Bidding for Manchester United is out of my price range, quips Brooks Koepka

Even with his Saudi millions in the bank, Brooks Koepka won’t be using a trip to the UK to enter the bidding war for his beloved Manchester United. “I think that's a bit out of my price range,” declared the five-time major winner, smiling.

Five-time major winner Brooks Koepka speaks during a press conference prior to The 151st Open at Royal Liverpool. Picture: Gregory Shamus/Getty Images.

The Old Trafford team are playing French side Lyon at Murrayfield on Wednesday night, but Koepka will be otherwise engaged as he finishes his preparations for the 151st Open at Royal Liverpool.

“Yeah, actually I had Rory’s tickets - they’re good seats - in 2014 and went to Old Trafford,” he said, referring, of course, to another big Red Devils fan, Rory McIlroy. “It was pretty cool. I think it was the week of the Ryder Cup maybe. I wasn't playing, clearly. It was awesome, had a great time.”

Koepka laughed when he was asked if he’d be “brave” enough to ask McIlroy for the same favour at the moment due to one of them now being a LIV Golf player and the other being a PGA Tour patriot.

“I've hung out with Rory for the last six, eight months,” he replied to that. “We still practice together. We've had multiple conversations. We've talked about a bunch of different things, life just off the golf course, and he's told me some stuff that's gone on with him that I really appreciate he's opened up. So I don't see why he wouldn't. We've always been friends.”

While he was prodded about LIV Golf, the focus in his pre-event press conference then turned on him becoming a dad for the first time after it was announced earlier this year that his wife, Jena, was pregnant.

“Yeah, it'll be fun,” said the American. “I'm excited for it. It's been an interesting few months just prepping for it all. Golf is probably going to take a backseat. My family will take priority. I'm excited for it, but a little bit nervous at the same time. There's another human being that's going to rely completely on me and Jena.”

In a practice round on Monday, Koepka, who is currently in one of the automatic qualifying spots for the team heading to Rome in September to defend the Ryder Cup, played with US captain Zach Johnson. “It was fun,” said Koepka. “We got to talk about it a little bit, just what's going on, how the team is shaping up. It's kind of interesting.”

Having returned to winning ways in the majors when he landed the PGA Championship in May, Koepka is one of the favourites for the Claret Jug event, though he found it amusing when someone suggested he was in the “second stage” of his career after shaking off serious injury problems.

“Yeah, I don't know if I could really look at it as the second stage of my career; 33, probably right in the middle of my prime,” he said. ‘It's interesting. I told my team even when I was hurt that I was going to give it at least five, seven years of just real hard work and see where everything panned out.

“It was frustrating at times and wasn't fun to just wake up and have to grind, but I kind of enjoyed the work that's gone into all this and it's made it a lot sweeter.”