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Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka rivalry explained: From abs to ants, the two golf superstars share sport’s most wonderfully petty feud ahead of Ryder Cup
As the Ryder Cup begins on Friday, golf fans everywhere will be praying for a Team USA paring of Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau.
That's because they share sport's most wonderfully petty rivalry, which has been the gift which keeps on giving in recent months.
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From that expletive-laden interview at the PGA Championship to Koepka offering fans free beer for trolling DeChambeau, with some back-and-forth on Twitter in between, the feud has been one of golf's biggest stories this year.
And it's set to reach a climax this week when the pair join forces to take on Team Europe at Whistling Straits in the Ryder Cup.
It was boiling under the surface for quite some time, but we'll start with the leaked Golf Channel interview in May, which brought things well and truly into the public eye.
As DeChambeau walks behind, Koepka eye rolls his fellow golfer back to California, admits he lost his trail of thought due to 'that bulls***', before muttering 'f****** Christ' under his breath.
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Some reports suggested DeChambeau advised Koepka to start putts on the right line, as he was moaning about the Kiawah Island greens, but having turned it up and watched more than a hundred times (for purely journalistic reasons), we never really heard that.
And in keeping with what is a gloriously petty rivalry, we consider it more likely Koepka took issue with DeChambeau's metal spikes.
While most golfers around the world have converted to soft spikes, DeChambeau still wears metal, in one of many middle fingers to the general consensus.
Either Koepka was peeved because metal spikes can damage putting lines, even though new rules allow players to repair, or simply because DeChambeau's shoes were making a mad racket while he was trying to talk.
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But like all great rivalries - Manchester United and Liverpool, England and Germany, Jake Paul and Tommy Fury - there's more to this.
Played out through a series of trivial public episodes, this is a feud rooted in a clash of two completely polar-opposite personalities.
You've got Brooks 'why does everyone make such a fuss just hit the ball' Koepka vs Bryson 'wait a minute while I dip this ball in Epsom salt' DeChambeau.
They stand for two different games: both based largely on power, but one brutally simple, and the other a complicated scientific equation.
In fact, this all started in 2019 when Koepka described the pace of DeChambeau's play as 'embarrassing' after it took him more than three minutes to hit an average wedge shot.
The pair actually had 'cool the air' talks at the tournament, which the internet interpreted as a 'come and say that to my face' moment.
And while we joke about a fight, they actually have been asked about the possibility before.
Speaking on Pat Perez and Michael Collins' SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio show afterwards, they both had a giggle about it.
“People acted like the two of y’all were going to fight,” Collins said.
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“Let’s be honest, we know who would win that fight and it’s not me," DeChambeau said. "Let me tell you right now he’d kick my ass.”
“We do know that,” Perez said.
“He’s got that right,” Koepka joked.
It's true. DeChambeau weighs about the same as heavyweight king Anthony Joshua, hits the golf ball as hard as anyone, but is very much still a nerd at heart.
Anyone who has experienced a Koepka interview will tell you he is the alpha-male of alpha-males.
Nevertheless, DeChambeau tried to rip into his rival's physique when Koepka appeared on ESPN's Body Issue cover in January 2020.
"In the Body Issue, he didn’t have any abs, to be honest. I got some abs,” he said, ironically while live streaming a video game on the internet.
And Koepka, the four-time major winner, hit back, flexing his silver muscles on Twitter.
Hopefully you're getting the sense of a trifling cold war growing between two of golf's biggest stars, who, we must emphasise, are grown adults.
If not, then Ant-gate in July 2020 ought to do the trick.
After DeChambeau packed on 20 pounds during lockdown and returned to the course looking like a bodybuilder in golf clothes, Koepka made a steroid-related joke when his rival argued with a cameraman during a three-shot victory at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
Then later that very same month, DeChambeau's mildly-irritating attention to detail struck again when he tried to seek relief from a colony of fire-ants at the St. Jude Invitational.
The following day, Koepka pretended there was an ant on his ball, much to his own amusement and that of all of us watching.
Since then, it's been a series of subtle digs, clearly in reference to each other but not explicitly so.
DeChambeau even came up as Koepka took questions on an Instagram Live with his finance Jena Sims last October.
"Yeah, there was a lot of them [questions about Bryson], I just chose not to talk about it," he said. "If you've got nothing nice to say, don't say it at all."
Even still, there was always a feeling this was just light-hearted fun with a bit of an edge. Banter, if you will.
It still felt like that when the latest edition of The Match was announced recently, with Mickelson and Tom Brady taking on DeChambeau and Aaron Rodgers.
Kopeka tweeted 'Sorry bro' to Rodgers and Mickelson jokingly suggested he ought to step aside for Brooks.
DeChambeau told Koepka he's 'living in his head rent free', to which Brooks responded with a video of Bryson being called 'Brooksy' and getting annoyed.
Then, at the Memorial Tournament earlier this month, as a handful of fans were ejected for shouting 'Brooksy' at DeChambeau on the tee, Koepka responded by offering them free crates of beer.
There were rumours the USGA approached DeChambeau and asked if he wanted to be paired with Koepka at the US Open earlier this year..
Amid reports that he declined, the Californian insisted he would welcome the opportunity.
He said: "We banter back and forth in good fun.
"I would be OK with that, but there was never really anything that went through me.
"I think that, as time goes on, I hope on the weekend we can play against each other and compete. I think it would be fun and would be great for the game."
Koepka agrees that the rivalry has been helpful in gorwing the game of golf and promoting it to wider audiences.
"I think it's good for the game," Koepka said. "It's bringing new eyeballs. It has pretty much been on every news channel.
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"Everything you look at online, it has got this in the headline or it's up there as a big news story. To me, that's growing the game."
It's strange they've never been grouped together, given the PGA Tour just set up a $40million pot called the Player Impact Fund, designed to reward players who move the metaphorical needle and attract attention to the game online.
Many feel this was an attention-seeking move, aimed at winning a chunk of that Player Impact Fund, and if so - DeChambeau may regret it, with distracting heckling now a regular part of any round.
Even Rory McIlroy came out recently and told fans to give him a break.
Koepka, meanwhile, continues to enjoy the fun. As DeChambeau got a ton of stick for saying his driver 'sucks' at The Open in July, his rival came out and said he 'loves his driver'.
Given they are both in the world's top ten, it's surely a matter of time before they do battle at the top of a leaderboard, which would give the officials no choice but to throw them together.
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Or Steve Stricker could make every golf fan's dream come true by pairing them up at Whistling Straits for this week's Ryder Cup.
Here's hoping.
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