Shortly after being named the 2018 PGA Tour Player of the Year, Brooks Koepka began the media blitz that accompanies many of the biggest awards in professional sports.
One of the three-time major champions’ first stops was The Dan Patrick Show where Koepka seemed to come out of his shell and thrive in a sports-centric — as opposed to golf-centric — environment.
Patrick asked Koepka questions on any number of topics from the trophy he got for winning POY, to Florida State football, but the elephant in the room was the recently-completed Ryder Cup, the Team USA drubbing and the aftermath of the biennial event, which included reports of a skirmish between longtime friends Koepka and Dustin Johnson.
Unlike the Patrick Reed drama that seemingly continues to seep out despite the main protagonist in the story not appearing publicly, Koepka played the week following the Ryder Cup in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and spoke to the media about the reports. Koepka denied there was any altercation whatsoever, while Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk confirmed the reports of an altercation.
Once Koepka and Patrick got past the niceties and congratulations, the longtime sports host broached the topic.
“I wanna set the record straight, we can put it to bed,” Patrick began. “Why do you think it was reported that you and Dustin Johnson had that altercation at a party?”
“I have no idea,” Koepka responded. “We went in there to go congratulate the Europeans and tell them congrats on the job well done, and say hey; I don’t know how this started, I have no idea.
“I mean, I’ve been texting with him. I was texting with him before I even knew the story existed and we chatted a few times during the week as we normally would. And I saw him this morning and the 20 people that were here can vouch for me that there’s nothing there. We don’t get it, we’ve laughed about it, we’ve talked about it and nobody knows.”
Patrick pressed further, “Do you think someone misconstrued something like they may have seen you guys; I just don’t know why someone would report it, create it?”
“Yea, I have no idea,” Koepka reiterated. “We talked about everything. We could have been talking about college football and how bad Florida State was, you know what I mean? It’s one of those things like ‘we’re not that bad,’ and you never know what somebody heard.
“Sometimes you jump in the middle of a conversation and you have no idea what’s going on, you just hear a certain part of it. But that’s not always the case. I don’t know what they think they saw, or what they think they heard, but it was far from the truth.”
Finally, the question that’s been circulating around clubhouses around the world came out.
“Do you think you could have taken him?” Patrick asked.
“I don’t know. It would have been a good match I think,” Koepka joked. “I’ve seen instances, I’m sure it’d be a good fight. Maybe not as good as the McGregor fight, or the fight after the fight, but it definitely would be interesting. Maybe sell a few tickets.”
You can see the full interview with Koepka below.
