BROOKS BITES BACK
KOEPKA BLAMES MEDIA FOR NEGATIVE SPIN BUT STILL BLUNT ON BRYSON
BROOKS KOEPKA did little to suggest all was harmonious between him and team-mate Bryson DeChambeau, and then hit back at claims he did not like the Ryder Cup on the eve of the contest at Whistling Straits.
Koepka and fellow American superstar DeChambeau have been feuding in public for months – but DeChambeau and US captain Steve Stricker had claimed earlier this week that they were now getting on fine.
Asked about the matter yesterday, Koepka answered bluntly: ‘We are on the same team together. We’ve had dinner almost every night as a team.
‘Everyone who is on our team is interacting and everybody is participating in conversations and doing everything we need to do.’
A defiant Koepka also criticised the media for the way it reported his recent interview with Golf Digest, when he said team sports were ‘not in his DNA’ and that the Ryder Cup format interfered with his normal routine, which sometimes involves post-round napping.
It led to former captain Paul Azinger calling for the 31-year-old to relinquish his place in the American team if he did not love the event.
Koepka blasted: ‘I never said it was negative. You (the media) all spun it that way. I said it was different. That doesn’t mean it’s bad. I wouldn’t be nervous on that first tee if I didn’t care. I can only do my job and then you all report whatever your opinion or side might be.’
On his fitness, having pulled out of the Tour Championship with a wrist injury earlier this month, Koepka added: ‘I’m like glass, so I wouldn’t say I am 100 per cent. Left knee, right knee, broken, man.’
Koepka’s tricky demeanour contrasts sharply with the harmonious mood of Padraig Harrington’s European team, who go into the contest in Wisconsin today as slight underdogs but very aware that the United States have only won two matches in the past two decades.