Brooks Koepka and the U.S. meet Team Europe at the Ryder Cup beginning Friday.
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Brooks Koepka may not love the Ryder Cup, and Paul Azinger may not love Koepka’s opinion.
But at least one analyst now loves Koepka next week at Whistling Straits.
“4-0-0 for the week,” tweeted John Wood, a longtime caddie and current NBC on-course analyst.
Some background. Koepka, in a Golf Digest interview, discussed his frustrations with the Ryder Cup format, saying, “It’s tough. There are times where I’m like, I won my match. I did my job. What do you want from me? I know how to take responsibility for the shots I hit every week. Now, somebody else hit a bad shot and left me in a bad spot, and I know this hole is a loss. That’s new, and you have to change the way you think about things. You go from an individual sport all the time to a team sport one week a year. It’s so far from my normal routine.”
“It’s different,” Koepka continued in the interview. “It’s hectic. It’s a bit odd, if I’m honest. I don’t want to say it’s a bad week. We’re just so individualized, and everybody has their routine and a different way of doing things, and now, it’s like, OK, we have to have a meeting at this time or go do this or go do that. I can barely see my [personal] team. It’s hard to even go to the gym … There’s no time to do that at the Ryder Cup. There’s no time to decompress.”
A four-time Ryder Cup player himself and the 2008 captain, Azinger responded as expected.
Paul Azinger rebukes Brooks Koepka for Ryder Cup comments: If you don’t want in, drop out
“I’m not sure he loves the Ryder Cup that much. If he doesn’t love it, he should relinquish his spot and get people there who do love it,” Azinger said Wednesday. “Not everybody embraces it. But if you don’t love it, and you’re not sold out, then I think Brooks — especially being hurt — should consider whether or not he really wants to be there. And if you add the Bryson dynamic to that, that would be an even easier decision for him.”
Which brings us to Wood’s thought: While Koepka may not love the biennial event, he may love the thought he doesn’t more. For background, google “Koepka chip on shoulder.” The four-time major champion loves nothing more than a lack of love, and this back and forth, Wood said, has all the makings of it.
“Premeditated, motivating, and perfect,” Wood tweeted in response to a Caddie Network tweet. “Now that a lot of people are saying “Brooks shouldn’t even go if that’s how he feels,” Firmly places the chip on his shoulder….I wouldn’t want to play Brooks Koepka when he has a chip on his shoulder.”
To add one more log to the fire, there’s also this: Wood, Azinger and Koepka will all be at Whistling Straits this week.
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