The feud between Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau has been one of the biggest stories in golf over the past month, and with this week’s U.S. Open on the horizon, may predicted it would come to a head in San Diego. But those who predicted more fireworks on the West Coast came away from Tuesday’s pre-tournament pressers sorely disappointed.
Instead of stoking the fire he helped ignite, Koepka instead used his brief facetime with the media to downplay the rivalry between he and DeChambeau. The USGA did their part to extinguish the flame, too, opting against a much-clamored-for grouping featuring the pair on Thursday and Friday.
“It doesn’t matter to me,” Koepka said of not getting paired with DeChambeau. “I don’t care who I’m paired with. It doesn’t matter to me what goes on. It makes no difference to me. I’m out there trying to play my own game.”
The downplaying of drama between he and DeChambeau is a swift departure from the face Koepka has shown on social media over the past month.
After a cold period in the war between the two, a leaked video from the PGA Championship surfaced that reignited the feud. Koepka continued to lean into the beef as he trolled DeChambeau on social media over the next month.
Highlights of Koepka’s trolling include apologizing to Aaron Rodgers for being paired with the 2020 U.S. Open champion in the next installment of “The Match,” and offering free Michelob Ultra to fans ejected from the Memorial Tournament for heckling DeChambeau.
But despite the consistent shots at DeChambeau on social media, Koepka insisted the rivalry is not on his mind, nor is he concerned with the public’s perception of the feud.
“It doesn’t matter to me,” he said. “I’m worried about what I’ve got to do and what I’m doing. I’m not concerned about what other people think. If I was concerned about what everybody else thought, I’d have been in a world of pain.”
Koepka is paired with Collin Morikawa and Justin Thomas and will tee off No. 10 on Thursday at 10:29 a.m. ET as he looks for his third U.S. Open title.