Koepka hoping local can guide him around Portrush
PORTRUSH, NORTHERN IRELAND >> Brooks Koepka’s biggest asset during this year’s British Open won’t be in his bag, it’ll be on his bag.
The four-time major winner will be walking around Royal Portrush, a course new to most of the players in the field, with a native expert helping him negotiate the sharp elevation changes of the century-old links course on the northern coast of Northern Ireland. His caddie, Ricky Elliott, is a local lad.
“Every hole I just step up on, ‘You tell me what to do. You’ve played it more than anybody,’” said Koepka, who is on such a roll at majors he may be one of the few players who doesn’t need extra help. “So just let him figure it out. He knows his spots to miss it.
Koepka
The spots to come in from, with different hole locations and different winds.”
Elliott grew up in Portrush, and grew up playing at Royal Portrush. The pair started working together shortly after the 2013 British Open, when Phil Mickelson won at Muirfield.
It only took a phone call to put things in motion.
“We had about a 30-minute phone conversation. I liked the way he went about things,” Koepka said Tuesday. “He was kind of light. He was joking on the phone. And that’s somebody I want, I want somebody that’s not going to be so focused in all the time. My personality, I laugh and joke on the golf course. I know it doesn’t look like it, but the camera is not on us all the time. He’s pretty laid back.”
Koepka has excelled over the last couple of years with Elliott on his bag, particularly at the major tournaments. After winning his second straight U.S. Open title last year, Koepka won his second straight PGA Championship this year. And he didn’t do badly at the other two majors this season either, finishing second at the Masters and at the U.S. Open.
“The whole reason I show up is to win. That’s what I’m trying to do,” Koepka said of his major results. “It’s incredible. But at the same time, it’s been quite disappointing, you know? Finishing second sucks. It really does.”
Tiger Woods, the one who edged Koepka to win this year’s Masters, came to Northern Ireland looking for a little local knowledge. He said he texted Koepka, hoping to get some advice on the course.
“What he’s done in the last four major championships has been just unbelievable. To be so consistent, so solid. He’s been in contention to win each and every major championship,” Woods said. “And I said, ‘Hey, dude, do you mind if I tag along and play a practice round?’ I’ve heard nothing.”
Koepka will play his first two rounds at Royal Portrush alongside 2010 British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen and Shubhankar Sharma.
And like many great champions in all sorts of sports, Koepka is full of self-belief heading into the final major of the season.
“I think you always have to have a chip on your shoulder, no matter what it is,” Koepka said. “Every great athlete and every major sport always has one.
“Over the last year and a half, I just felt like if other guys had done what I had done it would be a bigger deal. Now it doesn’t matter to me. I’ve got my own chip on my shoulder for what I’m trying to accomplish . ... How many majors I want to win, how many wins, my own accomplishments.”
With his trust in his own ability to deliver the big shots and his trust in his caddie’s ability to deliver that little bit of extra insight on a course that hasn’t hosted the British Open since 1951, Koepka is on the short list of favorites this week.
“Definitely have a little bit more confidence having him on the bag this week,” Koepka said of Elliott, “knowing this golf course so well.” MICKELSON GETS LONGEVITY AWARD >> Phil Mickelson received a crystal award at the British Open. One of the hallmarks of Mickelson’s career is playing for so long at a consistently high level, and the Official World Golf Ranking board honored him for a feat that might be as remarkable as his 47 wins worldwide or his five majors.
Starting with a runner-up finish at the Casio World Open in Japan in November 1993 — the same year Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas were born — Mickelson has never been outside the top 50 in the world. The award was for 25 consecutive years, and he’s still going.
“To play for this long, I’m very thankful and appreciative,” Mickelson said.
Peter Dawson, the former R&A chief who now chairs the OWGR board, said Mickelson has been among the top 50 for 1,338 consecutive weeks. The second-longest streak belongs to Ernie Els, at 965 weeks. Among active streaks, Rory McIlroy is next at 556 weeks. TWIN FUN >> Gary Woodland’s wife is on bedrest as she awaits the birth of twins in a few weeks, while her husband is across the sea playing in the British Open. At least she has the U.S. Open trophy to look at. It’s on the nightstand next to the bed.
“She is looking at it all the time,” Woodland said. “I don’t know if she’s excited about that. But it’s been pretty close to me.”
Woodland hopes the twin girls don’t arrive before their scheduled time.
“Our girls are supposed to come in two weeks,” he said. “So it was a decision, we sat down and we talked about it. And she was the one pushing me to come. Pretty confident they’re not going to come this week, but you never know.”