As Tom Brady alluded to on social media while promoting the fourth installment of The Match, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka don’t like each other very much.
Shortly thereafter, the two golfers more or less confirmed that in a brief Twitter exchange.
Following Brady’s announcement he’d be teaming up with Phil Mickelson to play 18 holes against Aaron Rodgers and DeChambeau, the Buccaneers quarterback posted a few memes of Koepka rolling his eyes at DeChambeau during an interview at the PGA Championship.
DeChambeau answered Brady’s post by referencing Deflategate.
Then, Koepka got in on the action, as did Mickelson.
That led to DeChambeau and Koepka going back and forth …
… and PGA peer Justin Thomas loving it.
The DeChambeau-Koepka feud dates back to 2019 when the former accused the latter of taking too long to play on the course. Then, following Koepka‘s appearance in ESPN’s “Body Issue,” DeChambeau poked fun at his rival about his physique. Koepka responded to DeChambeau, who had not won a major at the time, with a picture of the trophies from his four major wins.
There were a few more minor incidents between the pair before the video of Koepka rolling his eyes at DeChambeau, and subsequently losing his train of thought during an interview because he was so annoyed, went viral. “Sometimes, um — I lost my train of thought,” Koepka said. “Hearing that bullshit.”
Knowing it was somewhat inflammatory, the Golf Channel never aired the video, but it somehow leaked to social media.
Good for golf, the feud could also be beneficial to DeChambeau and Koepka thanks to the PGA’s new Player Impact Program, which hands out bonus money to players based on their popularity.
“Are we truly on the verge of a clickbait era in professional golf, where players pursue feuds and other negative ploys to ratchet up their Q scores?” Golf Digest asked. “I don’t know. What’s clear, though, is that in the Koepka-DeChambeau drama we’ve witnessed an accidental example of how effective it can be. Combine human nature with the ‘follow the money’ truism and, to quote Bob Dylan, you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”
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