Koepka Inexplicably Ignored By Media. Again.
Brooks Koepka will no doubt be the PGA Tour Player of the Year. He also believes the media for some reason doesn’t treat him like a star player–and most definitely not one who’s won 3 majors in two years. Oh and he’s ranked #2 in the world.
Yep, yesterday confirmed he may have a case.
During Wednesday’s customary press conferences at the Tour Championship, the media (and the PGA Tour who sets the pressers up) inexplicably didn’t invite Koepka for a Q&A.
GolfWorld’s Brian Wacker has the curious details.
Tiger Woods, Justin Rose, Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Tony Finau and Keegan Bradley were all on the pre-tournament interview schedule Tuesday and Wednesday in advance of this week’s Tour Championship, most for good reason.
Conspicuously absent from the list, however, was the man most believe will be the PGA Tour’s Player of the Year. Instead, Brooks Koepka was out practicing in the heat of an abnormally warm Wednesday afternoon, having never been asked to come in.
“Are you surprised?” Koepka’s coach, Claude Harmon, said with more than a tinge of bemusement. “You can say he and DJ [another player Harmon works with] don’t talk that much, but we continue to find it surprising. We’ll make jokes about it. [Brooks is] the most under-the-radar three-time major winner of all time.”
“[The media] has their guys they wanna talk to,” Koepka said when tracked down on the course. “I’m not one of them and that’s fine.”
Interview sessions with the broader media in golf basically work two ways: Someone is widely requested, or the PGA Tour communications staff is tasked with putting together a logical lineup of candidates that will fit the media’s needs and/or pedal the organization’s own agenda.
The lack of attention came as little surprise to Koepka. “We don’t get asked to do many interviews, so I’m not gonna go out of my way to do one,” he said. “I don’t really care.”
The latter is debatable—why else would Koepka keep mentioning how “dissed” he feels—but the sizable chip on his broad shoulders is not.
“You’ve got guys who will kiss up, and I’m not gonna kiss up,” Koepka said. “I don’t need to kiss anyone’s butt. I’m here to play golf. I’m not here to do anything else. A lot of guys are known for the stuff they do off the golf course and who they like to hang around. It’s pretty obvious who’s doing that and who isn’t. I don’t need to bend over backwards to be friends with anyone [in the media], but certain guys do that because they want their names written. I’d rather be written about because of my play.
“Sometimes it does suck, but I’ve started to care less. Come Sunday, I won’t forget it when everyone wants to talk to me because I just won. I don’t forget things.”
