Aviemore days were much more fun than winning Majors
Brooks loved learning and making pals in Scotland
BROOKS KOEPKA is a twotime Major champion. He has all the trappings of fame – as much cash as he can spend and a superstar profile.
But as far as the American is concerned, it’s nothing compared with his days starting out in Scotland. Nights with the boys in Aberdeen and Aviemore. Hanging around with the lads with a couple of beers watching the football on the telly.
Five years ago Koepka was out trawling Scotland’s north on the Challenge Tour. It provided a lifestyle he loved.
Nowadays it’s management companies, sponsors’ events, loners trooping from hotel to hotel and flight to flight doing their own thing.
Back then it was camaraderie. Bunches of boys on a road trip.
Koepka won over £1.6million for triumphing at the US Open at Shinnecock Hills last month.
While he only got £35,000 for winning the Hydro Challenge at Aviemore five years ago – and had to help his taxi driver change a flat tyre on the way home from an event in Africa – you couldn’t buy the experiences.
Koepka said: “It was the funnest time of my life. I enjoyed it way more than I probably do now. In the States you just have your team and other people you’re around – wife, girlfriend. Guys go home to them.
“You don’t see guys coming out for dinner, watching the football matches, things like that.
“It was by far the most exciting time in my life and definitely more relaxed. When we were playing it felt like the whole Tour was on the plane. “Then you’d get there and there’s two hotels. Everybody is staying in a small town and everybody eats together. I really did enjoy that part of it.
“It was cool. Looking back on it, I probably wish it could have lasted a little bit longer.
“I can think back to jamming four guys into a taxi. I forget where we were, Kenya or somewhere like that. We got a flat tyre, so I had to help the guy change. Those are memories I’ll probably have for the rest of my life.”
Now 28 and part of golf ’s elite, it’s hard to imagine he once sat in his Stateside home thinking he’d have to do the hard yards abroad to make the grade.
But he said: “I felt there was certain steps I had to take. Jordan Spieth comes out and has a Tour card after seven starts or however many it took him. That doesn’t happen. I knew I had to go through the Challenge Tour, work up that progression to become the best player in the world.
“I just embraced it and I think that’s where a lot of guys go wrong. You are where you are. Make the best of it.
“Some guys just put their heads down and they’re like, ‘Well, I should be on the PGA Tour or I
should be on the European Tour’. Well, guess what? You’re not. So suck it up, keep plugging along and eventually if you’re good enough you will get out here.
“I don’t think I would be where I am today, sitting here with two Majors, if I didn’t do that.
“It really helped me grow as a person. It’s the best time in my life. I don’t regret anything coming over here.” Koepka’s attitude is refreshing. While some players at Carnoustie live and breathe the game, the stats and the history, he sometimes doesn’t even like it. He thinks it’s all a bit boring.
The American added: “I do know I picked the right sport but baseball to me is probably more exciting. Golf can be a bit dull.
“I enjoy just watching the guys pitch – curveballs that just make a guy shake his head and walk back to the dugout. That to me is interesting.
“But it’s easy to say because you ask most baseball players, football players, basketball players, they’re all trying to play golf. It’s the same thing.
“You always want to be doing something you’re not. I’m glad I picked golf.”
It also doesn’t get him proper recognition in his homeland. After he won the US Open for a second time, ESPN chose that day’s feature to be a gridiron player. Koepka added: “The day we won they’ve got like Odell Beckham dunking a basketball. It’s like, well, he should be able to. He’s 6ft 2in and he’s got hands so what’s impressive about that?
“But I always try to find something where I feel like the underdog and put that little chip on my shoulder.
“I need to continue doing that because once you’re satisfied you’re only going to go downhill.
“You try to find something to get better and that’s what I’m trying to do.”