Brooks Koepka addressed his simmering feud with Bryson DeChambeau on Wednesday and also provided context surrounding a video that went viral at the PGA Championship.
“I think it’s good for the game. I really do,” Koepka said of his rivalry with DeChambeau at a news conference ahead of the Palmetto Championship at Congaree. “The fact that golf’s on pretty much every news outlet for about two weeks pretty consistently, I think that’s a good thing. It’s growing the game.
“The younger generation — I get the traditionalists who don’t agree with it. I understand that, but I think to grow the game you’ve got to reach out to the younger generation, and I don’t want to say that’s what this is, but it’s reaching out to a whole bunch of people. It’s getting golf in front of people. I think it’s good for the game.”
Whether it’s good for the game is a matter of opinion, however it has definitely been a consistent talking point.
Koepka wasn’t even competing at last week’s Memorial Tournament, where fans at Muirfield Village were heard referring to DeChambeau as “Brooksy” — with on-site security officials reportedly removing a number of spectators. Koepka responded by posting a video to social media offering free beer to anyone who had their day “cut short” at the golf course.
“I think that’s something that the tour needs to handle; it’s something I can’t control,” DeChambeau said on Saturday. “I tried to take the high road numerous times, and I think that, from my perspective, I’ll continue to keep doing so and people are going to do what they want to do.”
As for that viral video from the PGA Championship, Koepka revealed that he had become distracted during an interview with Golf Channel after a talking DeChambeau had walked by. The video showed Koepka rolling his eyes and dropping a choice word in the process.
“It doesn’t bother me, honestly. I’m OK with anything I do. I don’t really live with regrets. It’s nothing I’m terribly upset about. From everybody I spoke to, it is what it is and move on,” Koepka said.
“As far as that was, he didn’t say anything to me. He wasn’t speaking to me. He was either signing his scorecard or wherever and I was just to the right of the media tent, or I guess right in front of the microphones where you guys all were, and I don’t want to say he was like screaming — he was saying something about how he hit a perfect shot and it shouldn’t have been there, and it was just very, very loud. I don’t think the mics picked up on that, but it felt like just so that the fans could hear.
“With the media right there, you kind of know, hey, look, we’re all kind of in this area, just tone it down, and it was just so loud. Then I think he realized that he had gotten right behind me, and he toned it down a little bit, but it was still — and I just lost train of thought, which I think was pretty obvious.”
–Field Level Media