LIV Golf stars Brooks Koepka and Graeme McDowell have bought a racehorse

LIV Golf's Brooks Koepka and Graeme McDowell have bought a horse that will begin jumping this Christmas.

05 Oct 2023

LIV Golf stars Brooks Koepka and Graeme McDowell have bought a racehorse after the Northern Irishman lost a bet with jumps trainer Harry Derham during a recent Pro-Am tournament, according to The Mirror.

McDowell and Koepka have put their money down on a horse named 'Givemefive', which has already won a Flat race in Ireland this year before going into training with second season trainer Derham.

Koepka of course won his fifth major title earlier this season at the US PGA, which perhaps was one particular reason for him to get involved in the racehorse that will go jumping this season.

McDowell is already a keen racehorse ownership having already got involved with a horse called 'Fourofakind', which won over hurdles for Derham back in March.

Derham's uncle is 14-time champion jumps trainer Paul Nicholls.

He was previously working as Nicholls' assistant but he has now decided to go on his own.

Derham has had 14 winners since sending out his first runners in December 2022.

Golf star Graeme McDowell buys horse with rival Brooks Koepka after losing bet https://t.co/Xkc0tzRmbH pic.twitter.com/vwgQzopZr5
— Mirror Racing (@MirrorRacing) October 3, 2023

Why have Graeme McDowell and Brooks Koepka bought a racehorse?

According to The Mirror, 2010 US Open champion McDowell is said to have lost a bet to Derham during a recent Pro-Am event.

They got to the 6th hole and McDowell challenged Derham to a nearest-the-pin contest.

Given McDowell is a professional earning big bucks on the LIV Golf League, and Derham is just an amateur hack, they considered it was probably fair to up the stakes should Derham get closer to the flag from the tee.

Derham said to McDowell: "You're very good and I'm a terrible golfer so I think there ought to be something in it for me. You have to buy me a horse."

McDowell replied; "All right, deal."

Related: Koepka ripped into Spieth and Thomas then said: "I'm supposed to turn down $130m?!"

Derham hit an unbelievable shot to four feet, while McDowell hit his ball to eight feet.

True to his word, McDowell bought a racehorse and he called his good friend Koepka, who is also based in Florida like him, to see if he fancied getting involved too.

Koepka was all in.

Derham said:

"Brooks is a friend of Graeme’s. I got to know Graeme through his caddie Ken Comboy, who with his wife Liz have become family friends. There are eight of them that own Fourofakind and Graeme has just got involved in another, Givemefive, and Brooks is going to be involved in this one, which is cool. Brooks’s caddie Ricky Elliott is in Fourofakind."

It is expected that Koepka and McDowell's 'Givemefive' will make its debut over the jumps just before Christmas.

So keep your eyes peeled.

Derham said of its chances:

“He looks a nice horse and we’ve already schooled him. Hopefully he can be a fun juvenile hurdler for the guys. They are all based in Florida but Graeme has plans to be in the UK in December so we are going to try to coordinate a race for Givemefive and perhaps Fourofakind when he can get to the races."