Once Enemies, LIV Golf's Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau Will Play Together on Saturday at the PGA
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A couple of years ago a pairing of Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka would have made national news.
They just seemed to not like each other.
It’s not really clear if that was true or not, but they eventually hugged it out at the 2021 Ryder Cup in Wisconsin after the victorious 19-9 USA win over Europe.
Since then, they both left the PGA Tour to join LIV Golf and the feud, if it was that, was no longer.
Which seems to make the fact that they are paired together at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday at the PGA Championship, two groups behind leaders Scottie Scheffler and Canadian Corey Conners, superfluous.
But still interesting.
DeChambeau sits at 3 under after a one-over-par 71 on Friday. He's two shots off the lead, while Koepka is at 2 under after a 4-under-par 66, the best round of the day.
“I lipped out a putt on 12, and gave myself a lot of looks,” DeChambeau said. “Fifteen, just pulled a little bit of a wedge and didn't hit a great wedge on 16, good recovery on 17 and then just didn't hit my wedge very well on 18. If I can clean that up tomorrow with the same driving, I'll give myself a chance to shoot a few more under par.”
The duo has only been paired together once in a major championship, at the 2016 Masters when both shot an even-par 72 and finished T21.
So, it’s fair to say this is relatively new territory for them, in a big situation, just a couple shots off the lead.
For Koepka, his last major had the making of a comeback story, only to see it crash and burn on Sunday.
This week Koepka called what happened on Sunday at Augusta, a final-round 3-over 75, a choke job.
“It is choking, right?” Koepka said Wednesday at Oak Hill. “If you have a lead and cough it up, that's choking. But at the same time, I'm not dwelling on it. I've been in the lead, that position a couple of times and haven't capitalized. I can't do it every single time. I'm not perfect. As long as I can learn from it, I'll be better off from it.”
After a mediocre 1-over 71 in Thursday’s first round, Koepka was equally hard on himself.
"That was the worst I've hit it in a long time,” Koepka said. Scrambled really well. Missed a couple putts early but scrambled really well late. Yeah, that was the worst I've hit it in a really long time.”
And then he was prolific.
For DeChambeau, he was not in the mix at the Masters and really has not been in the mix for a while.
But a top 10 at the LIV Golf Tulsa event helped put DeChambeau in a much better frame of mind about his game.
What is very clear is that both DeChambeau and Koepka will not be thinking about a feud of over two years ago but will attempt to get one step closer to hoisting the Wanamaker Trophy on Sunday night.
“I know what to do, I've done it before,” DeChambeau said about contending in majors. “It's been a few years, but it doesn't mean I don't know how to do it, and if it's not my time, it's not my time, and I feel like I'm definitely trending in the right direction finally.”