‘I’m like glass’: Brooks Koepka is fed up with his two-year injury streak

Brooks Koepka says he’s ready for anything in his third Ryder Cup, but will his body cooperate?

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It’s easy and perhaps a little reductive to say that Brooks Koepka doesn’t care. Perhaps that’s why we hear it so often.

Brooks doesn’t care about PGA Tour events. Brooks doesn’t care about his public image. Brooks doesn’t care about his fellow pros.

Recently, Koepka’s words have doused the “don’t care” flames in lighter fluid.

Brooks doesn’t care about the U.S. Ryder Cup team. Brooks doesn’t care about his teammates. Brooks doesn’t even care about the Ryder Cup!

From a safer distance, it’s clear that Brooks Koepka does, in fact, care. He cares a tremendous amount. It’s evident in his physical preparation — his relentless approach toward diet and exercise is well-documented. It’s evident in his golf game, most notably his attempt to compete in the Masters on what could charitably be described as one leg and zero preparation. It is also evident in his personality, and in the ever-so-subtle shift from disengaged to disgruntled that joined his press conference on Thursday at the Ryder Cup.


KOHLER, WISCONSIN - SEPTEMBER 23: Brooks Koepka of team United States speaks to the media during practice rounds prior to the 43rd Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits on September 23, 2021 in Kohler, Wisconsin. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

‘Y’all spun it that way’: Brooks Koepka unhappy with Ryder Cup blowback

By:


Dylan Dethier



“I’m like glass,” Koepka said disgustedly. “So I wouldn’t say I am 100 percent. Left knee, right knee. I’m broken, man.”

The root cause of Koepka’s crabby outlook seems not to be a lack of interest in his day job but, as he suggests, an inability to take part in it. His last two years have been defined by injury, evidenced nowhere more than his knees, where he’s had more significant injuries (two) than he’s had wins (one).

Thursday was far from the first public moment of frustration from Brooks about the status of his body. He was visibly upset during his aforementioned Masters performance in April, and audibly upset after it.

“How f—— disappointed do you think I am?” Koepka said at the time. “I worked my a— off just to get here, and then to play like this is pretty disappointing.”

He finally seemed to be recovering heading into the fall, but the injury bug bit yet again. Koepka was forced to withdraw from the Tour Championship earlier this month, this time with a wrist injury that cast some doubt upon his health for the Ryder Cup. He made it to Sheboygan without a setback, and enters his third Ryder Cup with every plan of once again being a workhorse for the Americans.

“I feel fine. I feel as good as I’ve felt in a long time,” Koepka said. “Over the past week and a half, I did a lot of work on it with Derek Samuel, my trainer. He was down with me for about eight days, so able to kind of work everything out and make sure it’s fine.”

Koepka is ready for the Ryder Cup, and he wants it badly.

“I feel good,” he said. “I’m ready to go as much or as little as they want.”

The question, as Brooks is tired of hearing, is whether his body agrees.

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James Colgan

Golf.com Editor

James Colgan is an assistant editor at GOLF, contributing stories for the website and magazine on a broad range of topics. He writes the Hot Mic, GOLF’s weekly media column, and utilizes his broadcast experience across the brand’s social media and video platforms. A 2019 graduate of Syracuse University, James — and evidently, his golf game — is still defrosting from four years in the snow, during which time he cut his teeth at NFL Films, CBS News and Fox Sports. Prior to joining GOLF, James was a caddie scholarship recipient (and astute looper) on Long Island, where he is from.

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