Even if you consult our handy dandy timeline of events, it’s difficult to tell who truly “started” the Brooks Koepka-Bryson DeChambeau feud. Technically, it would appear Koepka struck first when he called out slow players in 2019, though he never mentioned DeChambeau by name. But DeChambeau clearly felt it was a message meant for him as they “cleared the air” on the driving range at The Northern Trust. A year later, DeChambeau did actually call into question Koepka’s physique on a Twitch stream, arguably the first real “shot” fired.
Ever since, though, it’s been essentially all Koepka, all the time, most notably at the PGA Championship, where the eye roll seen ’round the world took social media by storm. DeChambeau has fired back here and there, once on social media with his “It’s nice to be living rent free in your head!” tweet (probably not even actually him) and once more in the form of a leap into the camera frame of another Koepka interview, this time at the U.S. Open, an interesting move considering DeChambeau had seemingly made attempts to move on from this verbal, and virtual, boxing match.
Koepka has no such plans, opting to keep it in the forefront of our minds on a daily basis, a page straight out of the NFL and NBA’s book. On Tuesday, the four-time major champion appeared on SportsCenter for an interview with anchor Matt Barrie, who asked him strictly Bryson-related questions. The results, as is the case with just about every chapter of this ridiculously entertaining saga, were delicious.
“There’s been a few laughs,” said Koepka when Barrie asked how other pros have reacted to the viral eye roll video. “There’s been a few ‘I can’t believe you did that,’ and ‘I’m glad you did.’ It’s been fun, I’ve gotten a good response from a bunch of the guys on tour, from everybody from the tour. It’s been something I think everybody’s enjoyed, definitely changing up the game a little bit.”
Very interesting that Koepka claims other pros were “glad” he did what he did, implying that he may or may not have said what some others are thinking (or eye-rolling). Unfortunately, still no Koepka-DeChmabuea pairing, yet. They are both in the field at this week’s Travelers Championship, where the best we can hope for is a naturally-born weekend pairing. In or out of contention doesn’t matter, we’ll take whatever we can get.