Speaker 1: I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. When
Speaker 1: I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.
Speaker 2: And when I find my.
Speaker 3: Ball in a fried egg Friday egg, the dreaded Frida egg,
Speaker 3: Frida Egg Egg Egg, Frida egg bride egg.
Speaker 1: Lie, I'm about ready to run off of the course.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to another edition of the Frida Egg Golf Podcast.
Speaker 1: I am your host, Andy Johnson. Today I am excited.
Speaker 1: I'm also apologetic. I had a computer issue and I'm
Speaker 1: on a loaner computer and I cannot get my microphone
Speaker 1: interface to connect to this loaner, so you've got kind
Speaker 1: of of a headphone Mike audio. I'm apology. I get
Speaker 1: the computer back tomorrow, so we'll be back up better
Speaker 1: at audio quality tomorrow. Other while we're doing announcements next week,
Speaker 1: the show's going to be released instead of first thing
Speaker 1: Wednesday morning, mid day Wednesday, so that will be just
Speaker 1: one little intricacy of next week. It's going to be
Speaker 1: just a slightly later release. We're just accommodating, you know,
Speaker 1: our guest who needs to record Wednesday morning, so we'll
Speaker 1: be right after we finished recording Wednesday morning. And today
Speaker 1: I am I'm very excited about this podcast. I think
Speaker 1: it's just a fun one. I like checking in with
Speaker 1: these players, big name players who you know might be at,
Speaker 1: you know, a moment where you wonder, like where's this go.
Speaker 1: And I think we've had a lot of moments with
Speaker 1: brooks Keepka at this point, and you know, he didn't
Speaker 1: have like a I would say it was like necessarily
Speaker 1: under whelming year in the in the scope of things,
Speaker 1: but it definitely was a year with high expectations that
Speaker 1: weren't you know, delivered, And I think there's just a
Speaker 1: lot of questions about, like, you know, where's he where's
Speaker 1: he at? So I am joined by Brentley Roman from
Speaker 1: Golf Channel, Joseph Lamonia from Friday Golf, and we dive
Speaker 1: into brooks Kepka a little bit on the past, a
Speaker 1: little bit on his up bringing. This was not meant
Speaker 1: to be like a full blown, like you know, detailed
Speaker 1: dig into everything he's done, you know, because there's a
Speaker 1: lot he's got five majors, a lot of close calls,
Speaker 1: but more you know, here's where we've been, here's where
Speaker 1: we are, and where do we think he's going in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four? Obviously Live season kicks off now and
Speaker 1: we're getting you know, it's crazy to say this. I'm
Speaker 1: always surprised this kind of at this time of year.
Speaker 1: It's not we're not that far away from the Masters.
Speaker 1: We're basically two months two months ay from the Masters.
Speaker 1: It is going to be kind of the lead in there.
Speaker 1: And as we've seen the last couple of years, the
Speaker 1: pro golf calendar just goes so so quickly. Once you
Speaker 1: hit the Masters, it is just boom, boom boom, and
Speaker 1: next thing you know, you're like, wait, we don't have
Speaker 1: a Major for eight more months, what's going on? So
Speaker 1: we're getting to that point where we got to start
Speaker 1: to think about the Masters a little bit more, and
Speaker 1: I think Rory's win a pebble last week is going
Speaker 1: to spark that. So, all right, before we get to
Speaker 1: our podcast, let's talk about our friends. These are definitely
Speaker 1: our friends, our friends at golf Genius. We've used golf
Speaker 1: Genius for the last handful of years to administer our events,
Speaker 1: our Friday golf events, and let me tell you, like honestly,
Speaker 1: when we started using them, it made our lives so much,
Speaker 1: so much easier to run events. This is what they do.
Speaker 1: They provide tournament management software. It's a platform for managing
Speaker 1: golf events in golf tournaments. They work in sixty plus
Speaker 1: countries and at eleven thousand plus clubs, resorts, and public
Speaker 1: golf courses. They also are used by PGA sessions, golf associations.
Speaker 1: They say this these are my notes here saves the
Speaker 1: pro shop hours of prep work and helps deliver a
Speaker 1: great experience for golfers. I don't think there's any more
Speaker 1: true as someone who was in the trenches without this
Speaker 1: and trying to deliver a great golfer experience of an event.
Speaker 1: This is, without without a doubt true. This is a
Speaker 1: company that makes running golf events way, way easier. I
Speaker 1: think you know if this is a no brainer if
Speaker 1: you're if you're trying to put together something, They've got
Speaker 1: mobile scoring, live leader board. It's really fun if you're
Speaker 1: playing in the event and you're able to follow. So
Speaker 1: if your golf course doesn't have it, ask for it.
Speaker 1: If you're if you run a golf course and you
Speaker 1: don't have it, you should get it. You're gonna run
Speaker 1: better events with it. You can learn more at golf
Speaker 1: genius dot com. That's golfgenius dot com. And big thanks
Speaker 1: to Golf Genius for our partnership. We love our partnership
Speaker 1: with Golf Genius, right, it makes our Friday golf events
Speaker 1: way better. So all right, let's get to talking about
Speaker 1: a different golf genius and golf genius on the course.
Speaker 1: You know, without a doubt, I it's kind of like amazing.
Speaker 1: And when you think back about brooks Kepka and all
Speaker 1: these majors, it's like he's just been a force of
Speaker 1: nature the last ten years. So let's talk about brooks Kepka.
Speaker 1: All right, we are back where I'm excited about this podcast.
Speaker 1: We've done a couple of these player focused podcasts. We
Speaker 1: did one on Jordan Speeth and as well as Justin Thomas.
Speaker 1: Kind of it's almost like a state of the Union
Speaker 1: on these on these players. Today we're going to hit
Speaker 1: on brooks Koepka. This is I think, like since I
Speaker 1: got into this job, probably you know, the most I
Speaker 1: think the player with the most high moments in the
Speaker 1: last eight years. I think he's obviously won five major
Speaker 1: championships in the last seven years. He's been a absolute
Speaker 1: force at majors, but also is one of the more
Speaker 1: unique players in the sense that major success doesn't necessarily
Speaker 1: equal piling up wins on the PGA Tour or the
Speaker 1: Live Tour. He's been, you know, a a player that
Speaker 1: rises to the occasion in the big moments when the
Speaker 1: golf gets really hard, and been a player that you know,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe he does, maybe he's loafin the other weeks,
Speaker 1: maybe he's just not expending his mental energy, but he
Speaker 1: has been, without a doubt, the player I would say,
Speaker 1: of the last seven years if you focus in on
Speaker 1: major championship golf. I'm joined by Brentley Romine from Golf
Speaker 1: Channel as well as Joseph Lamannia from Brideay Golf to
Speaker 1: talk about this guys. I wanted to start it out.
Speaker 1: I have so many vivid Brooks memories from his majors
Speaker 1: and all the majors he's won. What are what are
Speaker 1: the what's the memory like the shot or the moment
Speaker 1: or the stretch of golf that you remember the most.
Speaker 2: All Right, I'll lead it off. So it's it's kind
Speaker 2: of crazy because I think back in he's won what
Speaker 2: five major titles now, and I was fortunate enough to
Speaker 2: be at three of them, and I think the thing
Speaker 2: that sticks out the most to me is the battle
Speaker 2: with Tiger Woods. It wasn't necessarily with Tiger because Tiger
Speaker 2: was a couple of groups ahead, but I just remember
Speaker 2: remember it being it felt like it was like one
Speaker 2: hundred and ten degrees. There were so many people there.
Speaker 2: Tiger made eight birdies and I think maybe his best
Speaker 2: final round in a major ever at Bell Reeve and
Speaker 2: still couldn't track down Brooks. And toward the end there
Speaker 2: was a shot on sixteen it was like two hundred
Speaker 2: and forty seven yards and he just rips like this
Speaker 2: towering iron shot to like six feet and that was
Speaker 2: just the like that was the exclamation point on that win.
Speaker 2: And then like the way it was on eighteen, there
Speaker 2: was like this catwalk that you had to walk. It
Speaker 2: was probably about almost one hundred yards, and there was
Speaker 2: just the sea of fans, and I just remember like
Speaker 2: the image of him just walking across with Jenna and
Speaker 2: then they like walk right past Tiger like coming out
Speaker 2: of scoring. And so that's kind of like the image.
Speaker 2: It's kind of funny out of all the places that
Speaker 2: he's won, it's funny that Belle Reeve kind of sticks
Speaker 2: out the most.
Speaker 1: I think you said, you know, going toe to toe
Speaker 1: with Tiger. But like I mean of the players of
Speaker 1: this like kind of late late twenty tens into the twenties.
Speaker 1: He ran into Tiger at the at the nineteen Masters too,
Speaker 1: Like that was another like he I don't know if
Speaker 1: there's any player that's like in that, you know, speak
Speaker 1: justin Thomas, you know, Brooks, Kopka thing that have had
Speaker 1: two run ins at majors with him, one he won,
Speaker 1: one he lost. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, he also was paired with Tiger early at I
Speaker 2: believe it was the twenty nineteen PGA, played the first
Speaker 2: two rounds and he shot the course record, tying sixty
Speaker 2: three at beth Page. And then one of his first
Speaker 2: major rounds was with Tiger as well. He played the
Speaker 2: final round o Kill in twenty twelve and shot seventy seven.
