‘He didn’t need remind me I haven’t won a major for a while’ – Rory McIlroy cools Brooks Koepka row

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Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka at FedEx Cup

Michael Graham
October 22, 2019

Rory McIlroy has dismissed reports that he and world number one Brooks Koepka are feuding by saying he agrees with the American’c comments about him.

Koepka was asked about his rivalry with McIlroy ahead of the CJ Cup in Korea last month, and appeared to undermine the Ulsterman by saying: “I’ve been out here for what, five years?

“Rory hasn’t won a major since I’ve been on the PGA Tour. So I don’t view it as a rivalry.”

That is indeed true, with the last of McIlroy’s four major titles came in the 2014 US PGA Championship, since when Koepka has won the US Open in 2017 and 2018 and the US PGA in 2018 and 2019.

Koepka was also second in the Masters and US Open this year and fourth in the Open Championship at Royal Portrush, where an emotional McIlroy missed the cut on home soil.

McIlroy, though, insists he has no issue at all with Koepka’s comments.

“What Brooks said wasn’t wrong,” McIlroy said in an on-course interview with GOLF TV during the Japan Skins event.

“I mean, he’s been the best player in the world the last couple years – four majors. I don’t think he had to remind me that I haven’t won one in a while.

“I love Brooks, he’s a great guy. Obviously super-competitive, like we all are. I can see where he’s coming from.

“I think if you take what Brooks said out of context then it can become this big thing that it’s become. But Brooks and I are good, we’re good friends.”