‘Act like a child’: Brooks Koepka slams Jon Rahm after tense Ryder Cup tie

The feelings were tense among the U.S. Ryder Cup team after suffering a Friday morning sweep by the Europeans. By the time their afternoon leads had vanished at the hands of Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland and crew, tensions officially started to boil over.

Look no further than U.S. team member and reigning PGA Champion Brooks Koepka.

After watching his teammates get trounced in the first session from the sidelines, Koepka teamed up with World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler in an afternoon four-ball match against Rahm and Nicolai Hojgaard.

The match was an intense back-and-forth affair. But the Americans went 1 up on the 15th hole thanks to a Koepka birdie, only to watch that lead evaporate to a tie and a half point on the 18th green.

Rahm punctuated the match with passionate celebrations after making big shots, of which there were many. The thousands of boisterous European supporters responded in kind, all of which seems to have irked Koepka, the headstrong five-time major winner.

In brief comments following his frustrating match, Koepka focused his ire on Rahm, chiding the Masters champion for childlike behavior.

When asked how he felt after the round, Koepka unloaded, saying, “I mean, I think me and Scottie [Scheffler] birdied, what did we say, 14, we birdied 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and then lost by two. So yeah. I mean, I want to hit a board and pout just like Jon Rahm did. But, you know, it is what it is. Act like a child. But we’re adults. We move on.”

It’s unclear what specific incident, if any, Koepka is referring to, though Rahm is known to have a fiery demeanor and has shown frustration on the course in his career before.

Later on Friday, Koepka touched on a similar theme when answering a question about how the U.S. team would respond to their disastrous opening day.

“Honestly, we’ll be fine. We’re all grown-ups. We act like grown-ups,” Koepka said. “We’ll be just fine. Just got to play and see where it puts you.”

Whatever the source of Koepka’s critique, it doesn’t change the one thing that really matters: the leaderboard.

After the first day of this 44th Ryder Cup, Rahm’s Europeans have a commanding 6.5-1.5 lead over Koepka’s American team.

Kevin Cunningham

Golf.com Editor

As managing producer for GOLF.com, Cunningham edits, writes and publishes stories on GOLF.com, and manages the brand’s e-newsletters, which reach more than 1.4 million subscribers each month. A former two-time intern, he also helps keep GOLF.com humming outside the news-breaking stories and service content provided by our reporters and writers, and works with the tech team in the development of new products and innovative ways to deliver an engaging site to our audience.