LIV star’s sassy one-word response to Masters drama as ‘unbelievable’ ruling made

Brooks Koepka escaped a two-shot penalty after round one of the Masters on Friday (AEST) despite footage appearing to show a clear breach from his caddie.

Playing the 15th hole at Augusta on his way to a seven-under round, Koepka hit a five-iron from the fairway before his caddie, Ricky Elliott, was seen mouthing the word ‘five’.

The word appeared to be mouthed in the direction of playing partner Gary Woodland and his caddie — which would be a two-shot penalty for Koepka for sharing intel with a competitor.

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After an investigation, which involved talking to all members of the playing group, the Masters Tournament Committee decided no penalty was warranted.

After the round, Koepka posted a picture of himself and his caddie with a one-word caption.

“Nice,” the caption read.

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Koepka denied in his post-round press conference that there was any issue, while one possible explanation given was that Elliott was giving the information to broadcasters, as is commonplace.

Although, few are buying that excuse with a number of pundits feeling like the wrong decision was handed down.

“I’ve just seen the Brooks Koepka Caddie video footage. No question his caddie told another caddie what club Brooks hit,” said former Australian pro Mark Allen.

“I can’t believe it was denied… and the The Masters officials bought it!

“A caddie is an extension of the player. By the letter of law it’s a 2 shot penalty…”

Former pro and analyst Paul McGinley said on the Golf Channel the breach was “very obvious”.

“It’s staggering that they denied it because the video evidence is there.”

Fellow analyst Brandel Chamblee added: “It looked to me that Ricky Elliot (Koepka’s caddie) was clearly looking at (Woodland’s caddie) when he said ‘five’.“It was very obvious that he said ‘five’”