These might be Brooks Koepka’s first competitive rounds at Royal St. George’s, but he’s been to the Open venue before.
Koepka was 13 when he and his family flew across the pond to play St. Andrews and Carnoustie before taking in the final round of the 2003 Open. That was the year that Ben Curtis authored one of the most unlikely stories in major championship history, capturing the claret jug in his first career appearance.
If only Koepka had seen the finish.
“With about three holes left, I remember Thomas [Bjorn] took a few out of the bunker, and I think Ben was maybe a group of two behind him,” Koepka recalled, “but I ended up falling asleep right in the little pavilion to the right of 18 and didn’t even see the finish.
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“I remember getting yelled at by my mom: I didn’t bring you over here to fall asleep. But it was fun. It was a cool family trip.”
Koepka also remembered that he and younger brother Chase got Tiger Woods’ attention as Woods was playing the 13th hole. “My brother said something and Tiger said something back to him, and we thought it was the coolest thing at the time,” Koepka said.
As for Royal St. George’s itself, well, count Koepka among those who doesn’t rank it very highly among the other options on the Open rota.
“Quite a few blind tee shots, kind of hitting to nothing. Fairways are quite undulating,” he said. “I don’t know, it’s not my favorite of the rotation, put it that way.”
Will that affect his attitude as he aims for his first Open title?
“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “I don’t care whether I like the place, don’t like it. You’ve still got to play good and go hit the shots.”