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Brooks Koepka has dismissed suggestions that his feud with Bryson DeChambeau might negatively impact the US Ryder Cup team at Whistling Straits this September.
It’s no secret that the pair have not seen eye to eye for some time, although the rivalry between them has intensified since last month’s US PGA Championship when video footage of former world No.1 Koepka making disparaging comments about the reigning US Open champ leaked online.
In the weeks since, the pair have been involved in some social media sparring, with Koepka raising the stakes again last weekend when he offered free beer to anybody who was ejected from the Memorial Tournament for heckling DeChambeau.
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That has prompted some to wonder what effect that will have on American side for this year’s COVID-delayed Ryder Cup. The pair are almost certain to make captain Steve Stricker’s side for the match and, they seek to regain the trophy from Padraig Harrington’s Europeans, the last thing they need is unrest in their own team room.
Speaking ahead of this week’s Palmetto Championship, Koepka insisted that won’t be an issue.
“There’s only eight guys that are playing, four guys are sitting, whatever,” said the four-time major champ. “I mean, I play with one other guy. If let’s say I don’t play with Bryson or Bryson doesn’t play with me, he takes care of his match, and I would take care of my match, and I don’t know how that has any effect. What you do off the golf course doesn’t have any effect on the golf course.”
Asked to characterise what is currently going on between himself and DeChambeau, Koepka said he believes it’s “good for the game”.
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“The fact that golf’s on pretty much every news outlet for about two weeks pretty consistently, I think that’s a good thing,” he added. “It’s growing the game. 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. 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.”
Koepka added that he has no issue with the fact that the video of him rolling his eyes and swearing about DeChambeau at the US PGA found its way onto the internet.
“It doesn’t bother me, honestly. I’m okay 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.
“As far as that goes, he didn’t say anything to me. He wasn’t
speaking to me. He was, I guess, either signing his scorecard or
wherever he was, 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.
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“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 realised that he had gotten right behind me, and he
toned it down a little bit. I just lost train of
thought, which I think was pretty obvious.”
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