Brooks Koepka appears to have left LIV Golf at just the right time

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (AP) — Brooks Koepka never spent more time doing so little at a golf course. Considering where he could have been — Mexico City, still part of LIV Golf — it was a small price to pay.

Koepka was the first alternate for the RBC Heritage so he had to be there before the first tee time, which in this case was before sunrise. It's like that for everyone in that spot — wait to see if someone withdraws from the morning wave, return a few hours later and the wait goes on.

Except at the RBC Heritage, there was no break between morning and afternoon groups, only 41 consecutive tee times that had Koepka killing time for a little more than seven hours before leaving.

Still, it beats the kind of waiting going on at LIV Golf.

LIV players in Mexico City had no idea what was going on last Wednesday, only sky-is-falling speculation on social media eventually calmed by a captains' meeting that night. Turns out the sky only darkened with clouds of uncertainty, an uneasy feeling for a league once thought to have endless Saudi cash to burn.

“Full throttle,” is how CEO Scott O'Neil described the rest of the year in a memo to his LIV staff.

The next day in an interview with London-based TNT Sports, he described a bleaker outlook when he said in a post that TNT later removed, “The reality is that you’re funded through the season, and then you work like crazy as a business to create a business and a business plan to keep us going."

As bullish as O'Neil was about the path forward, it was a significant detour from the start of the season when Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Public Investment Fund behind LIV Golf, told players that funding was set through 2032.

How long does it last? Forget for a moment the $30 million prize funds for each tournament and operational costs from building VIP hospitality to producing the telecast. The bigger question is where LIV finds the money to lure the talent that made it such a threat in the first place.

This is where Koepka is in the sweet spot — back on the PGA Tour, even if on this day it meant being camped out on the patio above the putting green at Harbour Town.

The LIV gossip was of no interest to him. For two hours, the conversation in a small group was light and filled with stories of past Ryder Cups, future major championship venues and tales of Austin Johnson, the brother and beloved caddie of Dustin Johnson. Those stories don't get old.

(Their first time working together at the HSBC Champions, they came to the par-5 eighth with a stream in front of the green. Dustin said to his brother, “Can I get there with a 4-iron?” Austin replied: “Nope. But I can.”)

Koepka seized on an opportunity to return to the PGA Tour at a cost — a $5 million charity donation, no PGA Tour equity shares for five years, no FedEx Cup bonus money in 2026, no exemptions into $20 million signature events.

That he already was in position to be first alternate was telling. The five-time major champion is not all the way back, but he's headed in the right direction.

What happens now if LIV funding is gone next year, or if working like crazy doesn’t produce a business plan that made LIV players richer than they deserve? Is there a path back?

Koepka did not have to sit out a year from his last appearance because he was a free agent.

“Brooks came back onto the tour because he made a phone call and said: ‘Look, I’m out of my contract. I’m ready to come back,’” PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp said Monday on Pat McAfee's show.

Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau are under contract. Rolapp said he would respect that and the tour would “react when we have an opportunity to react.”

Rolapp offered them (along with Cameron Smith, all major winners since 2022) the same deal as Koepka, with a deadline and a veiled threat that the deal was "not a precedent for future situations.” The last PGA Tour boss who went back on his word lost the locker room.

Rolapp is driven primarily by what makes the PGA Tour better, and that starts with having all the best players competing more often. But it could get messy.

Other players who would bring value to the tour, such as Tyrrell Hatton or Joaquin Niemann, no longer have exempt status. There's also that small matter of 11 players, including DeChambeau, who put their names on the antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour.

Players who stayed loyal to the tour have not forgotten that. Whichever direction Rolapp goes, he would do well to recognize that. Koepka kept a low profile when he left, during the four years he played for LIV and when he returned. The same can't be said for Rahm and DeChambeau.

LIV Golf, meanwhile, remains a mystery. So much attention is on the end of 2026, and yet it has deal in place to return to Mexico City next year, to South Africa through 2029, to Australia through 2031. The beat goes on with questions about who's going to keep marching.