Speaker 2: So it's funny to see the growth of Brooks from
Speaker 2: a kid off the Challenge or in twenty twelve shooting
Speaker 2: seventy seven, and it's like this guy doesn't have it
Speaker 2: to Frankly, he's probably gotten the best out of Tiger
Speaker 2: more often than not.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Tiger, you know asterisk when you got the best
Speaker 1: out of Tiger, I think. But but yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: he's gotten the best out of most people in majors, right.
Speaker 1: I think that's the resounding thing. Joseph, what's your moment?
Speaker 3: Maybe I'm cheating Andy because I'm not picking a moment,
Speaker 3: I'm picking a quote. And this is probably one of
Speaker 3: my favorite quotes about a golf forever.
Speaker 2: This is a quote I come.
Speaker 3: Back to every time Brooks is at the top of
Speaker 3: a major championship leader board, which fairly often, which is
Speaker 3: a quote from Steve Williams in twenty fifteen to Golf Digest,
Speaker 3: in which Steve Williams, who's seen some good golf, says,
Speaker 3: once in a great while, a player comes along who
Speaker 3: hits a golf ball the way it was meant to
Speaker 3: be hit, powerful, piercing the perfect trajectory of the young
Speaker 3: players out there. One I've seen has that special ballflight,
Speaker 3: Brooks Koepka. He goes on, says a couple more lines,
Speaker 3: and he says, obviously he's searching to find the other
Speaker 3: parts of the puzzle. But I haven't seen a ball
Speaker 3: flight like that since Tiger and before that Johnny Miller.
Speaker 3: And that's twenty fifteen before Brooks is even won a major.
Speaker 3: I think it's a really cool quote, and going back
Speaker 3: preparing for this pod, watching some major championship final rounds
Speaker 3: again some highlights from Brooks. I think that's what stands
Speaker 3: out to me the most about Brooks is that ballflight.
Speaker 3: That he's just striking it differently than other guys in
Speaker 3: the field. See that at Aaron Hills, see that at Shinnacock.
Speaker 3: Just these unbelievable piercing stock fades, but also a lot
Speaker 3: of draws with his long irons. There just aren't many
Speaker 3: players in the modern era who can hit an iron
Speaker 3: like Brooks.
Speaker 1: Kopkas a heavy ballflight, right, it feels like when he
Speaker 1: hits the ball, it just everything like the sound. There
Speaker 1: is a distinct sound with his interaction with the ball
Speaker 1: in the turf.
Speaker 2: He's one of the few guys who you can feel
Speaker 2: the shot. And I hate to compare him to like
Speaker 2: a player who hasn't really done much, But the only
Speaker 2: other guy that I've kind of been around that is
Speaker 2: kind of known for that is Jack Maguire, another Florida
Speaker 2: State guy. I know it's it's almost blasphemous to compare Kopka,
Speaker 2: but it's very similar and it's I don't know, maybe
Speaker 2: Florida State likes recruiting the same guys. I had another
Speaker 2: quote that is my favorite Brooks quote. Since Joseph is
Speaker 2: sharing quotes, this is the best Brooks Kopka quote from
Speaker 2: his entire life. So he basically is has just been born.
Speaker 2: He's laying in his bassinet. It's in the hospital, and
Speaker 2: the pediatrician comes in or the doctor comes in, and
Speaker 2: he's he's looking at at Brooks the baby, and he
Speaker 2: turns around to his mom Denise, and he says, quote,
Speaker 2: this is the most serious child I've ever seen in
Speaker 2: my life. End quote. And that to me, that quote
Speaker 2: just sets the tone for Brooks Keopka. I mean, it's
Speaker 2: a perfect description of him.
Speaker 1: Interesting. I if we're talking about quotes, one of my
Speaker 1: favorite things he said where You're Going was the I'm
Speaker 1: only playing against a couple guys in a major. I
Speaker 1: think about that all the time because I it's legitimately
Speaker 1: how I used to think about State Am qualifiers, and
Speaker 1: Brooks like like to me that it's wild that Brooks
Speaker 1: took the same philosophy that I would about like trying
Speaker 1: to qualify for State Am to a major championship, and
Speaker 1: the theory is like half the guys shouldn't be there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: half the guys that should be there aren't going to
Speaker 1: play well. And then with Brooks, he took it to
Speaker 1: like a whole, like I'm better than the half the
Speaker 1: guys that should be there that are playing well. And
Speaker 1: then it comes down to like I only have to
Speaker 1: beat a couple guys that are a major. They're easier
Speaker 1: than anything else. And I I mean, I find it
Speaker 1: amazing because like it's it kind of speaks to like
Speaker 1: that supreme supreme talent, supreme confidence, but also like this
Speaker 1: this understanding of really how tournament golf works. You know,
Speaker 1: I think like him and DJ got cast into this
Speaker 1: like kind of bombers, like they're these the Bash brothers,
Speaker 1: and like DJ given each other a needle the quotes
Speaker 1: from DJ. But I think like when you get down
Speaker 1: deep rooted into each of them, they are like golf
Speaker 1: savants in terms of like the understanding of golf and
Speaker 1: competitive golf. And there is like there's a layer to
Speaker 1: Kopka of like physicality. I think that also you know
Speaker 1: comes through in and and Tim and he intimidates other players.
Speaker 3: Andy you talk about golf intelligence and going to moments
Speaker 3: from Brooks's career that stand out one that hadn't stood
Speaker 3: out to me that I went back and watched and
Speaker 3: was struck by. And I'm curious if either of you
Speaker 3: guys remember this, but the final round at Shinnakock Brooks'
Speaker 3: is Bogie on eleven is really interesting to go back
Speaker 3: and watch where he pulls this iron shot long left
Speaker 3: and he's he's in jail, and he's.
Speaker 2: Isn't he playing with DJ? I think he's paired with
Speaker 2: DJ too. I believe you're I believe you're correct. I
Speaker 2: believe you're correct.
Speaker 3: Brooks knows he can't leave that chip shot short, and
Speaker 3: that's another thing that I think Dustin Johnson has spoken
Speaker 3: to before, like when he's short sighted, he's not going
Speaker 3: to go for the hero shot and potentially leave himself
Speaker 3: in jail. So Brooks like hits it over and into
Speaker 3: the bunker and it's not in a good spot, but
Speaker 3: he wasn't going to leave it short and makes an
Speaker 3: incredible up and down for Bogey that he makes like
Speaker 3: a fifteen footer just to save that. Boguey goes on
Speaker 3: to win the tournament, obviously by one. I'd kind of
Speaker 3: forgotten about that moment, but for as good of a
Speaker 3: ball striker as Brooks is. When you go back and
Speaker 3: watch a lot of these majors. He also puts incredibly
Speaker 3: well and holds so many crucial putts that kind of
Speaker 3: look nonchalant, But it's this relentless ball striking paired with
Speaker 3: an ability to get up and down when it counts
Speaker 3: and to make a lot of clutch putts, So that
Speaker 3: that Bogue in particular stood out to me. And I
Speaker 3: was curious if either of you even remembered that, because
Speaker 3: I had not.
Speaker 1: I remember that. I like my moment is the back
Speaker 1: nine at Shancock, Really the entire back nine. I thought
Speaker 1: that was. You know, that was a day where where
Speaker 1: players were just like tapping out and it was like
Speaker 1: a total like succession of like, oh maybe this guy
Speaker 1: could win. Oh he's gone, you know. And at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, the man left standing was Brooks Kopka.
Speaker 1: And it was because of the way, like he astutely
Speaker 1: calling out eleven. One that I always will never forget
Speaker 1: is fourteen, the long par four where he had to
Speaker 1: chip out because he drove it into the tall stuff.
Speaker 1: He chips out and he's got I think it was,
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't rewatch this but as I remember,
Speaker 1: he had like about sixty yard wedge to front pin,
Speaker 1: not an easy shot downwind, and he bounces that wedge
Speaker 1: up to like, you know, fourteen feet or so and
Speaker 1: makes the putt. And I think like the through line
Speaker 1: of all Brooks's majors is like just like he never
Speaker 1: gives stuff away, you know, and it is like the
Speaker 1: constant momentum whenever he needed the momentum putt to make
Speaker 1: the par or in the case of the eleventh hole
Speaker 1: of bogie, like he never gave away that extra shot
Speaker 1: and he kind of kept kept the train on the tracks.
Speaker 1: And going in Shinnakok to me is like the tournament
Speaker 1: that magnifies and like shows off everything because every guy
Speaker 1: kind of bailed out of that tournament.
Speaker 2: Well he was kind of forgotten too going into that
Speaker 2: tournament because remember he had that risk entry at the
Speaker 2: end of the previous year. He missed the Masters that year,
Speaker 2: and I think it was one of those things where
Speaker 2: it was one of those a long list of Brooks
Speaker 2: being slided examples where he wasn't a he may not
Speaker 2: have been mentioned on like a Golf Channel notables list
Speaker 2: or something, and so that was the chip on his
Speaker 2: shoulder that week, and I think he almost I say almost,
Speaker 2: but he got off to a really bad start that
Speaker 2: tournament too. He was something like seven over through his
Speaker 2: first twenty one or twenty two holes and then played
Speaker 2: the rest in six under which that was of course,
Speaker 2: the we lost the golf course Saturday. Phil was, you know,
Speaker 2: putting around on the green and one of my favorite
Speaker 2: moments too from that tournament, and this doesn't have much
Speaker 2: to do with Brooks, but do you remember Phil and
Speaker 2: the kid with the Donald Duck hat in the final
Speaker 2: round on Sunday? There was a kid who had a
Speaker 2: Donald Duck hat and Phil every hole would go over
Speaker 2: and rub it, and there was there's a video online
Speaker 2: but for some reason that just kind of sticks out,
Speaker 2: but not to get on a huge tangent. But yeah, no,
Speaker 2: that was a crazy week. That was I don't know,
Speaker 2: seeing like mentioning that shot on fourteen Andy where he
Speaker 2: was like hitting out of the like cabbage, like, I
Speaker 2: don't know. I feel like people were so surprised that
Speaker 2: he was able to come back from that injury so quickly,
Speaker 2: and that just sets the table for all of these
Speaker 2: injuries pretty much like with the knee surgery and the Masters,
Speaker 2: and I think it just boils down to the fact
Speaker 2: that Brooks is just tougher than everybody else, and it's
Speaker 2: always kind of been that way.
Speaker 1: It's I mean that parlays a little bit into coming up.
Speaker 1: I think like he he took obviously this is very
Speaker 1: well pubblic size, but he took a different path to
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour. He went up through the Challenge Tour.
Speaker 1: He played in Europe, and his coming out party was
Speaker 1: really like the Pinehurst US Open is where everybody he
Speaker 1: became a household name, the Martin Kaimer Pinehurst US Open.
Speaker 1: But there's this Brooks Kepka, this young big American player
Speaker 1: who you know, had been playing in Europe, that that
Speaker 1: kind of burst on the scene there. Obviously, the Waste
Speaker 1: Management win was his first one. But Brentley Near, you've
Speaker 1: covered amateur and college and you know, pro golf for
Speaker 1: a number of years now, what was kind of Brooks
Speaker 1: as an amateur and what was he thought of as
Speaker 1: as a you know, heading into college and then turning professional.
Speaker 1: What was he considered he was.
Speaker 2: Along the lines of a player that that was a
Speaker 2: very regional player, like we've seen some of those in
Speaker 2: the past. Decade or so with maybe a Maverick McNeil
Speaker 2: or Justin So and a lot of it was necessity,
Speaker 2: Like the Kopkaz didn't have a lot of money growing up.
Speaker 2: They obviously had two, you know, budding golf talents to
Speaker 2: fund their careers. So Brooks played a lot a lot
Speaker 2: of fjt's in Florida and he really wasn't He was
Speaker 2: a good player. He won an AJGA, he had a
Speaker 2: bunch of top tens. He would play in their invitationals,
Speaker 2: but he wasn't a I'm trying to think of the
Speaker 2: guys in his recruiting class, but he wasn't a blame barber.
Speaker 2: Or there was a kid named Wesley Graham who was
Speaker 2: also really good who didn't quite pan out. But I
Speaker 2: think when he went to Florida State he was kind
Speaker 2: of known as this hotthead like he had a lot
Speaker 2: of talent, had these broad shoulders, had the ball striking,
Speaker 2: had the sound all that, like, he had everything he wanted.
Speaker 2: But he was an absolute like head case. And Chris Malloy,
Speaker 2: who's the head coach at Ole Miss now, he was
Speaker 2: the assistant at Florida State under Trey Jones, And I
Speaker 2: mean there's stories where Molloy would, you know, be making
Speaker 2: Kopka run stadiums and he'd be at the bottom with
Speaker 2: the trash can and Kopka would like puke into the
Speaker 2: trash can and then head right back up the stairs
Speaker 2: to do it like another stadium. And there was a
Speaker 2: five second roll too in college where Brooks like because
Speaker 2: he would break clubs and so he basically had to
Speaker 2: put the club in the bag within five seconds otherwise
Speaker 2: he'd get you know, he'd have to run stadiums or
Speaker 2: do extra gym time. But then after a while, like
Speaker 2: none of that would work because Brooks just thought of
Speaker 2: the stadiums as, oh, that's just my cardio for the day.
Speaker 2: Like he just you couldn't quite crack him. And it's
Speaker 2: funny because I talked to Maloy the other day and
Speaker 2: I was asking him, like, when was the turning point?
Speaker 2: Because Brooks now is known as this what like this uncrackable,
Speaker 2: like just mental force. But I'm like, when did it?
Speaker 2: When was the turning point for him? And I think
Speaker 2: it was really it was a sophomore year. His mom
Speaker 2: had had just been diagnosed with cancer towards the end
Speaker 2: of that previous year and you know, so Brooks was
Speaker 2: dealing with that, but then also he was he was
Speaker 2: contending at their home tournament and he blew a shot
Speaker 2: out of bounds and he just started f bombing and
Speaker 2: just really making a scene of himself, and he lost
Speaker 2: so much focus that he gets in signs his card
Speaker 2: and he signs for the wrong score, and so he
Speaker 2: decuses himself and the team goes from beating I forget
Speaker 2: who they were playing. It might have been like Georgia
Speaker 2: Tech or something, but or Virginia beating them by nine
Speaker 2: by only beating them by one. And that moment, like
Speaker 2: he felt like he almost left his teammates down, was
Speaker 2: the moment where he kind of realized, all right, I
Speaker 2: have to grow up. And it obviously wasn't a complete
Speaker 2: one eighty after that, but that was kind of the
Speaker 2: moment where he went from being a good college player
Speaker 2: with a hot head to actually putting together turn and
Speaker 2: being a first team All American and leading them to
Speaker 2: the n C Double A championship in twenty twelve and
Speaker 2: really being the reason why they even had a chance
Speaker 2: at match play. That's another interesting story, uh that twenty twelve,
Speaker 2: Like we talked about shots for for the longest time.
Speaker 2: He said, the most clutch situation that he's ever been
Speaker 2: in was at Riviera in twenty twelve. He's on the
Speaker 2: eighteenth green, Daniel Berger is just throwing up all over himself.
Speaker 2: Three pet of the green.
Speaker 1: Just a drive vibe.
Speaker 2: Well this this, this is a worthy drive by, just
Speaker 2: a drive by. Well, I think Daniel Berger signed where.
Speaker 1: He's gonna sign up for a Burger drive by here Bentley.
Speaker 2: No, so I mean Burger. I've talked to Berger about this.
Speaker 2: It's in my oral history of this n Cuba Championship.
Speaker 2: But so Brooks had like a seven foot ver par
Speaker 2: slider on on eighteen at riv and it was he
Speaker 2: was in the last group, so he knew what it meant,
Speaker 2: and it was to send his team into a playoff
Speaker 2: with Kent State UH for the final spot and match plays.
Speaker 2: So he makes it and he called that the most
Speaker 2: high pressure putt for gosh for years, and you know,
Speaker 2: to button up this story. The next morning they go
Speaker 2: out and it's a playoff. They play five two five
Speaker 2: SS in its best aggregate score. In the final group
Speaker 2: that Brooks is in is is Koepka. Dani old Berger,
Speaker 2: who's a freshman and then Corey Connors Pendy and Matthwes.
Speaker 2: So you have five tour players. Yeah, five players, all
Speaker 2: tour players, all in this playoff. And Daniel Berger makes
Speaker 2: a double bogie basically from from the fairway. He hit
Speaker 2: it like forty yards short of the green and then
Speaker 2: flubbed the chip and missed a pie. It was awful,
Speaker 2: and Kopka made the only par I think ford on
Speaker 2: Forida State, But yeah, Kent State ended up winning that
Speaker 2: playoff without making a par which was pretty crazy. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I talked to Brooks about that in a few years back,
Speaker 2: and the only thing he said was the only thing
Speaker 2: he remembers from that NCAA championship is that Burger choked,
Speaker 2: like to this day. Just he's like, yeah, I remember
Speaker 2: Burger choking Bridley. I mean, hopefully this isn't I don't
Speaker 2: think this is jumping ahead too much. Brooks comes out
Speaker 2: to the Challenge Tour right a little bit of an
Speaker 2: unconventional route, Like I think, now this is generalizing, but
Speaker 2: each year there's a couple of college players where it's like,
Speaker 2: all right, that might be a tour player. How ha
Speaker 2: was Brooks thought of when he left college? Because I
Speaker 2: feel like It's hard to go back in time and
Speaker 2: remember exactly unless you followed college golf super closely what
Speaker 2: you thought of Brooks kept as a prospect at the time, Like, yeah,
Speaker 2: how are people thinking about him? I mean he was
Speaker 2: probably I mean he won three times in college. He
Speaker 2: had a really consistent you know, last couple of seasons
Speaker 2: too to where he was. I mean he was finishing
Speaker 2: T seven and T eleven things like that. He was
Speaker 2: really solid. I would say he was probably a top
Speaker 2: ten guy coming out, But back then it was it
Speaker 2: was weird. It seemed like you had to be, you know,
Speaker 2: one of the top three guys in wagger to get starts,
Speaker 2: like to get sponsor exemptions. And that was the big
Speaker 2: thing and the big reason why he went to the
Speaker 2: Challenge Tour. And I believe I forget who even recommended it.
