An old rivalry that got some new life at the PGA Championship received an infusion of jet fuel on Friday afternoon during the second round of the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village. Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka re-engaged their ongoing feud, which began several years ago and continued after a leaked video showing a very perturbed Koepka next to a very loud DeChambeau got 10 million views on Twitter.
On Friday, the stakes were raised as DeChambeau was apparently having fans who were calling him "Brooksie" ejected from the tournament. Multiple tweets from the event confirmed this. The entire bit evolved out of a video that Koepka released last week of DeChambeau getting agitated at somebody calling him "Brooksie" at the PGA Championship a few weeks ago. Some fans saw it and decided to continue the tradition.
DeChambeau insinuated he was amused with the fun fans were having at Muirfield Village.
"Oh, they weren't taunts at all, it was flattering," said DeChambeau. "I think it's absolutely flattering what they're doing. They can keep calling me that all day if they want to, I've got no issue with it. When you look at it, there's obviously a distraction … but I grew up learning how to deal with that stuff and I honestly thought it was flattering."
Again, it seems as if this was not actually the case.
Every single person yelling “let’s go brooksy” at Bryson is being pointed out by both Bryson and his caddie and being escorted out of the Memorial tournament by police. If that’s not considered rent free then nothing is. @PFTCommenter
— Cooper Lindhardt (@CooperLindhardt) June 4, 2021
"I mean, look, I've got nothing against him," continued DeChambeau. "I've got no issues at all. If he wants to play that game, that's great. I'm going to keep trying to play my best game, and when it comes down to it, when somebody's that bothered by someone else it is flattering."
When he was asked about whether he "asked security to help out with this," his answer was fairly evasive.
"They take care of that," he said. "There's going to be people saying things at the wrong time. I don't care what they say. Like if they say that, it's not a big deal to me, it's flattering. But I'll also say that if they say it during a backstroke that's, that's different. That's like saying anything during a backstroke."
Koepka then decided to lean into what happened, even though he's not playing in the tournament (DeChambeau is 1 under thru two rounds at Muirfield Village). Late in the day, he posted a video to Twitter offering free Michelob Ultra to anybody whose "time was cut short" on account of DeChambeau.
Capping off a long day with @MichelobULTRA! Thanks for all the support today. Also, we’ve got something for you… pic.twitter.com/kwtwXg3Kqb
— Brooks Koepka (@BKoepka) June 4, 2021
This rivalry has, of course, caught the attention of other golfers on the PGA Tour -- including Rory McIlroy who informed Koepka how much he's enjoyed the entertainment much like the rest of us.
"I sent Brooks a message last Monday morning when it all came out. I said, 'I don't care what happens to me for the rest of this week, this has made my week, this is like the best thing ever,'" McIlroy said. "Like it's fine, I think it's good for guys to show personality and pretty sure whoever leaked it from the Golf Channel got in trouble, I don't know if anyone's got to the bottom of that. But, hey, look, it is what it is, you're not going to ... there's certainly people out here that don't like me, I'm sure and there's a few people out here that I don't like."
Hopefully the end game to all of this will not be a beer activation on Twitter at the start of summer but rather a real heavyweight bout on the course at the U.S. Open later this month. The USGA should absolutely pair these two together for the first two rounds of this event at Torrey Pines so they can hash out on the course what's been going on off of it for the last few years (and especially the last few weeks).
