“Get a grip!” – Sky Sports man takes Brooks Koepka to task

Wayne ‘Radar’ Riley has dismissed Brooks Koepka’s suggestion that he only has to beat ten other players at major championships. 

Speaking ahead of this week’s US PGA at TPC Harding Park, back-to-back defending champion Koepka was asked if he stood by the observation he made last year that majors are the easiest events to win. 

“I still feel that way,” said the 31-year-old. “The way the golf course sets up eliminates pretty much half the guys, and then from there, you know, half of those guys probably won’t play well. 

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“From there, I feel like mentally I can beat them, the other half. So you’ve probably got ten guys. That’s the way I see it.”

Commenting during Sky Sports Golf’s third round coverage of the first major of this reshuffled season, pro-turned-analyst Riley challenged those remarks. 

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“I wonder if the ten players he expected that were going to be on the board are actually on the board,” said the Australian. “I doubt it. One of the ten players to beat, [36-hole leader] Haotong Li, was he one of those? 

“Brooks, come on, get a grip. There are more players in this field that can win than ten.”

Alongside Riley in the booth, Nick Dougherty agreed that Koepka’s comment “makes you cringe”.

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“It makes you think how uncomfortable it would be,” said the former European Tour pro. “Everybody would be looking at you. But he doesn’t think like that. He doesn’t care. He has such confidence in himself.

“It’s a mindset that [Jack] Nicklaus carried. He said it himself. He knew that the majors were the ones that were easiest to win. Players beat themselves. It’s sort of Koepka’s philosophy. It’s hard to criticise it. It has been working in recent years.”

Koepka’s comments – your thoughts

Do you agree with Brooks Koepka that he only really has to beat ten players to win majors? Leave your thoughts in our Comments section below.