"He Hasn't Won A Major In 5 Years"- Brooks Koepka On Whether Him And Rory Have A Rivalry
Golf Channel- They’re Nos. 1 and 2 in the world rankings, but don’t call them rivals. Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy distanced themselves as the best players on the PGA Tour last season, each winning three times, and they’ve racked up four majors apiece. But asked ahead of this week’s CJ Cup if he sees a budding rivalry between himself and the Ulsterman, Koepka offered a blunt reply. “I’ve been out here for what, five years. Rory hasn’t won a major since I’ve been on the PGA Tour,” Koepka told the AFP. “So I don’t view it as a rivalry.” The tale of the tape backs up Koepka’s claim: McIlroy’s most recent major came at the 2014 PGA Championship, when Koepka was in the midst of securing PGA Tour status for the first time and six months before his maiden win in Phoenix. Since then Koepka has been a dominant force in the biggest events, winning four majors while finishing T-4 or better in all four this year.
Alright let’s all take a breath for a second before we Deke Zuckered by that Brooks Koepka quote. Brooks has a tendency of casually saying things that seem bombastic and then later on he’ll be like, “It wasn’t that serious.” And to be clear, Brooks is correct in everything he said. There is no rivalry between Brooks and Rory (although some might say he just created one with that quote but I don’t believe that) and everything he said was a stone cold fact. I’m one of the biggest Rory supporters in the world but, if you ask me or any other Rory stan when he won his last major, we’d say 5 years ago in 2014. Brooks on the other hand has DOMINATED majors over the last 3ish years in a way that few have ever before. So there’s nothing factually incorrect about what Brooks said.
I’ll be curious to see what Rory has to say about that Brooks quote. My guess? He’ll diffuse the whole situation and say something like, “He’s not wrong. I haven’t won a major in 5 years and he’s been incredible on the biggest stages in golf.” Rory doesn’t seem like the kind of guy is who trying to beef with anybody about anything. He just wants to play golf at a very high level, cash enormous checks and go home. If I had to put a percentage on it, I give it a .00000000000000000000000001% chance Rory fires back at Brooks with something salacious.
And sure, people want bad blood between these two guys because bad blood is wildly entertaining. Would it be fantastic for golf if the #1 and #2 players in the world hated each other’s guts and talked shit to each other in the media? Uhhhhhh yes. Big time. Unfortunately I doubt that’s what is going to happen here. Brooks will have a follow up quote at some point clarifying exactly what he meant and then Rory will have a quote, shrug his shoulders and we’ll all move on.