If there truly are golf gods out there, they’ll somehow conspire to pair Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau together in the US Open a few weeks from now. Golf is in a strange place at the moment. Figureheads like Tiger, Phil, and Sergio are coming into the final few holes of their careers. Meanwhile the group of players many thought would be “the next ones” (McIlroy, Spieth, Scott & Watson) to carry golf well into at least 2030 have stumbled of late, and are almost as likely to miss the cut all together as they are to be in contention come Sunday.
Which is what makes the Koepka/DeChambeau feud so interesting. For all intents and purposes, they seem to genuinely dislike one another. Sure there have been rivalries over the years in golf, Tiger & Phil, Tiger & Sergio, Nicklaus & Palmer, but those were mostly of the competitive variety. They may have battled intensely on the course with one another, but in the clubhouse they were often seen cajoling and swapping war stories. Brooks & Bryson look like they might take a swing at one another at any moment.
Adding fuel to this already simmering feud was recently leaked footage from the Golf Channel interview with Koepka this past weekend that Bryson “disrupts”:
The disdain seems to stem from a 2019 exchange between the two where Koepka criticized DeChambeau for his slow play. Then, according to reporter Eamon Lynch who overheard the discussion, DeChambeau told Koepka’s caddie to tell him to say it “to my face”. Both players managed to downplay the issue in the media shortly afterwards, however they weren’t exactly chummy from that point on.
Not long after ESPN released its annual “body issue” which featured Brooks in some non-golf attire appropriate poses. DeChambeau, who is an avid gamer, quipped on one of his many live streams that Brooks “doesn’t have any abs, to be honest. I got some abs!”. Never one to back down from a confrontation, Koepka quickly responded with a tweet of his own:
At the time, DeChambeau had yet to win a major tournament. There were also some other minor Twitter fueled incidents such as when Koepka not so subtly jabbed DeChambeau’s Hulk like physique when the PGA returned from its COVID induced shutdown with a steroid GIF sprinkled in for good measure.
Finally, in October of 2020, after claiming to have not watched a single shot of the 2020 US Open while he was out with an injury (the very tournament DeChambeau would win to claim his first major), Koepka did a live Q&A with his fiancee Jena Sims. As the session was wrapping up one viewer commented they were disappointed that no one asked about Bryson. To which Brooks responded “Yeah, there was a lot of them [questions about Bryson], I just chose not to talk about it. If you’ve got nothing nice to say, don’t say it at all.” Needless to say, the pettiness between the two hasn’t gone anywhere.
Yet there’s no sport that doesn’t benefit from a healthy dose of hatred between competitors. Any memorable playoff series, title fight, or head to head competition instantly gets ratcheted up a few notches when the athletes involved have a genuine dislike for one another. So while everyone and their grandmother is hoping to see Phil ride the high of his PGA Championship win right into a 2nd major on the year at Torrey Pines to complete the career grand slam, you’ll be excused to have a rooting interest in seeing Brooks & Bryson have to spend a few hours together this June. Afterall, if Phil is out of contention, would there be any better storyline than watching DeChambeau and Koepka go shot for shot while shooting “FU” glances at one another with the US Open on the line? Didn’t think so. Come on Golf gods, do your thing.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner