Golf Weekly takes to the AMGEN Irish Open, and today the lads caught up with Brooks Koepka, as they discussed his difficult year on the course, which has resulted in him not being picked for Team USA in the Ryder Cup this year.
To become a member and access our exclusive content simply click: here:http://offtheball.com/join
All the perks right here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfGDs3EEl0RHUwgdEGeCL_A/join
Have you downloaded the Off The Ball app?
– Search for Off The Ball app in the Google Play store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/de…
– Search for Off The Ball app in the app store if you’re on iOs: https://apps.apple.com/ie/app/otb-spo…
SUBSCRIBE to the Off The Ball channels:
– YOUTUBE | https://www.youtube.com/offtheball…
– TWITTER | https://www.facebook.com/offtheball…
– INSTAGRAM | https://www.instagram.com/offtheball…
– FACEBOOK | https://www.facebook.com/offtheball…
– WEBSITE | https://www.otbsports.com/radio…
– We are live on the Off The Ball app 24/7
– or if you don’t have the app listen on desktop: https://www.otbsports.com/radio…
PODCAST the show too – we’ll timestamp it for you as well
– iTunes: search for Off The Ball Breakfast in your app!
– Spotify: search for Off The Ball Breakfast in your app!
– We are wherever you get your podcast
GET IN TOUCH WITH OFF THE BALL
– WhatsApp: get in touch on 0879180180
– Snapchat: add us and message the show @offtheball1
– Twitter: follow and tweet us @offtheball and @offtheballam
All right. Well, this is quite the treat. Fivetime major champion Brooks Keepka is with us. Welcome to Ireland, first Irish Open. How are you? Yeah, doing good. It’s uh it’s good to be here. H this should have happened a long time ago in Irish Open because I remember back 2013 and I think there was an expectation you were going to play in Carton House and then you just went and dominated the challenge tour and I’m always fascinated by that part of your career that you know now we see all the success, the majors, the trappings, all of that. Gez, you were a 2013 you were grinding it. Yeah. No, it was fun. I I still think even to this day it was the most fun I had in my whole career. Um, playing over here was a lot of fun. Brings back good memories and um, yeah, just excited to be here. I can’t believe it’s the first one either. It kind of blows me away. It’s been pro now for I don’t know how many years. What is it? 13 years. Haven’t played Irish Open. Been over here for that long. So, it’s kind of Yeah, why now? It’s do I just wanted to play um just wanted to play, get some more reps in. I felt like it was a good chance. had uh had a week off just to kind of regroup and get things uh get things going. So, uh yeah, I’m excited. How’s the game? Yeah, I haven’t played very good this year. Um it’s it’s felt good and then it’s just completely disappeared. Uh then it’s, you know, es and flows. Golf’s crazy. Feel one minute, you’re never going to find it again and then all of a sudden it’s one swing and you’re back for six months. Um it’s just crazy. The putters kind of let me down this year. Um, and then everything if you’re not making putts, you know, you’re not comfortable over the putts, you’re not confident, anything like that, it makes it very difficult. Uh, you know, especially when you’ve got haven’t really made anything inside AP. Um, which has kind of been my bread and butter my whole career. So, um, yeah, it’s tough, right? That means you got to hit it close. It puts a little more pressure on your irons. Um, then you got to hit it in the fairway and it just kind of goes through the whole game at that point. You have a reputation for being very real about your own game. like you’re very kind of matter of fact like um so if you’re very real about what’s going on with your game or how like what’s how do you get out of it? Uh just keep grinding, keep practicing, keep doing the things that you need to do. Um not lose focus of the end goal is just to play good and um you know compete and try to try to win golf tournaments. That’s the that’s the whole goal. So um yeah, I haven’t done a good job of that this year. um which is unfortunate, but at the same time, the process and and sticking to the routine, I think that makes um and just knowing your end goal. Um you don’t beat yourself up about it, do you? Uh yeah. I mean, it is annoying. It’s very, you know, you sit there and you start to Golf’s one of those sports where you overthink it. Um sometimes when you’re playing your best, you’re not thinking about anything. You just go up and go hit the ball. Um you don’t think about, oh, I got to start it down this line, do this, or my swing’s got to be shorter, come a little bit more inside or outside. You just get up and hit it. Um, and then when things aren’t going your way, you start to question everything. So, you got to kind of turn your mind off and just go back to your your basic drills. Like my whole thing was PGA, posture, grip, alignment, and just try to work from the basics. Um, and then go from there. When was the last time you had that freedom? Uh, I don’t know. Um, yeah, it’s been different. Like I tried to we changed my grip there um kind of the middle of the season. Um, yeah, it’s it’s probably been a while. Uh, maybe the beginning part