Why Brooks Koepka-Patrick Cantlay Open grouping has tongues wagging

Brooks Koepka’s hatred for slow play will be on full display during the first two rounds of the Open.

After finishing runner-up at the Masters, Koepka took the unusual step of calling out the pace of Sunday’s final round during his press conference.

“Yeah, the group in front of us was brutally slow,” Koepka said. “Jon [Rahm] went to the bathroom like seven times during the round, and we were still waiting.”

This week, he’s paired with one member of that penultimate grouping, and likely culprit for the pace, Patrick Cantlay.

Koepka, who won the PGA Championship a month later, is known as one of the faster players in professional golf, while Cantlay is… uh, well not. However, the week following the Masters, Cantlay shot back at Koepka and other critics, saying the pace was “slow for everybody” and placing blame on the golf course.

“We finished the 1st hole, and the group in front of us was on the 2nd tee when we walked up to the 2nd tee, and we waited all day on pretty much every shot,” Cantlay said before the RBC Heritage. “We waited in 15 fairway, we waited in 18 fairway. I imagine it was slow for everyone.

“Yeah, one thing that’s interesting sitting on the PAC [Player Advisory Council] is you get all the numbers and the data. And rounds have taken about the same length of time for the last 10 or 20 years that they currently take. When you play a golf course like Augusta National where all the hole locations are on lots of slope and the greens are really fast, it’s just going to take longer and longer to hole out.

News

“I think that may have been what attributed to some of the slow play on Sunday, and then also when the wind is gusting and the wind is blowing maybe inconsistently, that’s when guys will take a long time, too. I think that’s just the nature of playing professional golf, where every shot matters so much.”

Winds are forecasted to gust upward of 20 mph in the afternoon of round 1 and all day during round 2 at Royal Liverpool, which could lead to a lot of Koepka’s notorious eye rolls throughout the opening rounds.

Social media took notice when the pairings were released.

Not to mention, the final player in the threesome, 2021 Masters winner Hideki Matsuyama, is also known as one of the more deliberate players on Tour. Albeit, perhaps not in the same breath as Cantlay.

The trio begins their opening round at 4:36 a.m. ET (9:36 a.m. BST), and they start their second rounds at 9:37 a.m. ET (2:37 p.m. BST) on Friday.