Speaker 2: It might have been Rocky Hambricks, his agent recommended him
Speaker 2: go to the Challenge Tour, but it was because he
Speaker 2: didn't get any sponsor exemptions.
Speaker 1: Like it's like this through line with Brooks of like
Speaker 1: never really being respected, like the big name, like and
Speaker 1: he becomes through his play a force in the game,
Speaker 1: but like, I mean, you know it, he never was
Speaker 1: one of the blue like effective golf blue bloods like
Speaker 1: you think about. He was never the Speeth or Justin Thomas,
Speaker 1: you know in terms of like the fanfare and accolades
Speaker 1: and everything, and didn't get the exemptions, and it created
Speaker 1: this other path. But then that continues with like when
Speaker 1: he is talking about these these beat like these slights.
Speaker 1: You know, it like became a fabric of who he
Speaker 1: was as a competitor or who he is as a competitor.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that that was the That was like a
Speaker 2: golden age of college golf too. I mean, right in
Speaker 2: that kind of three year period between like twenty eleven
Speaker 2: and twenty thirteen, you had Patrick Cantley turning pro, you
Speaker 2: had speech turning pro, you had Justin Thomas turning pro.
Speaker 2: I mean obviously Kopka. So I mean it was just
Speaker 2: all these Thomas Peters. I mean, we can't forget Thomas Peters,
Speaker 2: the NC doublea individual champion that year at riv.
Speaker 1: Where did he go to school?
Speaker 2: He went to Illinois? Yeah, oh there, Hey, Illinois is
Speaker 2: really good at making match play. I'll give you that.
Speaker 2: But yeah, no, that that challenge to our like excursion.
Speaker 2: I think it was maybe late last year that video
Speaker 2: of Brooks riding around in that little car in India,
Speaker 2: like while he was on the Challenge Store and he's
Speaker 2: doing like a vlog and he's just loving it. It's
Speaker 2: so weird because I feel like Brooks loves the team
Speaker 2: aspect and like he'll tell you that, but then there's
Speaker 2: times where he'd also say, like I don't want to
Speaker 2: be friends with any of these guys, like I don't
Speaker 2: have any of their phone numbers saved. And so I've
Speaker 2: always kind of treaded lightly with kind of what comes
Speaker 2: out of Brooks's mouth, just because I think sometimes he
Speaker 2: tries to say things, you know, to kind of trick
Speaker 2: his mind into believing something, and maybe sometimes he contradicts himself.
Speaker 2: But but yeah, I think deep down, Brooks has always
Speaker 2: kind of liked, maybe not so much the team aspect
Speaker 2: of the Challenge Tour, but I think he's always liked
Speaker 2: this kind of self torture that that's sort of like
Speaker 2: running the stadiums in college, or you know, cramming, you know,
Speaker 2: four guys in a car riding around Kazakhstan and you know,
Speaker 2: sleeping in his car and things like that. I think
Speaker 2: he enjoys that. I think he enjoys it being tough,
Speaker 2: and he enjoys the grind and it's kind of almost
Speaker 2: Navy Seal type where you kind of performed the best
Speaker 2: when you're in pain, and you know, in these high
Speaker 2: pressure situations, and it's.
Speaker 1: I think it's also something like I you know, he
Speaker 1: obviously he's made many comments through the years about how
Speaker 1: golf is in real sport, and you know, he wanted
Speaker 1: to be a baseball player and stuff, and I imagine
Speaker 1: that when he was playing the Challenge Tour, there was
Speaker 1: an aspect of it that probably in his mind made
Speaker 1: it feel like minor league baseball, you know, and the
Speaker 1: things that minor league baseball players go through to you know,
Speaker 1: to get to the to the you know, to the
Speaker 1: big leagues.
Speaker 2: His first win on the Challenge Tour was fifty four
Speaker 2: holes too, so everything kind of comes back around again. Hey,
Speaker 2: he beat your guy up the van and one of
Speaker 2: those Challenge story events.
Speaker 1: I mean, it depends on what you say you beat.
Speaker 1: He won that event, but he finished third on the
Speaker 1: Order of Merit that year, and you know, finished number
Speaker 1: one is Pavan, so you know who really won. So
Speaker 1: he goes to the Challenge Tour, he wins his first
Speaker 1: year on Challenge Tour, he didn't get like in the
Speaker 1: Chilge Tour, you have to finish in the top five.
Speaker 1: I mean, for people that don't know what the Challenge
Speaker 1: Tour is, it is it is like the It's the
Speaker 1: European Tours version of the corn Faery Tour, which is
Speaker 1: it's like a way more thrifty corn ferry Tour, way
Speaker 1: less money and way more obscure venues. I mean you're
Speaker 1: you're traveled. Yeah, you're going all over the world and
Speaker 1: like to really random places such as Kazakhstown.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: So, anyways, he wins in his first year, and then
Speaker 1: the next year he won three times on the Challenge Tour,
Speaker 1: which got him a third place spot on the Order Merit,
Speaker 1: which then earned his European Tour card. So year is
Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, and he's a European Tour player at this point,
Speaker 1: so kind of just give everybody an idea of where
Speaker 1: we're at on the Kopka, you know train. So twenty fourteen,
Speaker 1: he's got his European Tour card, He's played in a
Speaker 1: couple of majors, and this is where the big kind
Speaker 1: of breakout comes at the US Open, where he finishes fourth.
Speaker 1: He goes on later in the year to win on
Speaker 1: the on the European Tour. He won late in the season,
Speaker 1: which you know catapulted him up into where he got
Speaker 1: I think he got his PGA Tour card through World
Speaker 1: ranking correct, Well.
Speaker 2: No, so, so he got it through his PGA Tour card. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he actually got it through like the not the special
Speaker 2: temporary but like with through non member points. And I
Speaker 2: think it was at Pinehurst that he actually locked up
Speaker 2: his card when he was t four there in twenty fourteen.
Speaker 2: You mentioned how that was kind of his breakound Andy,
Speaker 2: there was one golf legend who that was not the
Speaker 2: moment where he realized too brooks Keptka won because there's
Speaker 2: a moment at Valhalla at the PGA later that year
Speaker 2: where Tom Watson is he's looking for Harris English for
Speaker 2: something and he comes across brooks Kepka's group and Kepka
Speaker 2: hits a drive and he's walking down the fairway and
Speaker 2: Tom Watson is talking to him and he says, what
Speaker 2: club are you ahead? Pro at So he mistook brooks
Speaker 2: Kopka for aal at the twenty fourteen PGA. It just
Speaker 2: it never ends with.
Speaker 3: Them Hey, can we go a little on that, Like,
Speaker 3: as we're talking about the slights, I do feel like
Speaker 3: that's a massive part of brooks Kepka's journey and just
Speaker 3: looking through like it wasn't on the Walker Cup, right,
Speaker 3: Brentley revisiting the twenty fifteen President's Cup when you go
Speaker 3: back and look at him not being a Captain's pick
Speaker 3: and them going with Bill Haas and JB. Holmes instead,
Speaker 3: despite Brooks won that year in Phoenix, as I believe
Speaker 3: both JB. Holmes and Bill Haas also won that year,
Speaker 3: but Brooks's results in majors put theirs to shame in
Speaker 3: twenty fifteen. In twenty fifteen, Brooks made the cut in
Speaker 3: all four majors, finished tenth at the Open, fifth at
Speaker 3: the PGA, eighteenth at the US Opened, thirty third at
Speaker 3: the Masters. Like he made the cut in all four,
Speaker 3: he's playing very well, has a win, and doesn't get
Speaker 3: picked for the President's Cup team. When you just pile
Speaker 3: that on him being his name being mispronounced at the
Speaker 3: US Open at Aaron Hills, I believe in his winning.
Speaker 3: Maybe it's during the trophy ceremony, not being listed as
Speaker 3: a notable as Brentley already has alluded to, and I
Speaker 3: believe that was maybe the twenty eighteen US opened, despite
Speaker 3: being the defending champion. I think golf channels showed the
Speaker 3: notables during the first round and Brooks was not mentioned,
Speaker 3: and he might have even tweeted about that, like the
Speaker 3: Boys Club, and Brook's not really feeling a part of it,
Speaker 3: always being slighted, like it's not all a figment of
Speaker 3: his imagination. It feels like there are a lot of
Speaker 3: slights along his journey, which probably informs the person he is.
Speaker 3: I don't know if that's necessarily why he went to
Speaker 3: live There's there's a lot of reasons for that, but
Speaker 3: it is kind of interesting to think about him always
Speaker 3: being overlooked, maybe never taken quite as seriously as some
Speaker 3: of his peers.
