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Golf has historically been a gentleman’s game where the bulk of interpersonal drama tends to unfold behind closed doors, but that was certainly not the case with the public beef that Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau were engaged in during their time on the PGA Tour. However, the two men have seemingly buried the hatchet.
I think it’s safe to assume most golf fans currently have a drastically different opinion of Bryson DeChambeau than they did a few years ago when he was primarily known for his overly analytical approach to golf and hadn’t really shown off the fairly affable personality he’s showcased since making a concerted effort to grow his brand with the help of social media.
Brooks Koepka was firmly a member of the anti-Bryson camp as early as 2019 when he fired a not-so-cryptic shot at DeChambeau for holding up the pace of play at a tournament in Dubai. The beef escalated when Koepka ended up on the receiving end of a jab from his burgeoning foe over the physique he showed off while posting for the “Body Issue” of ESPN the Magazine in 2020, and it only grew from there.
However, nothing encapsulated the feud quite like Koepka’s reaction when DeChambeau strolled by him during the PGA Championship in 2021, which made it very clear the two men were not on the best of terms.
Those tensions continued to simmer when they both ended up representing Team USA at the Ryder Cup later that year (shortly before they faced off against each other in an installment of The Match), but things appeared to take a turn after the two men found themselves playing together on the LIV Golf circuit beginning in the summer of 2022.
It’s hard to imagine DeChambeau and Koepka would have agreed to team up to face off against Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler in a PGA vs. LIV iteration of The Match that will unfold on December 17th if there was still bad blood between the two of them, and on Tuesday, the latter confirmed he was a bit too quick to judge his playing partner before getting to know him.
According to Sports Illustrated, the duo addressed their extinguished feud on Tuesday during a conference call where they acknowledged the leap to LIV was the turning point for their relationship before Koepka admitted he’d been too harsh on his former rival, saying:
“I’m the first person to admit I can be a bit stubborn…
We all get older, we all mature a little bit, and then you realize, hey, Bryson’s a good dude. I think he’s severely misunderstood and I think the world is actually starting to really see who Bryson DeChambeau is, which is cool.
I’m the first person to admit it, I was wrong with what my original thoughts were.”
You love to see it.