Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau booed again at US PGA

Those in the huge galleries on the first tee at Oak Hill have made their feelings clear about the loyalties of their home heroes this weekend.

LIV golfers and US Ryder Cup players Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau, the box-office pairing on moving day in the PGA Championship, were both greeted with a chorus of boos in Rochester.

Koepka soon turned the jeers to cheers by surging to the top of the leaderboard, his huge putt on the 17th met with some of the loudest roars of the day in upstate New York.

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The welcome for DeChambeau was particularly frosty. You only have to rewatch clips of the bellows from an adoring faithful three years ago when he was redefining the boundaries of distance hitting to understand his huge fall from grace in public opinion after ditching the PGA Tour for the Saudi-backed LIV circuit.

And the boos were prominent once again on Sunday as both players received mixed receptions.

Not that renegades Koepka or DeChambeau will care about their naysayers if they are the ones lifting the Wanamaker trophy at the end of this final round.

Koepka is aiming to become only the third three-time PGA Championship winner after legends Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus.

And DeChambeau, his fellow burly American, is aiming to win his second major title at a course that has striking similarities with Winged Foot, the scene of his US Open triumph at the height of the frenzy that once surrounded him.

“No, I don’t care,” DeChambeau said on Saturday evening, shrugging off the boos. “I mean, it’s not a big deal – I mean, they are going to do that no matter what.

“Look, it’s New York, and I expect it here, I appreciate the fans, them doing that to me. It’s like, okay, cool, no problem.

“I’ve got no problem, either way. If we got applause, that’s fantastic and if not, you know what, whatever, it is what it is – it still was fun today.”

Koepka, meanwhile, was blocking out the noise in Rochester yesterday and is zoned in with a job to complete on Sunday.

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“I didn’t hear any good chirps, nothing creative,” he said. “A lot of it is repetitive honestly.

“I’m not trying to dog the fans, but I enjoy when they are creative, when there’s something funny that they say.

“Honestly, it’s hard to hear. The umbrella, you could barely, barely hear anything, so it was tough, and everybody’s got their hands tied.”

Koepka took a one-shot lead heading into the final round, with DeChambeau among the names in a stellar chasing pack.

Ben Parsons joined bunkered as a Content Producer in 2023 and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.