Speaker 2: Well remember Brandle. The Brandle stuff when when Brandal was
Speaker 2: doing the podcast with HYMI man, that was a great podcast.
Speaker 2: I wish that was still going on, But he said
Speaker 2: something like himI asked him, and this was after Tiger
Speaker 2: won the twenty nineteen Masters, and he said something like,
Speaker 2: when Tiger plays Brandle and he's healthy, like, is he
Speaker 2: the best player still? And Brandal said yes, basically in
Speaker 2: a roundabout way, and then and then he said the
Speaker 2: only two players who can come close to him are
Speaker 2: DJ and Rory, and then he mentioned Ram and then
Speaker 2: he mentioned Speed. He didn't even Kopka, and that was
Speaker 2: when Keopka tweeted the brandle with the clown nose. And
Speaker 2: then that's same because that was right around that was
Speaker 2: in May, right before Beth Page and that same championship.
Speaker 2: The pre tournament presser. Brooks's I remember it was right
Speaker 2: after Tigers, and Tigers is jam packed. It's you know,
Speaker 2: it's standing room only, and as soon as Tiger's done,
Speaker 2: Brooks is walking in. In the media, it's just a
Speaker 2: mass exodus. And you know, some people stayed, but Brooks
Speaker 2: definitely noticed half the room just getting up and leaving
Speaker 2: once Tiger was done speaking. And Brooks's I mean, Brooks is,
Speaker 2: you know, the defending champion and already a three time
Speaker 2: major winner at the time, So I mean, it's just
Speaker 2: it's crazy. And I feel like I feel like I
Speaker 2: sided with Brooks on this too, because I feel like,
Speaker 2: you know, maybe you know, us as journalists kind of
Speaker 2: were off put by the by the kacky, by the
Speaker 2: attitude and maybe didn't give him quite the do that
Speaker 2: he may have deserved.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can get. I get both sides. And I
Speaker 1: think like one of the things is like great competitors.
Speaker 1: I you watch the last dance and he get it.
Speaker 1: You watch some of the things that Michael Jordan used
Speaker 1: to do to get up for the random Tuesday night,
Speaker 1: you know, Wizards game and or bullets then game, and
Speaker 1: it's like, this is what crazy competitors do. And I
Speaker 1: think like Brooks absolutely used all this fuel for the
Speaker 1: betterment of his golf game, right, Like he is someone
Speaker 1: that like that it helps provide an edge. I think
Speaker 1: like it shows when he doesn't have an edge, he
Speaker 1: doesn't really perform. And that's the explanation I think on
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour stuff is that the majors provided that
Speaker 1: heightened important and pressure that he kind of needs to
Speaker 1: play his best level of golf.
Speaker 3: What was it that he said before the final round
Speaker 3: at Harding Park. Didn't he say something like all these guys,
Speaker 3: like none of them have win won a major, DJ
Speaker 3: only has one. I don't even know a lot of
Speaker 3: the other guys.
Speaker 2: He basically called a shot on the eve of the
Speaker 2: final round, right, and said that he was going to win.
Speaker 3: Basically just feels like to your point, Andy, like he
Speaker 3: has always tried to find those ways to motivate himself,
Speaker 3: whether he's making them up or not, and probably often not,
Speaker 3: like he was just straight up overlooked in a lot
Speaker 3: of situations.
Speaker 1: So the story of Brooks is obviously majors, and as
Speaker 1: you alluded to, twenty fifteen's when it starts to percolate.
Speaker 1: This is where things are starting to happen in majors
Speaker 1: with Brooks. He goes thirty third at the Masters, first
Speaker 1: Masters he ever played in eighteenth of the US Opened.
Speaker 1: This was after last year's T four. Then he goes
Speaker 1: T ten, T five. The next year he plays three
Speaker 1: out of the four. He goes T twenty one, T thirteen,
Speaker 1: misses the Open and plays the PGA, finishes fourth there,
Speaker 1: and then it gets us to twenty seventeen. He finishes
Speaker 1: eleventh in the Masters. He wins the US Open. So
Speaker 1: he wins the twenty seventeen US Open. That's his first
Speaker 1: US Open. That is at Aaron Hills. You know, I
Speaker 1: honestly think like people didn't count this as a major
Speaker 1: because of the scoring at Aaron Hills. There was like, again,
Speaker 1: he wins a major and people. I think there are
Speaker 1: people that were upset that JT didn't win, you know
Speaker 1: that about how the golf course set up, But it's
Speaker 1: it's kind of treated like it wasn't a major, Like
Speaker 1: there are people all of this shouldn't count because it
Speaker 1: was Aaron Hills and so on and so forth, and
Speaker 1: I kind of think this is just like another thing
Speaker 1: that Brooks can turn into us, Like I love this Major.
Speaker 1: I joined it too. When I look back, I really
Speaker 1: loved it.
Speaker 3: If you go back and watch it, how his ball
Speaker 3: striking is absolutely insane. He missed like ten greens the
Speaker 3: entire tournament and only made like he didn't make a
Speaker 3: double bogie and he and he only made one bogie
Speaker 3: on the back nine the entire week.
Speaker 2: It was just insane. It's a stripe show.
Speaker 1: He was so good. And it's like I think, like
Speaker 1: the discourse got so bad that week with the width
Speaker 1: of Aaron Hills, because I think, honestly, why the discourse
Speaker 1: went so south on the weekend was that people didn't
Speaker 1: want Brooks Kopka to win, and they wanted something from
Speaker 1: the golf course to stand in the way of him winning.
Speaker 1: But the reality is probably is if you made it
Speaker 1: a narrow golf course, he would have won by even more.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that that was a really cool mat. I mean,
Speaker 2: Scotty was the low am that week, Brian, and that
Speaker 2: was that was Xanders Xander's kind of coming out party.
Speaker 2: Two in majors.
Speaker 3: JT got a nuclear on Saturday, right, And I think
Speaker 3: that's to your point Andy, people wanted him to.
Speaker 1: Win HYDECKI was right there too.
Speaker 2: That might have been big Stews first US Open too.
Speaker 1: That's yeah. I mean well, and at that time, it's
Speaker 1: also important to think I was I walked a practice
Speaker 1: round with Jordan Speith and at this time Jordan Speith
Speaker 1: and Cameron McCormick were talking about how to get to
Speaker 1: eighteen Majors, like what had to happen, and you just
Speaker 1: think about like the sliding doors the moment, like I
Speaker 1: don't think they knew that the the major championship player
Speaker 1: from that era was going to play the event, and
Speaker 1: it wasn't them, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And that that was interesting because Brooks came into
Speaker 2: that that major not playing that well. You think he
Speaker 2: was like T thirty seven in Memphis the week before,
Speaker 2: he had missed forrest six cuts to start that year
Speaker 2: had been like outside the top thirty for a month
Speaker 2: at that time, and there's like a really famous story
Speaker 2: about him and Pete Cowen that week and basically Pete
Speaker 2: Cowen just lit into him, and it kind of even
Speaker 2: goes back to college golf, like I feel like Brooks's dad,
Speaker 2: Bob basically gave the keys to like Brooks's coaches, like
Speaker 2: whoever was coaching. I mean, I think it continued to
Speaker 2: the pros. You basically had to almost physically beat Brooks
Speaker 2: Kepka up to get him to listen. And I think
Speaker 2: this is like a really famous story with Pete Cowen
Speaker 2: that week. He just ripped into him and Brooks ended
Speaker 2: up signing a flag for him afterwards and said thanks
Speaker 2: for getting on my ass or something like that. And
Speaker 2: there's been I think some moments where Brooks has kind
Speaker 2: of asked Pete to do the same thing, and I
Speaker 2: think after this year's Masters was another moment like that.
Speaker 2: But yeah, going back and kind of researching this, that
Speaker 2: was something that came up was this this moment with
Speaker 2: Pete where he basically just said you need to have
Speaker 2: an attitude of a champion and stop being like a
Speaker 2: petulant child, and he did.
Speaker 3: I'll just say, I mean talk about the major championship performances,
Speaker 3: and there are a bunch of have some stats pulled
Speaker 3: on that. I think what was enlightening and going through
Speaker 3: this deep dive on Kopka is how many majors he
Speaker 3: almost won. And I think it's easy to overlook that
Speaker 3: sometimes and correct me if I'm missing one. But he
Speaker 3: almost won at Pebble twenty nineteen, almost won the twenty
Speaker 3: nineteen Masters. He's in the mix with Tiger, almost wins
Speaker 3: a Harding Park right that. We just referenced that quote
Speaker 3: from the night before almost wins Kiowa with Phil, where
Speaker 3: Phil Slow plays him almost won the twenty twenty three Masters.
Speaker 3: It looked like he was going to win the twenty
Speaker 3: twenty three Masters before he kind of starts to fall
Speaker 3: apart and rom overtakes him. But that's five more right there.
Speaker 3: That he won five, and he could still win a
Speaker 3: couple more.
Speaker 2: We could.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to say that all five of those
Speaker 3: could have gone his way, but he easily could be
Speaker 3: standing here with seven right now.
