Brooks Koepka no longer feeling '˜mad' over being snubbed

Tommy Fleetwood of England, Henrik Stenson of Sweden, Brooks Koepka of the United States, Dustin Johnson of the United States and members of the European Tour pose during a photocall at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club. Picture: Getty

The American was unhappy that he wasn’t on the list for a pre-tournament press conference at the PGA Tour Championship in Atlanta in September, having already felt he’d been disrespected in his winner’s press conference the previous month after holding off a rejuvenated Tiger Woods to triumph in the final major of the season at Bellerive Country Club in St Louis.

“I don’t need to bend over backwards to be friends with anyone [in the media], but certain guys do that because they want their names written,” Koepka, pictured, said at the Tour Championship. “I’d rather be written about because of my play. Sometimes it does suck, but I’ve started to care less. Come Sunday, I won’t forget it when everyone wants to talk to me because I just won. I don’t forget things.”

Maybe he does because, speaking as he prepared to tee up in this week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, the first event in 2019 on the European Tour, Koepka seems to have changed his tune or at least used the last few months to decide he is indeed happy to let his golf continue to do the talking.

“I think that kind of took on a life of its own,” said the 28-year-old Floridian, who is being joined in the $7 million Rolex Series event by compatriot and world No 3 Dustin Johnson. “I think I was upset for one week, and I think people kind of blew it out of proportion and made this whole thing me against the media; me saying I don’t get enough attention. I think it just blew up a little bit more than probably what I intended for it to do.

“I think the only thing that I was just saying was, you know, if it had been a couple other people, I think it would have been a bit different. I mean, Jordan [Spieth] did the same thing (winning two majors in the same season). Obviously with Tiger coming back, it’s a little different. But if a few other people would have done it, I felt like it would have been a little bit different.

“You know, I was mad for all of five minutes probably when I said that, and it just took on a life of its own. I’m not upset. I’m still trying to do my personal goals. I can tell there’s a difference; I’ll put it that way.”

One of few disappointments for Koepka in recent years was being a member of a much-vaunted United States team that was hammered by Europe in the Ryder Cup at Le Golf National outside Paris. A few months on from that sore defeat, the man who used victory in the 2013 SSE Scottish Hydro Challenge in Aviemore as a springboard to becoming one of the game’s leading lights is sticking with his verdict at the time.

“They just outplayed us,” he stated. “The Europeans knew the golf course a little bit better than us, but I don’t think that played that much of an advantage of what people thought. I also don’t think there’s anything to look into the fact that a big deal was made of the fairways being tight and the rough being thick as we can all hit 3-iron off the tee.

“It comes down to execution and we just didn’t execute. It’s simple. I still had a great time. I still think it’s one of the most fun events to play in. I can’t wait for it to come around here in a year and a half.”

Padraig Harrington will be the captain for Europe’s trophy defence at Whistling Straits and Henrik Stenson believes the Irishman is the right man for the job  in Wisconsin.

“I think he’ll bring his calmness,” said the Swede, who is also playing in the Abu Dhabi event, which gets underway tomorrow as opposed to a traditional Thursday start. “He’s kind of even-keeled. Not really super highs and super lows with Padraig. He kind of stays balanced. I think each one of the captains has got to put his own twist on it, and he’ll bring his own personality and experience and thoughts on what he would like to see. He’ll just make it his own and he’ll be a good captain.”

Stenson shook off an elbow injury to vindicate his selection by Thomas Bjorn for the match in France, joining forces with Justin Rose to win two foursomes matches before crushing Bubba Watson in the singles.

Admitting his elbow is now feeling “pretty good”, the 2016 Open champion is eager to get the new season under way and plans to play in both the WGC Mexico Championship and WGC Match Play, two events he missed last year, in the build-up to The Masters in April.

“I’m going to play a lot of golf once we hit Florida Swing on the PGA Tour,” he said.