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Yesterday, ESPN revealed its list of the 20 Most Dominant Pro Athletes of 2018 but there was one glaring omission… the name of Brooks Koepka.
The fact that the American, who won two of the year’s four majors, the CJ Cup and the PGA Tour Player of the Year, didn’t make the list didn’t go unnoticed by the man himself.
Last night, he tweeted this:
🧐🧐🧐 pic.twitter.com/hboyNl753P
— Brooks Koepka (@BKoepka) December 11, 2018
Of course, this isn’t the first perceived slight Koepka has been on the receiving end of over the past couple of years, with the three-time major winner saying he is ‘always overlooked’.
At the 2017 US Open, Koepka was overlooked for a media request after shooting a 68 in the first round. Three days later, he won his first major title.
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As defending champion this year, Koepka’s name didn’t appear on the ‘notables’ list on the leaderboard. “To not be looked at as the favorite but still defending was quite an interesting feeling, I guess you could say,” he said.
Before this year’s US PGA Championship, there was over 100 people in the interview room for Tiger Woods, but only nine PGA officials and 13 reporters for Koepka while, at the Tour Championship, he wasn’t on the pre-tournament press conference list.
But being overlooked on the 20 Most Dominant Pro Athletes of 2018 list by a horse – Triple Crown winner Justify was 16th – is sure to be the biggest slight yet.
ESPN say it calculated the list ‘by rating who was better than the best, paying homage to the transcendent artists who didn’t spend time looking over their shoulders, or into the history books, because they were busy seeking new ways to test the limits of agility, strength and endurance’.
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One golfer did make the list, though, with Thai LPGA star Ariya Jutanugarn fourth on the list behind gymnast Simone Biles, runner Eliud Kipchoge and MMA fighter Daniel Cormier.
In her fourth LPGA season, the 23-year-old won three times, including the US Women’s Open. She won the Rolex Player of the Year award, the Race to the CME Globe and the $1 million bonus, the Vare Trophy with a scoring average of 69.415, the LEADERS Top 10 competition with 17 top ten finishes and the money title at $2,667,983.
She also set single-season records for rounds in the 60s (57) and birdies (470), while she is the current world No.1 in the Rolex Rankings.
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