Speaker 2: He said that too, Like he said, I think the
Speaker 2: quote was I should have eight majors.
Speaker 1: I The other thing about it is like it's so
Speaker 1: different than like a Faldo who won six and it's
Speaker 1: like wait, like he won basically every time he had
Speaker 1: a chance to win, he won, you know.
Speaker 2: And I think that Brooks Brooks has this crazy conversion
Speaker 2: rate too. I think Brooks has converted like four or
Speaker 2: five fifty four hole leads as well, the only one
Speaker 2: not being maybe Tiger.
Speaker 3: One stat I found really interesting that just speaks to
Speaker 3: how often Brooks has been in the mix. He puts
Speaker 3: together a bunch of top fives essentially over an eight
Speaker 3: year period, right, twenty seventeen to twenty twenty three or
Speaker 3: twenty yeah, twenty's I think twenty fifteen to twenty twenty
Speaker 3: three is like really when he does a lot of
Speaker 3: his damage. The stat I wanted to poll is like,
Speaker 3: who has put together the most top fives in an
Speaker 3: eight year period in the twenty first century?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: So I think Brooks here that his max is like
Speaker 3: twenty either twenty fifteen through twenty twenty two. That's that's
Speaker 3: eight years or twenty sixteen to twenty twenty three. I
Speaker 3: can't remember, Tiger. This is major nineteen. Sorry that this
Speaker 3: is Major's only right, Major's only right, most top fives
Speaker 3: in an eight year period. Tiger had nineteen, Ernie Els
Speaker 3: had fourteen, Brooks and Phil both had twelve, and Spif
Speaker 3: had eleven and then it drops off after there. It's
Speaker 3: pretty incredible those names that Brooks is surrounded by. And
Speaker 3: credit to the Spif for being up there too as
Speaker 3: one of the other players who's more of a younger generation.
Speaker 3: But I mean, you're talking about Brooks, Phil, Ernie and Tiger.
Speaker 1: I the major stuff's crazy. It's like and I think
Speaker 1: like the other thing that people like have a hard
Speaker 1: time with Brooks and like the love of Brooks is
Speaker 1: he's just not rolling up and winning at and uh
Speaker 1: you know other non major events, right, Like I think
Speaker 1: there's like we just saw it with Rory winning at Pebble,
Speaker 1: Like how big of a deal it is and how
Speaker 1: much like love, how love love love people have for
Speaker 1: him winning there, and it's like Brooks would just go
Speaker 1: finish like T thirty two for a month.
Speaker 3: Yeah he show he he.
Speaker 2: I think people didn't like the fact that he not
Speaker 2: only did he not care, but he told you that
Speaker 2: he didn't care about him And I think that really
Speaker 2: rubbed people the wrong way because it's like, well, if
Speaker 2: you play on the PGA Tour, bro like like no
Speaker 2: one wants to Like I don't know. I feel like
Speaker 2: he's he's been so negative to the point of maybe
Speaker 2: making an effort to try to be like like Michael
Speaker 2: Jordan or be like one of those guys, and and
Speaker 2: it's just not himself because as we've talked about, like
Speaker 2: Brooks really cares what people think about him, and he
Speaker 2: really cares about his standing in the game, but mentally
Speaker 2: like he wants to be the other guy. And so
Speaker 2: I think he's done a lot of things in his
Speaker 2: career that being one of them, to where he's maybe
Speaker 2: sabotaged himself because he's trying to be someone that he's not.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know. I think it's all it's been
Speaker 1: like all part of the the aura, right, and I
Speaker 1: think like part of the I think there has to
Speaker 1: be something with the players too, where they have to
Speaker 1: wonder how this guy does it where he just doesn't.
Speaker 1: He shuts off seemingly for most of the year and
Speaker 1: then comes every major comes out and kicks our ass,
Speaker 1: like how's he doing this? You know?
Speaker 2: So I was talking with Luke Clanton last year and
Speaker 2: this was right around the time, he was winning the
Speaker 2: three straight college events in the spring, and he won
Speaker 2: the Vast Bar, which is down at the Floridian where
Speaker 2: Brooks practices, and Brooks spent some time with the team,
Speaker 2: and and that's another thing about Brooks too, is I
Speaker 2: think he did he does a lot of things behind
Speaker 2: the scenes too, Like he he sent the private jet
Speaker 2: for Florida State like his own jet, and had flew
Speaker 2: him down, spent like a day with him. But he
Speaker 2: was practicing with with Luke, and Luke asked him like
Speaker 2: pretty much that thought, Andy, like how does he how
Speaker 2: does he do it? And I think the quote was
Speaker 2: Brooks told Luke he basically just goes brain dead, like
Speaker 2: he tries to play golf brain dead to where he's
Speaker 2: not thinking about anything. And that's what he said, that's
Speaker 2: very hard to do.
Speaker 3: In the Full Swing Netflix documentary, right is the episode
Speaker 3: that profiles Brooks and Scottie, and Brooks says that that
Speaker 3: when Scotty's playing well, he's not thinking about a single thing.
Speaker 3: And Brooks wasn't in that place mentally at the time
Speaker 3: of that interview. So I think that only just reinforces
Speaker 3: that Clinton advice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there was one tournament one major too. It might
Speaker 2: have been twenty twenty three or twenty nineteen against Tiger,
Speaker 2: where Ricky Elliott talked about Brooks not being able to
Speaker 2: turn off the outside noise, like he could hear everything
Speaker 2: that everyone was saying in the gallery and like it
Speaker 2: really messed with him. It might have been twenty twenty
Speaker 2: three because that was also when Brooks afterwards he wouldn't
Speaker 2: and spent like all night with his buddy when he
Speaker 2: got home, and they went like shot by shot and
Speaker 2: they went through like what was going through his head,
Speaker 2: and he was basically he like diagnosed it and was
Speaker 2: like I just wanted it way too much and I
Speaker 2: kept thinking about like too much stuff. And so yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean I've always like I know, I say, like,
Speaker 2: you know, Brooks kind of talks out both of them
Speaker 2: into his mouth. But he's always been one of my
Speaker 2: favorite players, just because obviously of the major like the
Speaker 2: major record, but I don't know, just like the toughness too,
Speaker 2: and kind of the ability to do things that not
Speaker 2: a lot of guys could do.
Speaker 1: I he's so on his career, He's got eighteen top
Speaker 1: tens and majors and thirty seven starts, roughly like a
Speaker 1: fifty percent top ten percentage at you know, he's got
Speaker 1: twenty or I guess he's in forty two eighteen forty two,
Speaker 1: so he's a little below fifty percent. Twenty five top
Speaker 1: twenty fives in forty two events. Then the top fives
Speaker 1: is so impressive. Fourteen you know, fourteen top top fives
Speaker 1: and forty two events, it's nuts. And then you obviously
Speaker 1: have the five wins. It's I feel like we're having
Speaker 1: this discussion because it feels like kind of another moment.
Speaker 1: I think there's been a few moments of Brooks, you know,
Speaker 1: the injuries, the knee in particular. I think there's a
Speaker 1: moment where he himself, along with the hip, thought it
Speaker 1: might be over, you know, and obviously that he had
Speaker 1: the resurgent twenty three, which you know he saw he
Speaker 1: almost won the Masters. John Rahm ended up winning that one,
Speaker 1: and he wins okill. And I think like a lot
Speaker 1: of people had pretty high expectations of Brooks in twenty
Speaker 1: four and it was met with barely lackluster play. He
Speaker 1: won twice on the Live Tour, whatever that means, and
Speaker 1: in the majors he made the cut at all of them.
Speaker 1: But he wasn't really a factor in any of them,
Speaker 1: which was you know, I think when when we've had
Speaker 1: healthy Brooks Keopka, you you expect him to be there
Speaker 1: late on the weekend, and that just wasn't the case
Speaker 1: this year. So it kind of I think leaves us
Speaker 1: with are we are we on the Are we at
Speaker 1: the end of the kep geyer? Are we on the backside?
Speaker 1: Are Is there a few more years of really high
Speaker 1: level play?
Speaker 2: I think so, And I don't think this past year
Speaker 2: was necessary really as much to do with health in
Speaker 2: the body as you know, maybe you know the injuries
Speaker 2: before that, like like you mentioned the knee cap and
Speaker 2: the knee that also kind of led to the hip injury,
Speaker 2: which we see so often with these guys. They try
Speaker 2: to play hurt and they end up doing something to
Speaker 2: injure another part of their body. But I think the
Speaker 2: big thing last year, which was just the putting. And
Speaker 2: I've always thought amongst the you know, the the elite
Speaker 2: major players in the game the last decade, you know,
Speaker 2: your your Rory's, your Speece, your your DJs, I've always
Speaker 2: thought like Brooks was the best putter out of all
Speaker 2: the guys who could ball strike you to death, Like
Speaker 2: he was also the best putter, and he was as
Speaker 2: high as like fifth strokes game putting back in sixteen seventeen,
Speaker 2: back when he won that first one, And he was
Speaker 2: always kind of around that twenty to forty range on
Speaker 2: tour and even better in the majors, and this year
Speaker 2: clearly uncomfortable on the greens, Like if you extrapolate kind
Speaker 2: of his strokes gained, and you know, and correct me
Speaker 2: if I'm wrong, Joseph too, because you're a lot better
Speaker 2: with the stats than me. But basically, just looking at
Speaker 2: those four majors that he played, he lost something around
Speaker 2: like zero point three four or five strokes on the greens,
Speaker 2: and that would have ranked like one hundred and sixtieth
Speaker 2: on tour last year. And I know that he'd switch
Speaker 2: putters before the US Open, so he was clearly like
Speaker 2: that was the part of his game that really let
Speaker 2: him down. And Tita Green stats like if you would
Speaker 2: have just taken those four major tournaments, he would have
Speaker 2: ranked all behind only Scotty for the year. So like,
Speaker 2: I feel like the putting is might be the I
Speaker 2: don't know. I feel like putting's always kind of the
Speaker 2: easiest thing to get back sometimes, especially if you have
Speaker 2: been a good putter.