These are not issues facing Koepka, who is partnering with Shane Lowry this week in New Orleans. He already made his move, and it looks like the right one.

On The Fringe analyzes the biggest topics in golf during the season. AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Bryson DeChambeau watches his tee shot on the 12th hole during the first round of the Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club, Thursday, April 9, 2026, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Captain Jon Rahm of Legion XIII speaks after the first round of the LIV Golf tournament in Naucalpan on the outskirts of Mexico City, Thursday, April 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

First-place individual champion captain Jon Rahm, of Legion XIII, celebrates on the 18th green after the final round of LIV Golf Mexico City at Club de Golf Chapultepec, Sunday, April 19, 2026, in Naucalpan, Mexico. (Jon Ferrey/LIV Golf via AP)

Brooks Koepka hits from the bunker on the 12th hole during the first round of the Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club, Thursday, April 9, 2026, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Brooks Koepka walks to green on the first hole during the final round of the Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club, Sunday, April 12, 2026, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

MALABO, Equatorial Guinea (AP) — Pope Leo XIV arrived in Equatorial Guinea on Tuesday on the fourth and final leg of his Africa journey, and denounced the “colonization” of Africa's minerals and the “lust for power” in a country whose repressive leader has been in office since 1979.

Adoring crowds in the largely Catholic country lined the road from the airport into the capital, Malabo, cheering the first pope to visit since St. John Paul II in 1982. Wearing his formal red mozzetta cape, Leo thrilled the flag-waving masses by arriving at the presidential palace in his open-sided popemobile.

“There is a lot of joy today because we waited 44 years for the pope to come,” said Diosdado Marques, a senior Catholic official in the country. “It’s a blessing for the country, we hope many things will change and we will deepen our faith.”

The former Spanish colony on Africa’s western coast is run by the continent's longest-serving president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has been accused of widespread corruption and authoritarianism.

The discovery of offshore oil in the mid-1990s transformed Equatorial Guinea’s economy virtually overnight, with oil now accounting for almost half of its GDP and more than 90% of exports, according to the African Development Bank.

Yet more than half of the country’s nearly 2 million people live in poverty. And rights groups including Human Rights Watch — as well as court cases in France and Spain — have documented how revenues have enriched the ruling Obiang family rather than the broader population.

Leo, who arrived from Angola, met with Obiang at the presidential palace and then addressed government authorities, diplomats and civil service representatives. Noting that the encounter occurred on the first anniversary of Pope Francis’ death, Leo quoted the late pope in denouncing income inequalities that he said had been exacerbated by a global economy focused on the pursuit of profit at all cost.

“Such an economy kills,” Leo said. “In fact, it is even more evident today than in years past that the proliferation of armed conflicts is often driven by the colonization of oil and mineral deposits, occurring with no regard for international law or the self-determination of peoples.”

The Trump administration, which has announced plans to create a minerals trading bloc with its allies, has been racing to get access to Africa’s regions rich in critical minerals and to beat competition from China in a region where Beijing has long dominated.

Last year, as the administration emerged as a key broker for a peace deal to end the fighting in Congo’s mineral-rich but conflict-battered eastern region, it was also signing a partnership with Congo that would allow American companies access to those conflict minerals.

The U.S. is also investing funds in the Lobito Corridor, a major rail project in Africa that would facilitate export of minerals from mineral-rich regions in Zambia and Congo through Lobito in Angola. At the same time, the U.S. has also backed a South Africa project aimed at extracting rare earth minerals from industrial waste. The project developer has said it can extract key metals used in electronics and defense systems.

The pope's meetings took place in the old presidential palace. The government has built a new capital on the mainland, named Ciudad de la Paz, or City of Peace, but the transfer of government buildings hasn’t been completed yet.

Authorities have said the decision to build the new capital was strategic, given the potential for expansion of the city carved out in the middle of a tropical forest. But critics said the relocation of the capital would exacerbate existing inequalities and give further opportunities for the presidential circle to enrich themselves

Leo referred to the new capital by citing to the famous work of St. Augustine, “City of God,” in which the 5th-century philosopher interpreted humanity through two models: The “earthly city” where people live temporarily, and the eternal “city of God,” characterized by God’s unconditional love and love of one another, especially the poor.

