BROOKS KOEPKA
The 2019 PGA Tour season belonged to one man: Brooks Koepka. The 29-year-old reclaimed his spot at the top of the world rankings, won the US PGA Championship, came second at the Masters and US Open, earned more than anyone else on the PGA Tour and finished in the top 10 in nine of 20 starts. He was named PGA Player of the Year, but missed out on being crowned PGA Tour Player of the Year for the second year running, losing out to FedExCup champion Rory McIlroy. He also came out of his shell for the first time, speaking candidly on slow play, course setups and the behaviour of his peers, before posing naked for ESPN’s ‘Body Issue’. “You’re actually getting the real me now,” he says. “I have a voice and it will be heard.” Brooks, we’ll always be happy to hear it.
1 Your naked photoshoot got a lot of attention … People are like, “How in the world could you do this? You’d never see Arnold Palmer or Jack Nicklaus and guys like that doing that?” It blows my mind. Golf is the only sport where you get compared to guys for generations and how they acted. If they had social media back then, I think it would be a lot different for them too. To get chosen for that, you have to be one of the best in your sport, so I must be doing something right.
I couldn’t care less what people say. If you’ve got people hating you, you’re doing something right. All these people that talk crap on social media, they don’t have the balls to do it and they wouldn’t look as good. It was fun. I’m good with how I looked. I’ve got nothing to be ashamed of.
2 What is your view on the European Tour’s plan to tackle slow play? Perfect. We should adopt it. I’d love to see how many bad times guys get. I think you’ll see some urgency to play. It doesn’t matter how quick you walk. Guys don’t do anything until the group ahead have cleared the green. All the information should be done at that point. Slow players are breaking the rules.
3 You’ve won $10m this season and $30m across your career. Are you at a point now where the money is irrelevant? When I started, I didn’t have any money. I didn’t have anything. You’re trying to pay for the flight for the next week; you’re trying to pay for the hotel room. I really didn’t have any funds to keep going through the year. Now things have changed a little bit, I’m pretty comfortable so I’m not thinking about prize money while I’m playing. It’s funny because I look back on the Challenge Tour and I thought I was super rich at the time, when I won €25,000.
4 You seem to take a simple approach to golf. Is that fair, or do you keep the more complicated processes to yourself? My game is very simple. I’m not a good thinker. I start thinking about what shot I want to hit and where I’m set up and how this feels and doubting where the club face is aimed, doubting where I’m lining up.
It’s the funny thing about this game: when it’s going really well, you’re never thinking. And then, all of a sudden, everything kind of abandons you, and you’re trying to figure out, ‘What’s the answer? How do I right the ship? How do I figure it out?’ And you start looking at 10 different things, and odds are it’s one simple thing. Everybody out here is going through it. Once you get that one swing thought or that one setup thought, then you’re off and running.
5 Your lack of emotion has made some wonder how much you love the game … I just enjoy competition. I enjoy playing for something. It doesn’t matter what it is. I enjoy the … I guess some people call it pressure or nerves. To me, it’s excitement. I know it doesn’t look like it on my face, but inside, I can’t wait to get to that 1st tee. That’s why I play so quickly. I’m excited to go. I’ve already got my number; I’m raring to go. I just want to hit the ball to see where it goes next. I’m excited to go hit that shot.
I don’t want guys to know if I mishit it. If I’m hitting a 7-iron, most of the time they’re going to be hitting a 6-iron. If I mishit it and they don’t know that and I come up short, all of a sudden they go to a 5-iron and it goes over the green. I’m not trying to give anybody else an advantage.
“IF YOU’VE GOT PEOPLE HATING YOU, YOU MUST BE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT.”