Speaker 3: I don't know how you feel, andy, Like I know,
Speaker 3: at moments i've felt like Brooks is probably or towards
Speaker 3: the end, I feel a lot.
Speaker 1: He's thirty four.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, important to call that. I feel less that
Speaker 3: way now. I think we just see that the true
Speaker 3: greats can do it at thirty eight, like we've seen
Speaker 3: Justin Rose and Adam Scott and Sergio Garcia play into
Speaker 3: their forties. I don't know that Brooks Kopka is gonna
Speaker 3: have that same longevity, but I think even if it's
Speaker 3: two years from now, like we could see underwhelming results
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty five from Brooks and majors and then
Speaker 3: him get a little healthier and put a couple good
Speaker 3: majors together when he's thirty six thirty seven. Like, it's
Speaker 3: not like he's only been involved in the five majors
Speaker 3: that he's won. Like, as we've already mentioned, he's been
Speaker 3: in the top five so often that I think it'd
Speaker 3: be a little crazy to discount him in general. But
Speaker 3: it's kind of this, there's so much variance, Like he
Speaker 3: could show up and miss the CUD. It'll never surprise me,
Speaker 3: but he also could show up and win. I think
Speaker 3: what I would love to see from Brooks, and I'm
Speaker 3: a little skeptical love is like, could he put together
Speaker 3: another year where he's in the top fifteen and all
Speaker 3: four majors, or like in the top eight and three
Speaker 3: of them, Like, I think that's probably pretty unlikely, but
Speaker 3: I wouldn't be surprised to see him win another one.
Speaker 3: Where are you Andy?
Speaker 1: I think it's tricky now with Brooks because you just
Speaker 1: don't see him very much, right, and he just kind
Speaker 1: of pops up. And I think this has been an issue,
Speaker 1: and obviously it wasn't in twenty twenty three for him
Speaker 1: when he won and finished almost won the Masters. But like,
Speaker 1: I don't necessarily think that lives the best place to
Speaker 1: prepare for majors, right, you had the Eugenio Chichara, Like,
Speaker 1: it's not the best place for young players tour. I
Speaker 1: don't think it's the best place to prepare for majors
Speaker 1: tour either. You know, like you already see these guys
Speaker 1: are starting by playing an event under the lights in
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia this week, and it's like, look at the
Speaker 1: head start that a guy like Rory has on the
Speaker 1: season as he's played with them playing, you know, and
Speaker 1: I know these guys play some of the like the
Speaker 1: DP World Tour. The consistency of having to play on
Speaker 1: tour was a good thing for him.
Speaker 3: I mean to your point, I also think it gives
Speaker 3: you a little bit of a better idea of where
Speaker 3: you stack up. Yes, I think that's a big part
Speaker 3: of it. Did some of the live guys, frankly are
Speaker 3: just a little delusional about the quality of play on
Speaker 3: their tour and finished tied for ninth and think that
Speaker 3: their game is in a better spot than it is
Speaker 3: when if you're playing against the stacked field, like Rory
Speaker 3: just was like, I think it gives you a little
Speaker 3: bit of a better feel for what you need to
Speaker 3: work on, even more so than just the golf course
Speaker 3: argument the courses that you're playing.
Speaker 2: I think it's maybe a little bit deeper than that.
Speaker 2: And you know, I think, yeah, I mean, John rom Bryson,
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's necessarily even the competition. I
Speaker 2: think it's the biggest thing for me is just the
Speaker 2: fifty four holes because and also shotguns start and it's
Speaker 2: so much different actually at a major if you're in
Speaker 2: the lead or you're in contention in a major, and
Speaker 2: you don't tee off until three pm on a Sunday afternoon,
Speaker 2: like the mental like fortitude, you have to have that
Speaker 2: entire morning from the time you wake up to the
Speaker 2: time you tee off, and then like you haven't even
Speaker 2: done the hard part yet. I just feel you can't
Speaker 2: simulate that on on live like you're not You're not
Speaker 2: having to watch a guy go out an hour an
Speaker 2: hour and a half ahead of you and post a
Speaker 2: number like you don't you basically just tee off and
Speaker 2: you all meet back at the clubhouse and sign your scorecards.
Speaker 2: I just think it's just a total different dynamic. And
Speaker 2: with Brooks specifically, like we just talked about his entire career,
Speaker 2: like he gets up for the majors and like he
Speaker 2: doesn't get up for anything else. I'm surprised that that
Speaker 2: he's won five times on Lift, just because I don't
Speaker 2: I think that he still thinks the majors are above
Speaker 2: everything else and that he's kind of just I don't know,
Speaker 2: I mean, he's just playing golf. I don't know if
Speaker 2: this really means that much to him, to be honest
Speaker 2: with you, like these these whip tournaments, so.
Speaker 1: Hoing five times on living four times on the PGA
Speaker 1: Tour pretty wild.
Speaker 2: I mean maybe we're missing something. I mean maybe. I
Speaker 2: mean I haven't been to a live event, so I
Speaker 2: can't really judge, but it just doesn't seem I don't
Speaker 2: know the thing that the only things that concerned me
Speaker 2: with Brooks as far as longevity and what we're going
Speaker 2: to see from because I don't think he had a
Speaker 2: bad Major year. I mean he didn't miss it. He
Speaker 2: didn't have a terrible Major last year. I think the
Speaker 2: things with him or health, I mean, the guys had,
Speaker 2: you know, a severe wrist injury, severe two severe knee injuries,
Speaker 2: a severe hip injury, you know, so that that stuff
Speaker 2: doesn't it goes away like maybe specific injuries, but if
Speaker 2: you're prone to stuff like that, maybe it doesn't. So
Speaker 2: I think that's a big thing. And then he also
Speaker 2: doesn't have a swing coach right now, like he has
Speaker 2: Pete Cowen, who you know, has mainly just been short
Speaker 2: game kind of slash mental coach for him. He's had
Speaker 2: Pierce who's been his putting coach forever, who's a really
Speaker 2: great coach, but he doesn't work with Claude anymore, and
Speaker 2: so who knows, Like could that be a good thing,
Speaker 2: taking ownership of his own swing and kind of moving
Speaker 2: forward like we've seen from some other guys in the past,
Speaker 2: or you know, like.
Speaker 1: That's such a mid thirties PGA tour or professional golfer
Speaker 1: move mid thirties, you take ownership of your swing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and who knows. I mean, like I said, maybe
Speaker 2: that's the best thing for him, but I know I'm
Speaker 2: pretty optimistic, and who knows, like professional golf could look
Speaker 2: a lot different in two years to where we see
Speaker 2: brook Brooks Koepka a lot more. And yeah, he's like
Speaker 2: you say, he's thirty four. I mean, I'm thirty four.
Speaker 2: I don't feel that old. I think he still got
Speaker 2: a good decade of solid major play ahead of him.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't maybe go decade. I think like we could
Speaker 1: build in a year or two of injury just with
Speaker 1: his past I think he to forty. And it's kind
Speaker 1: of like crapshoot. So you know, in my calculation, in
Speaker 1: my you know, this is just he's got about sixteen
Speaker 1: majors left at his current clip. That gets him to
Speaker 1: seven or eight more or seven or eight for total
Speaker 1: if he kept the percentage he was at right now,
Speaker 1: which seems like you're saying.
Speaker 3: Hold on, you're saying, strap lad, And if you were
Speaker 3: to win at the same rate as he has in
Speaker 3: the past over the next sixteen he would get two
Speaker 3: to three more. You're saying, yeah, it feels like a stretch.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean that's like just like the math, right,
Speaker 1: you would get like two more. So he gets to seven.
Speaker 1: I think that's kind of unrealistic, probably, you know. I
Speaker 1: I think there's probably one more left in there. If
Speaker 1: I if I had a gun to my head, I
Speaker 1: think he gets one more. I don't know. If he
Speaker 1: gets one more, I think, like, what'll be interesting Him
Speaker 1: and Rory are effectively the same age is who's up
Speaker 1: with more majors at the end of the day, Brooks
Speaker 1: having a one major league is And I think this
Speaker 1: is like a interesting underguard card that has a lot
Speaker 1: of Like I guarantee when Brooks won his fifth that
Speaker 1: couldn't have made Rory happy because it's like there's a
Speaker 1: badge of honor of being like the you know, if
Speaker 1: you take Tiger out of active and fill out of
Speaker 1: active player, the active player with the most majors right, absolutely.
