Golf was one of the last chat-free zones in American sports, until Brooks Koepka switched his way to the first tee. He would never become Conor McGregor, but introduced by his superhero arms and incomprehensible belief in himself, Koepka sometimes said things that would make a pay-per-view promoter proud.
Like on Saturday night, when Koepka was asked how he felt about starting the final round of the PGA Championship, his friend Dustin Johnson followed, a year after Johnson almost ran him on Bethpage. A two-time defending champion of this event and a four-time grand winner, Koepka decided it was time to see Johnson’s trophy case.
“I mean, I love my chances,” Koepka said. “When I was in this position before, I capitalized. I do not know, he only won one.”
With friends like that, who needs columnists?
Hey, most of us bought what Koepka sold at TPC-Harding Park in San Francisco. He had an established history of running the conversation, allowing him to easily imagine that his shortage of two shots was erasing half a dozen holes in the round.
But a strange thing happened to Koepka on his way to making history as the first three-turf winner of any major championship in more than six decades. He started playing like all the one-hit wonders (besides Johnson) that he referred to more than once at his news conference on Saturday. On a day when the 23-year-old winner, Collin Morikawa, shot 64 and came out of a surrealistic sand-edge band to take the lead on the back nine, Koepka shot a 4-over 74, hitting just one player (Jim Herman) of the 78 where he competed.
One of the 78, after taking an unnecessary count at a former US Open champion who deserved better.
Rory McIlroy, perhaps the tournament’s most thoughtful player, said he was aware of the remark, and that Koepka should at least have taken his goals more cautiously. “Kind of hard to beat a man who wins 21 on the PGA Tour,” McIlroy of Johnson said, “which is three times what Brooks has.”
Rory’s may have been the best iron shot on a memorable pandemic day that delivered a wave that would have inspired fans to rave around, if they were allowed on the course. Who would have thought that there would be seven players at 10 under deep in the round, with none of them named Brooks Koepka?
But sure enough, while golfers were shooting up and down the Leaderboard in the mid-60s, the murdered favorite looked more like one of the regular 16 handicappers on this course in city ownership. Playing with Paul Casey, who would shoot 66 and end in a tie for second with Johnson, Koepka acknowledged that he was reduced to a nonentity after closing his front nine with three consecutive bogeys.
“I was just there to cheer Paul up,” he said.
Koepka was built for NFL contact and became the incredibly shrinking man. CBS cameras stopped showing him completely, the ultimate indignation for a fan who had shouted at another man.
“Every time I hit it off today,” Koepka said, “I probably had the worst lie I had all week … Hey, was not meant to be. Three in a row, you you don ‘t really want to do two in a row to look at history, but that’s in order.Have two more [majors] the rest of the season and we’ll find out from there. “
On every other Sunday that went wrong, Koepka would have earned the benefit of the doubt. He struggled with a major knee injury before winning last week almost in Memphis, Tennessee. This PGA Championship could have been a throwaway for him, a bridge back to full health and, perhaps, his chance of a fifth major victory after September’s US Open as the Masters of November shifted.
But he said what he said Saturday and there should be consequences for not honoring his words. Not that this will be the last time Koepka talks more like a mixed martial arts fighter than a golfer. The man who claimed that majors are easier to win than minors because so many players in the field did not have his skill and position under pressure has a long history of his path from tee to green.
Koepka is proud to be an athlete at first, instead of the prototypical golf nerd, and to be single on tour. “I’m not close with any of the guys here,” he told Golfweek recently during an interview in which he said his reported friendship with Johnson “was blown out of proportion.”
Koepka has denied reports that he had an altercation with Johnson after the 2018 Ryder Cup, but there is no denying the fact that they were once roommates and worked out together at a gym in Jupiter, Florida. Johnson was once the more prominent player. Maybe after Johnson beat majors in two Long Island, New York – at Shinnecock in 2018 and at Bethpage in 2019 – Koepka thought he could flex his muscles at Harding Park and remind his friend / frenemy / ex-boyfriend that he will be the one who advances the surplus.
At the end of Sunday, Koepka lured out when Johnson’s 68 was not good enough to claim his second major title. But this was not so much about Johnson as it was about the man who shot 74, the boy who saw him wash his last hole completely while finishing his sixth bogey.
Brooks Koepka was eventually humbled. And that was by far the biggest uproar of the day.
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