Leo didn't call out the corruption associated with the Obiang family or the criticism of the new capital. But he suggested Equatorial Guinea should look to the “City of God” as a model.

“The earthly city is centered upon the proud love of self, on the lust for power and worldly glory that leads to destruction,” he said. “It is essential to discern the difference between that which lasts and that which passes, remaining free from the pursuit of unjust wealth and the illusion of dominion.”

Equatorial Guinea is officially a secular country, but about 75% of its population is Catholic, making it one of the most Catholic countries in Africa.

Church leaders “are very much interconnected intrinsically with the government,” said Tutu Alicante, a U.S.-based activist who runs the EG Justice rights group. “Part of it is the fear the government has instilled in everyone, including the church, and part of it is the monetary gains that the church derives from this government.”

The Rev. Fortunatus Nwachukwu, No. 2 in the Vatican’s missionary evangelization office, said the Catholic Church is present in difficult civil spaces and knows how to operate in them to carry out its mission.

“Should the church go to war against the government? Surely no,” Nwachukwu said. “Should the church swallow everything as if it were normal? No. The church has to continue preaching justice, always in defense of life, human dignity and the common good.”

In addition to official corruption, the country’s government also faces rampant accusations of harassment, arrest and intimidation of political opponents, critics and journalists.

Equatorial Guinea is also one of several African nations that have been paid millions of dollars in controversial deals with the Trump administration to receive migrants deported from the U.S. to countries other than their own.

AP reporting shows that at least 29 such migrants with no ties to the country have been deported there. Some remain in detention in Malabo with restrictions on legal and medical support, while others have been forcibly returned to their countries where they face persecution.

Leo, who will visit a prison in the port city of Bata on Wednesday, has criticized the Trump administration’s overall migration deportation policy as “extremely disrespectful.”

Associated Press writers Monika Pronczuk in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea and Ope Adetayo in Lagos, Nigeria, contributed to the reporting.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Pope Leo XIV, flanked by Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, right, is welcomed by Archbishop Juan Nsue Edjang Mayé, left, and Juan Domingo-Beka Esono Ayang upon his arrival at Malabo International Airport in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)

Pope Leo XIV, center, flanked by Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, left, President's wife Constancia Mangue, meets with the authorities, civil society and the diplomatic corps - epresentatives of the world of culture in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, on the ninth day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV delivers his speech as he meets with the authorities, civil society and the diplomatic corps in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, on the ninth day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV is welcomed by Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, fifth from right, and his wife, second from right, Constancia Mangue de Obiang, upon his arrival at Malabo International Airport in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, on the ninth day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

People wait for Pope Leo XIV in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, on the ninth day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

A billboard featuring Pope Leo XIV is seen ahead of his visit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Friday, April 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)

Soldiers march carrying the Vatican flag, right, and Angolan flag prior to Pope Leo XIV's departure for Equatorial Guinea, at the airport in Luanda, Angola, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Faithful wait for the arrival of Pope Leo XIV at the airport in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)

Faithful wait for the arrival of Pope Leo XIV at the airport in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)

Pope Leo XIV arrives at the Parish of Our Lady of Fatima in Luanda, Angola, for a meeting with bishops, priests, consecrated men and women, and pastoral workers Monday, April 20, 2026, on the eighth day of an 11-day apostolic journey to Africa (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV arrives at the Parish of Our Lady of Fatima in Luanda, Angola, for a meeting with bishops, priests, consecrated men and women, and pastoral workers Monday, April 20, 2026, on the eighth day of an 11-day apostolic journey to Africa (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

People touch a banner bearing an image of Pope Leo XIV in Luanda, Angola, Monday, April 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Pope Leo XIV listens to a girl as he arrives at the Parish of Our Lady of Fatima in Luanda, Angola, for a meeting with bishops, priests, consecrated men and women, and pastoral workers Monday, April 20, 2026, on the eighth day of an 11-day apostolic journey to Africa (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)