Speaker 2: Rory has said it.
Speaker 3: He said it in the in the Netflix Full Swing thing, Like,
Speaker 3: I know Brooks has more majors than I have now,
Speaker 3: like they're obviously all aware of it.
Speaker 1: I mean, who'd you pick to have more majors at
Speaker 1: the end of their career? No, you get one one
Speaker 1: major lead with Brooks?
Speaker 3: Brandlely, Curious what you think I would take Rory. I
Speaker 3: believe that the.
Speaker 2: From now until the end.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think this calendar year is such a good
Speaker 3: opportunity for Rory in the level he's playing, in the
Speaker 3: longevity he's shown that. I believe he'll get one over
Speaker 3: the next two to three years, and as soon as
Speaker 3: he ties it up, I think the odds get way
Speaker 3: in his way in his favor, just giving Brooks his
Speaker 3: injury history. But if they finish their careers and Brooks
Speaker 3: finishes with six and Rory ends on four, it's not
Speaker 3: going to shock me. I wouldn't be running to the
Speaker 3: bank to go take out a huge loan and make
Speaker 3: a bet against Brooks's future compared to Rory. Like Rory
Speaker 3: may not win another one.
Speaker 2: So I don't know. I think I would take Rory.
Speaker 2: But curious what you think Brentley it's kind of recently biased.
Speaker 2: I think he may have found something with this TP
Speaker 2: five boss witch, you know, the degree lower, similar amount
Speaker 2: of spin. I don't know. I feel like Rory like
Speaker 2: Brooks's if you look at all the different aspects of
Speaker 2: the game, Like Brooks has never been a great chip
Speaker 2: or the golf ball, like great around the green, so
Speaker 2: he's always kind of consistently been right around the top,
Speaker 2: you know, one hundredth to outside the top one hundred
Speaker 2: in strop scans around the green. I feel like Rory
Speaker 2: has been more consistent across the board then then Brooks has.
Speaker 2: And you know, if Brooks isn't gonna if he's not
Speaker 2: going to figure out the putting anytime soon, like he could,
Speaker 2: he could waste another year or two of majors. And
Speaker 2: Rory right now is playing some of the best golf
Speaker 2: that he's playing. So I could see Rory winning two
Speaker 2: majors this year, and if Brooks doesn't get it, going
Speaker 2: it for another couple of years, like that's a pretty
Speaker 2: big head start. So yeah, I'd I'd go Rory. Probably
Speaker 2: a little bit of recency bias, but I do think
Speaker 2: Brooks wins at least one more.
Speaker 1: Still on the Pebble Beach high.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm always on the Pebble Beach High. Well, I
Speaker 2: mean you said six years of Brooks twenty thirty one.
Speaker 2: I think it's Kiowa potentially for the PGA.
Speaker 3: We're not protecting up, We're not protecting.
Speaker 2: We're not doing that Riviera for the US Open in
Speaker 2: twenty thirty one, and then I don't know where the
Speaker 2: Open it. It might it might be a is that
Speaker 2: that's not a saying that's not an old course you're
Speaker 2: not doing I mean.
Speaker 1: I mean one of the crazy things with Brooks is
Speaker 1: he's had close calls at Augusta. I mean we're like
Speaker 1: very close to him being a like he was close
Speaker 1: support Rush too. You know, it's I think like every
Speaker 1: year fits well for Brooks. I think one of the
Speaker 1: things with Brooks is the utter other aspect of it,
Speaker 1: Like twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen Brooks versus today. I don't
Speaker 1: think he's as much of a force with the driver
Speaker 1: as he used to be.
Speaker 3: I also just think that's a really interesting point, Andy,
Speaker 3: for how much we harp on Rory and great players
Speaker 3: who haven't won the Masters yet. I mean, how do
Speaker 3: we not talk about Brooks the same way when you
Speaker 3: think about who's at that champion's dinner and who has
Speaker 3: won ed Augusta. Brooks deserves as much of that conversation
Speaker 3: right now as Rory does.
Speaker 2: And yeah, I think his.
Speaker 3: Chances of winning the Masters are arguably higher than Rory's,
Speaker 3: just given how Rory tends to get little loose out there.
Speaker 1: It's fascinating that after okill, I feel like the discourse
Speaker 1: was like, ken Brooks get to eight or nine, and
Speaker 1: now you know, we're a year, a year and a
Speaker 1: half later, a year, a year almost two years later,
Speaker 1: I guess, And now it's like, can he get to six?
Speaker 1: What would you put the over under on on? Is
Speaker 1: six and a half the right over under? Or is
Speaker 1: it five and a half?
Speaker 2: It's five and a half. Yeah, it's got The over
Speaker 2: unders are always very conservative because it's so hard. I mean,
Speaker 2: you've got so many, I mean, so many guys who
Speaker 2: can win majors now, I mean, Ludwig's already a force
Speaker 2: in majors.
Speaker 1: He had won good major so far.
Speaker 2: No, I mean I believe I mean, yeah, yeah, Colin,
Speaker 2: but no, but like as far as like his game
Speaker 2: is built for majors, and he hasn't really led me
Speaker 2: to believe otherwise. So yeah, I mean, heck, I throw.
Speaker 2: I threw Luke Clanton in there. Luke Clinton's gonna win
Speaker 2: like four majors. We're gonna be.
Speaker 1: Doing a special exemption into the Masters.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, he's not gonna get that. He's he's
Speaker 2: got to play a college tournament at some point. You know,
Speaker 2: he's hope.
Speaker 1: All right though, all right, this was fun. Anybody got
Speaker 1: any last Brooks thoughts to get off their chest? Anything? Yeah? One?
Speaker 1: All right? I figured no.
Speaker 3: One moment we did not touch on that. I just
Speaker 3: think is funny and illustrative of Brooks Kopka and his
Speaker 3: major alpha energy. The twenty fifteen Open when when the
Speaker 3: ball is oscillating on the green and Brooks kept is
Speaker 3: a complete unproven entity at this point, he hasn't even
Speaker 3: played ten major championships, and some rules official comes up
Speaker 3: to him, I guess makes it clear that he's a
Speaker 3: sir the rules official referring to himself, and Brooks says allegedly,
Speaker 3: I don't care. I don't give an f who you are.
Speaker 3: I'm not playing until my all stops oscillating. And then
Speaker 3: shortly thereafter they halt play. Do you think that's a
Speaker 3: pretty uh. It fits in with a lot of Brentley's
Speaker 3: characterizations of a young Brooks. The brash like some of
Speaker 3: the arrogance kind of maybe was a sign that he
Speaker 3: did not feel uncomfortable in that environment. I think it's
Speaker 3: pretty interesting moment in the Kopka. If we're gonna do
Speaker 3: the Keopka pod, we got to mention.
Speaker 1: That this this is not meant to be like a
Speaker 1: full blown Kopka, you know, because if we if we
Speaker 1: wanted to do that, the there needs to be lots
Speaker 1: of discourse about you know, the move to live, the
Speaker 1: the Bryson Beef, Keila and near miss, you know, getting
Speaker 1: just getting steamrolled by Phil on Sunday. There's so manything
Speaker 1: layers to that. This is kind of more of a
Speaker 1: check in of where are we, what are we doing,
Speaker 1: and where do we think he goes? And I think
Speaker 1: I think everybody's pretty positive on Brooks and and where
Speaker 1: it is. I think, you know, generally believe that we
Speaker 1: are we are going to see more high level major
Speaker 1: play from him in the calendar year.
Speaker 2: I got one more thing that would be perfect to
Speaker 2: sign off with and all right. My all time favorite
Speaker 2: Brooks Kopka moment was a exchange that he had with
Speaker 2: Smarten and I believe a tour championship a few years back.
Speaker 2: And basically this is when Brooks had the the off
Speaker 2: white zip tie on a shoe and so smart and
Speaker 2: being the intrepid reporter that he is said, people were asking,
Speaker 2: what's on your shoes? Oasis question Mark Brooks goes the
Speaker 2: off whites. It's fashion bro No, no, no, the other Brooks.
Speaker 2: This is like such a typical golfer, like forty year
Speaker 2: old white man, like and smart and goes, I have
Speaker 2: two kids. It was like the best exchange ever and
Speaker 2: one that I will file away from me for the
Speaker 2: rest of my life.
Speaker 1: Amazing, amazing. All right, well that does it. Big thanks
Speaker 1: to Brentley. You can read his work at Golf Channel.
Speaker 1: You can see him on Golf Channel. Joseph, I've loved
Speaker 1: your Your Wednesday article every week on on on our website,
Speaker 1: The Friday dot Com. And big thanks to p. J.
Speaker 1: Clark for producing and editing this podcast. This is the
Speaker 1: start of the Johnnies game. Big big night for the
Speaker 1: Johnny's against Marquette. But he's he's he's producing this podcast instead.