THE FEUD on (and off) the fairways

Two of golf’s biggest names have been trading blows... but who will land knockout at US Open?

WHO would have thought that anyone could compete with Phil Mickelson for headlines at the US Open in his hometown of San Diego this week?

The history man, following his stunning victory at the US PGA Championship at the age of

50 last month, is trying to complete the career Grand Slam at the major where he has been the bridesmaid on six occasions. How does anyone else get a look-in?

Step forward Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka and an enmity that is the talk of both the locker room and the returning fans. In an era when golfers have been taken to task by the legends of old for being too friendly, here are a couple of swells with a genuine dislike for one another.

Given they have won three of the last four US Opens between them, a rivalry with a touch of edge was only to be expected. But this one is not about the titles. This is about the tittle-tattle. Lots of it.

The latest instalment has so gripped the sport that, while doing the promotional rounds in Detroit last week, DeChambeau had to remind his inquisitive audience that he was there to talk about the Rocket Mortgage Classic where he is the defending champion, not Brooks the bruiser.

Now comes the major where he is defending and if the Mad Scientist thinks his Press conference at Torrey Pines on Tuesday is going to be a gentle stroll recalling his mammoth drives at Winged Foot last September, he might find they are not the blows people ask about.

As for Koepka, he tried to brush their feud off last week as ‘good for growing the game’ and it has certainly piqued the interest of the social-media millennials. But there is a lot more to it than that, as American Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker acknowledged on Friday when he weighed in on the prospect of having two warring team-mates in September.

‘It doesn’t make me happy when I see them going back and forth on social media,’ he said. ‘I’m sure they’ll both be on the team, so we’ll need to get them together and make it good for everybody. We need to unite and play well as a team.’

Where did it all start? As so often when two people square up in golf, it had its seeds in the game’s equivalent to road rage — slow play. In 2019, DeChambeau was painfully slow and, when a video surfaced of him taking more than two minutes to putt, plenty piled in, including Koepka, who is among the swiftest.

His comments were the ones that cut DeChambeau to the quick. On the putting green the following week, he told Koepka’s caddie Ricky Elliott that if his man had anything to say, he should do it face to face. When Elliott passed on the news, Koepka was only too willing to take up the invitation and a meeting followed behind closed doors featuring a frank exchange of views.

Soon after, the pair turned up on ESPN radio where they discussed DeChambeau’s pace of play in public. ‘People think y’all are going to end up having a fight,’ said Michael Collins, the host. ‘I think we know who would win that one and it wouldn’t be me,’ said DeChambeau.

Koepka likes to give the impression that nothing bothers him but, in fact, he has skin as thin as a bee’s wing. When he portrayed his muscle-bound physique in a fitness magazine, DeChambeau joked on social media that ‘Koepka’s got no abs. I’ve got more abs.’ Ouch. Koepka could not let that one go, posting a picture of his four major titles, with a silky rejoinder to the then major-less DeChambeau: ‘Bryson’s right — I’m two short of a six pack.’ So far, so sixth grade.

It was after the lockdown that things turned nasty. DeChambeau returned a new man, bulked up and hitting the ball out of the park. Suddenly, the media were only interested in one golfer and it was not the one who had won back-toback US PGA and US Open titles in the space of three years. Koepka’s chippy response? A video that went viral, featuring a bulked-up, fictional basketball player confronting steroid accusations.

So to the latest instalment and another video at the last major that also went viral. Koepka gave an interview, detailing his putting woes as DeChambeau, chuntering loudly to himself, walked past.

Koepka froze. He closed his eyes theatrically. ‘I’ve lost my train of thought… listening to that bulls**t,’ he exclaimed. When the interviewer, Todd Lewis, told him the video would be a big hit in-house, Koepka breezily replied: ‘Honestly, I wouldn’t care if it leaked out.’

After it did leak out, fans at the Memorial Tournament nine days ago had a field day. ‘Let’s go Brooksie,’ they yelled incessantly at DeChambeau, leading to some being thrown out. At home in Florida, Koepka offered a crate of beer to anyone whose ‘day was cut short’.

It is hard to imagine that Koepka’s subsequent ‘growing the game’ malarkey distracted PGA Tour commissioner, Jay Monahan. The video was an act of incitement to heckle another player and told everyone exactly what he thought of DeChambeau, whose handlers discussed it with Monahan last week.

So, what can we expect at Torrey Pines? Golf clubs at dawn? A couple of pairs of boxing gloves left wrapped around the 18th flag? Fans taking sides and making it clear who they support?

It is safe to assume the USGA will keep DeChambeau and Koepka apart in the draw on Tuesday for the opening two rounds.

This is the major where we have seen fireworks from the pair over the last four years, with Koepka winning the title in 2017 and 2018. He has the bit between his teeth following a near miss at the US PGA at Kiawah and DeChambeau, back in his home state, is ripe for a shot at a successful defence.

Imagine if they were in the final group next Sunday?