be banned from the US-run PGA Tour, European-based DP World Tour and future Ryder Cups.

«Everyone talks about money. They [the Saudis] have got enough of it,» said four-time major winner Koepka.

«I don't see it backing down; they can just double up and they'll figure it out. They'll get their guys. Somebody will sell out and go to it.»

On Tuesday, Mickelson said he «sincerely regrets» his criticism of Saudi Arabia's regime and will take a break from the game «to work on becoming the man I want to be».

The 51-year-old American branded the Saudi regime as «scary» and that the project was a «once in a lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates».

K