of the year. Um, I think Augusta really really kind of set me back. Um, missed a couple short ones there and then it was a matter of, you know, you lose a little bit of confidence and then from there you can’t you can’t progress. Um, I just like changing your grip is like how does that process come about because obviously such a a big moment midseason to do that? Are you you in discussions for 3, four weeks in advance to do it or is it a one day at the range? No, no, no. It just kind of we were just looking at the grip trying to figure out what was going on. um just cuz the club never it never felt quite good um in my hands and just noticing that it got a little too palm heavy. You could see it in the the wear and tear on the gloves. Um my thumb was wearing a little bit more and the um the edge of the palm right in there was wearing. Um but that just means that the whole club isn’t stable, right? So it’s got to go on both ends of your hands. So um just noticing things like that um have kind of helped. So you’re famous Brooks for getting up for the majors, five-time major champion. So, you’ve got Ro Rory, the returning Masters champion. How excited for the challenge of trying to take him down this week? Yeah, it’ll be good. Um, obviously, he’s playing well. He’s got a lot to play for with the Ryder Cup coming up in um in what is it? Three weeks, I think, from now. So, yeah, they’re just trying to get their game sharp and and be as uh on top of it as they can. And um you know, my season’s I’ve got three events left, so I’m just trying to make make something and try to go compete and actually be in contention to win a golf tournament. So, a fast start on Thursday is key to try to get the juices going out of the match. Yeah, I think so. Um, you know, obviously it’s it’ll be nice to to be playing in front of some good energetic crowds. I think that’s a huge thing. Um, obviously they’ll all be supporting Roy as they should. Um, it’d be kind of crazy to I think I think you’ll get a bit of support. I think you I think you underestimate with a name like yours, five major, you know, five majors, you’re going to get No, listen. The fans over here are unbelievable. They’re they’re great, but um we all know who they want to see win. I’m not sure I’m not going to hide away from that. So, it’s it’s it’ll be fun. I’m excited for it. I don’t obviously waiting for the draw. I don’t know what uh what that’s going to look like, but yeah, there’s a lot of good players playing. Um you know, guys are tuned up for Ryder Cup and just want to see where see where my game uh compares. You’ve mentioned the Ryder Cup a couple of times. How disappointed are you not to be there considering your four in a row record of being on the team? Uh yeah, I mean I I played my way off it, so there’s nobody else. I can’t be disappointed. Um I did it myself, so it’s not uh not anything I’m not aware of. Um not shying away from it. It’s any you know, it’s uh just bad timing. You know, you have a one down year, but if it’s the year after the Ryder Cup, it makes it a whole lot easier to play catchup. But um yeah, I I think just the situation I’m in being on Liv and then not playing well is um I don’t think Liv had anything to do with me not being on the team, but it was more of a hey the timing of the year um and just trying to get that get that ball rolling, which I didn’t know. Just makes a DAR 27 something to aim for. Yeah. Yeah. No, that’d be cool. I mean, it’s a it’s an unbelievable place. Um as everybody knows, it’s uh it’s pretty sweet. So, yeah, that’d be uh that’d be the goal and uh hopefully get back on on the team. Have you been out this morning? Have you? No, no, we’re gonna go out now. So, just practicing. Um, just trying to fine-tune um a couple little things and uh but yeah, game feels good. So, ready to go see it. What’s a good week for you this week? I don’t know. Uh just feel comfortable over the ball. Got a putter change. So, um got a new putter in the hands, which I haven’t done uh in a long time. So, we’ll see uh see what see what it feels like. will enjoy the reception this week because if you’re back in two years at a dare manner, I’d say if if if you if you feel on one side this week, I suspect uh in two weeks to your time, it’ll be slightly different. It’s a lot of fun, man. I uh I’m disappointed I’m missing it, especially New York. New York crowds are quite fun, but uh fun or wild that we’ve been talking to all the European players about this. How how intense do you think it’s going to be for them over there? Um yeah, I think it just kind of depends how they how they interpret it or how they process it and how they deal with the fans. Um, if you can kind of make a joke and laugh about it a little bit, it makes it a lot easier. But, uh, you know, you get a guy like, um, a PZ with with shirt back and then that’s done for the rest of the week. So, they’re going to be on them, you know, something like that where, um, but it’ll be fun. Um, I’m excited to to just watch it and see what uh see what happens because I think it’ll be uh it’ll be a cool event. Thank you so much for your play well this week. Thank you guys. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much, Brooks. Appreciate it. Enjoy. Appreciate you guys. Thanks.
