Brooks Koepka is shattering records at the PGA Championship, and while some are marveling at his dominance, others are frustrated with it.
Brooks Koepka is shattering records at the PGA Championship, and while some are marveling at his dominance, others are frustrated with it.
“I don’t know if the tournament is just less fun because I’m 15 shots back or whatever it is, but it’s very melancholic after today, just because every time I look up, I’m 10 to 12 back. No one likes to play for second, but that’s sort of what he’s doing to us. ... This is a major championship, and everyone is here to win, but there’s only one guy who’s absolutely destroying this place. So I’m sure he’s having a blast, but for the rest of us, he’s making it awfully boring.” -Xander Schauffele on Brooks Koepka’s dominance at the PGA Championship
“I think I’m more focused than anybody out there. Guys make the mistake of trying to figure out, when they get to a major, what’s going on, what’s different. It’s not. It’s just focus. It’s grind it out, suck it up, and move on.” -Brooks Koepka on his major championship mindset
“This is Tiger in 2000 ... it’s an athletic tsunami. He’s doing everything. Nobody has it all. Tiger had it all. Tiger is the only person to have won a major championship by double digits in the last 100 years and he did it twice ... and here comes a guy who has played golf over the last three days with nothing missing. Not one component of the game missing. And he’s on the cusp of building a double-digit lead.” -Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee on Brooks Koepka’s dominance at the PGA Championship
“I don’t think anybody in their right mind would think he’s got a chance, a real chance, a solid chance to win four more major championships. But there is some romanticism there. So often he does things that just defy explanation. But he’s human, clearly.” -Brandel Chamblee, who picked Tiger Woods to win the PGA Championship, on the 15-time major champion’s chances to catch Jack Nicklaus’ 18 major championships
“I’ve been flipped off a few times in my life – probably not as often as you’d think – but I felt like he was giving me the finger for 4 1/2 hours out there today. I gotta tell you, I enjoyed it. ... Outside of his immediate family, I can’t think anybody who enjoyed that round more than I did.” -Brandel Chamblee on Brooks Koepka’s opening-round 63
“I wouldn’t have been able to play [without a golf cart]. To tell you the truth it’s not even easy playing with a cart because for me the cart is more of a distraction but I need it otherwise I can’t play.” -John Daly on using a cart at the PGA Championship
“There’s 156 [players] in the field, so you figure at least 80 of them I’m just going to beat. You figure about half of them won’t play well from there, so you’re down to about maybe 35. And then from 35, some of them just – pressure is going to get to them. It only leaves you with a few more, and you’ve just got to beat those guys.” -Brooks Koepka on his approach to taking down the field during major championships
“Man, that was an incredible honor. To go to the White House with my mom and [girlfriend] Erica and the two kids and all my friends and family that have been there virtually my whole life. To have them there, to have them experience it and to get the Presidential Medal of Freedom, it couldn’t be more special. … The other golfers on that list, Arnold [Palmer] and Jack [Nicklaus] and Charlie [Sifford], and Charlie being like the grandpa I never had. Charlie and I became very close. I ended up naming my son Charlie after Charlie. It was very special and very important to me.” -Tiger Woods on being presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom
“If you really want to prove who the best champion is, it’s not a long-drive contest. That’s why they have long-drive contests out here. It’s about precision. So when you start making it really tight, I get the tight part. But when you start lengthening it to the amounts that they’ve been lengthening it to, I just personally think that it’s a mess-up. … That tests the best ball-striker. That’s what majors are supposed to be about. It’s not supposed to be a driving contest. You just can’t make golf courses that long with guys on the lower end of the stick driving it 275, 280, 290 and then hitting hybrids into greens.” -Bryson DeChambeau on the PGA of America’s set up at Bethpage Black
“All I did was watch him for nine holes. That’s what I grew up doing. I grew up watching him on TV, and I spent the first nine holes, all I did was pay attention to every move he made. Whether he was just picking up his tee, whatever it was. And you can’t do that. You’ve got to focus on your own game.” -Brooks Koepka on learning to play with Tiger Woods and the pressure that comes with it