JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Brooks Koepka's love-hate relationship with the sport he's dominating has been well documented. In 2015, he told Golf Digest that if he could do it all over again, he would have preferred to play baseball. Two years later, he began a ridiculous tear, winning four of eight majors. Looks like he chose the right profession.
Numerous times since that 2015 interview, Koepka has been quoted as saying that golf is "boring" to him. During his pre-tournament press conference at the Open Championship, Koepka said that he only practices for the majors and not regular tour events, adding "If you've seen me on TV [at a regular PGA Tour event], that's when I play golf." Unlike the rest of us, Koepka's not the type who furiously looks for tee times at his local muny seven days in advance.
I believe him, but I've also found Koepka's "golf is boring" act to be a bit strange. He always mentions that he's a fiery competitor who loves to battle in these big-time events. On Wednesday at Liberty National, Koepka discussed those feelings when he was asked by the Associated Press' Doug Ferguson if he ever stops to think about just how much money he's made over the past few years.
"I don't [think about it]. I get updates from my financial people all the time, but I don't do it. It doesn't matter to me.
"I just love the competition. I always say to people, I think back to when I'm 5 years old, and you wanted to be the best player in the world. You wanted to be—I always wanted to be Adam Scott and Tiger Woods and all these guys, right? When I thought about that, all I was thinking about was, I wanted to be the best player in the world. When I was 10 years old, I never thought about, 'Oh, it's going to come with millions of dollars and all these great things and fame and whatever it wants to be.*
"The competition is what I'm there for. I enjoy that. That's what I thrive off of. And yes, all the rest of the stuff just happens to come with it."
Does that sound like a guy who doesn't love golf?
It's likely been asked before and it will be asked again, but I had to poke the bear and ask Koepka if he loved the competition aspect of golf so much, he must love golf too, right? Things took a serious turn, as Koepka began to stare directly through my soul.
"No, love golf? I just like competing. I like doing anything. If we play pingpong, I'm still going to be pretty intense with you and try to kick your butt."
Anywhere, anytime, Brooks. (Just kidding. I stink at pingpong.)
"Doesn't matter what we're doing, I'm super-competitive at anything," Koepka added. "Doesn't matter what it is. Yes, I like … I love sports. Sports junkie. I love golf. I think … I don't understand why when we started talking about slow play, it's 5½ hours. I mean, 5½ hours to play golf is a long time. Everybody's going to get bored.
"There's a lot of walking involved. I mean, there's not much action in golf. If you really think about it, you're probably only playing for about five minutes … maybe six, seven minutes total, and the rest of the time, I'm just walking. You try walking by yourself for four, 4½ hours, and see how boring it gets."
So that settles that. Brooks Koepka loves golf, no matter how boring it gets.
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