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Brooks Koepka nailed it again.
Asked in South Korea last week about a not-yet-real rivalry with Rory McIlroy, Koepka was his usual matter-of-fact self.
“I’ve been out here for what, five years. Rory hasn’t won a major since I’ve been on the PGA Tour,” Koepka told the Agence France-Presse before last week's CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges, from which he later withdrew after reaggravating a knee injury. “So I just don’t view it as a rivalry.
“I’m not looking at anybody behind me. I’m No. 1 in the world. I’ve got open road in front of me and I’m not looking in the rearview mirror so I don’t see it as a rivalry.”
So much for subtlety.
There’s more.
“You know if the fans (call it a rivalry), then that’s on them and it could be fun,” he said. “Look, I love Rory. He’s a great player and he’s fun to watch but it’s just hard to believe there’s a rivalry in golf. I just don’t see it.”
Koepka is right. There isn’t a Koepka-McIlroy rivalry, at least not yet.
Maybe there will be, but two duels last summer – the one Koepka won at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis and the one McIlroy won at the Tour Championship in Atlanta – isn’t enough to turn this into Arnie and Jack.
It’s a start, a hint of what could unfold across the next couple of years, but it’s still more manufactured than real.
Just to be clear, McIlroy has won majors since Koepka has been on the PGA Tour. Koepka apparently forgot he played 16 Tour events in 2014 when McIlroy won the Open Championship and the PGA Championship. Since then, however, Koepka leads in majors, 4-0.
It was McIlroy who said in Atlanta that he was struck by comments Koepka made about being the game’s dominant player. It bugged McIlroy, who outplayed Koepka at East Lake while admitting he tried to channel his inner Koepka at times.
When McIlroy was voted the PGA Tour’s player of the year by his peers last month, it was a shock. To McIlroy. To Koepka. To everyone but, perhaps, the players who voted.
Was it a popularity contest? On some level, yes.
Was it a referendum on McIlroy winning the FedEx Cup and its $15 million prize? That’s hard to ignore.
Was it recognition that a season full of top-10 finishes and a Players Championship victory was greater than a three-win season that included a PGA Championship win? Apparently so.
Golf rivalries are different. They’re not like the Yankees-Red Sox or Federer vs. Nadal.
There’s the old mantra about playing the course which should, at least theoretically, dispel the notion of rivalries in golf. With 156 players in the field, it’s not enough to beat one person.
Still, rivalries add to the fabric of whatever sport is being played. They help define the games we watch and the most captivating ones entice us to pick a side.
That was at the heart of the Phil Mickelson-Tiger Woods rivalry. Fans came down on one side or the other. There was no in between.
It would have helped had Tiger and Phil actually had a few more true battles but it didn’t work out that way. Their rivalry was built on personalities and styles because Woods owned the trophy case.
It was organic, with an abundance of hype thrown on top. Time and events determine the genuine rivalries.
Twenty years ago, Sergio García sprinted out from behind a tree at Medinah and we thought a rival for Tiger had emerged. It didn’t play out that way.
Patrick Reed would love to be part of a rivalry and he’s helped create one with his Captain America persona but that’s about nationalism more than one on one. Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas could have a good rivalry if they weren’t such good friends (and I’m counting on Spieth finding his form again).
Koepka and McIlroy have established themselves as the two best players in the game at the moment. Koepka isn’t going anywhere. He sees the next few years as his chance to put a permanent stamp on the game, saying last year he could see winning 10 major championships. It sounds outrageous but at 29 he’s almost halfway there already.
McIlroy, 30, knows exactly how long it’s been since he won his last major championship in the rain and darkness at the 2014 PGA Championship at Valhalla. He already knows the career grand slam storyline that will lead him into the Masters six months from now.
The makings of a proper rivalry are there. Their personalities are different. Their games are huge. Their achievements are immense.
True rivalries have a magnetism about them. That’s why Koepka-McIlroy has a chance. We’ll see where the game pulls them.
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