DeChambeau wastes no time squashing beef with Koepka

Confrontations in professional golf are as rare as albatrosses and quadruple bogeys.

Yet, shortly before 11 on Sunday morning at the Liberty National practice range, Bryson DeChambeau sought out Brooks Koepka to talk about comments Koepka made singling him out for slow play.

DeChambeau, who made it clear on Saturday he believes he’s been attacked by fellow players (Koepka being front and center) for slow play, chatted with Koepka in what appeared to be a civil conversation.

No punches were thrown nor voices raised.

“He just walked up to my caddie [Ricky Elliott] and said he wanted to talk, and so I just went and found him,’’ Koepka said, adding that he was going to keep the content of the conversation “between us.’’

“It’s not just him; we’ll make that clear,’’ Koepka said. “I know he feels singled out, especially when I’m speaking about it. But it’s like I told him, I’ve mentioned his name once, and that’s it … so I don’t think I’ve come at him. I just talked about slow play, and obviously he feels I’m talking about him every time.

“There’s so many [slow] guys out here where it’s become an issue, and obviously him being probably the best player that’s relatively slow right now, he’s going to be on TV a lot more, so you’re going to catch a lot more of those type of instances.

“It was fine,’’ Koepka went on. “No issues.’’

There is, of course, an issue, and it’s the epidemic of slow play with DeChambeau one of the regular offenders and Koepka one of the most vocal about the widespread problem.

“Everyone out here [is] probably a little bit more afraid of confrontation than in other sports,’’ Koepka said. “Sometimes it helps and you figure out what the root of the problem is, and start working on it.’’

DeChambeau characterized his conversation with Koepka as “awesome,’’ adding, “It was actually fantastic.

“I just pretty much told him he said a lot of things about slow play out in the public … [and] he has mentioned my name and I just wanted to clear the air,’’ DeChambeau said. “He’s got respect for me. I have respect for him. So no issues. That is what we all should be doing as human beings is doing our best to make it right with each other.

“We’re going to be playing on a lot of teams [Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup] together, I hope, and it’s better to get stuff out now and make it right so we go into these team competitions wanting to do our absolute best and not have anything else happen.’’