Johnson, Koepka share special bond as friends, competitors
Both are ranked among the top 10 players in the world, depending on the latest Official World Golf Rankings. They’re both known for their prodigious length off the tee. They’ve both won major championships – the past three U.S. Opens, in fact.
Their golf games are similar in many ways: Each has the strength to overpower golf courses and both tend to do that more than, say, finessing their way around a layout. On top of all that, they’re off-course buddies, working out together in the gym, both fitness fanatics and – if not for having discovered a passion for golf – both players who might’ve made names for themselves in other sports.
So what’s the difference? What separates Dustin Johnson, the man ranked No. 1 more in the past couple of years than anyone else and his amigo, Brooks Koepka?
The simple answer: U.S. Open titles. Johnson, the Irmo native and 12-time PGA Tour winner, claimed the 2016 championship at Oakmont Golf Club, arguably the most difficult of the U.S. Open rotation, after an infamous string of almosts in majors.
Koepka, who succeeded DJ by winning at the maligned Erin Hills in 2017, then became the first back-to-back Open winner since Curtis Strange in 1988-89, doing so in June on arguably the other toughest U.S. Open course, Shinnecock Hills.
Two beastly golf courses tamed by a pair of beasty boys.
Yet as each prepares for Thursday’s start at the 147th Open Championship at Carnoustie – which has its own history of Dustin-like late disasters – Koepka is viewed as ascending, a favorite this week. Johnson is also highly regarded in Great Britain’s legalized bookmaking shops, but there lingers a hint of ... not this again?
Johnson, prior to Oakmont mostly known for collapses at the 2010 U.S. Open and PGA, the 2011 Open Championship and, painfully, the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay, understood the genesis of questions about his history and Carnoustie, where the Jean van de Velde meltdown in 1999 and Sergio Garcia’s sudden-death loss to Padraig Harrington are part of local lore.
“Yeah, that (van de Velde’s loss) was a pretty tough one,” Johnson replied, “but so were mine. I can feel him a little bit. But either way you look at it, we both lost.”
And DJ doesn’t have to go back that far to recall major disappointment. He and Koepka played together on the final day at Shinnecock a month ago, Johnson fading from a tie for the lead to second place with a closing 70 (after a brutal 77 on Saturday cost him the solo lead) while Koepka was kicking it into overdrive with a final-round 68 to win by two shots.
Asked why he and Koepka spoke little during that final round, Johnson allowed as how they did chat, briefly, when the tournament was done. “And then I think I talked to him on Monday,” he said. “(But) he had stuff ... well, he played Hartford right after the U.S. Open. So he was out of town (Jupiter, Fla., where both reside).”
In fact, Johnson wasted little time leaving Shinnecock. And while he has always owned his disappointments, this one seemed to hurt more.
In contract to Johnson’s meteoric career, Koepka hardly enjoyed the sort of instant success of his buddy, who has won at least one tournament every year of his PGA Tour career. Koepka’s career began in Europe’s golfing minor leagues, where the perks of the PGA Tour are a dream. This week, he told a great story of playing a Scottish Hydro Challenge event in nearby Aberdeen, then traveling to Sunningdale, England, to attempt to qualify for that year’s Open.
“As I was taking a taxi, we got a flat tire,” Koepka said, laughing. “So I had to help the guy change his tire on the way down. Then (I) went on the next morning and played.”
Koepka, obviously, has come a long way since those threadbare days. His recent track record in The Open (two top-10 finishes the past three years) suggests he should be among this week’s favorites. So does his outlook.
“The last major I played, I won, so I’ve got confidence,” he said. “And then you come here, and I think it would be amazing to win a major at The Open. I think it’s special to me, obviously, starting over here, beginning my career in Europe and playing a few links courses. It really would mean a lot.”
If it comes down to the two workout bros again this Sunday over the toughest-of-The-Open-venues Carnoustie, the amateur psychologists could have a field day. Johnson’s one Achilles heel during his career, putting, was on brutal display at Shinnecock. Asked to assess his year to date, DJ was, as usual, honest if not consumed by his weakness.
“I’ve played consistently well. I just ... to me, the only part of my game where I feel like I’m struggling a little bit is with the putter,” he said. “But I don’t feel like I’m struggling putting. I feel like I’m putting it well and rolling it good. I just haven’t made a lot of putts.
“There’s been quite a few tournaments where, if I just putt pretty well on the weekend, then, you know, I win.”
Koepka’s answer to questions about his success this year is in stark contrast. “I think I’ve always been one of the best putters,” he said. “I know, statistically, I think we’re always top-10 (on putts) inside 8 feet. I don’t think many people know that.
“They get infatuated with distance (off the tee), and they only see that. We do hit it long, but there’s quite a few guys who do hit it much farther than I do.”
There are. None of those guys have won back-to-back U.S. Opens. That includes the guy who’s his buddy in the gym and on the PGA Tour.
FactboxThe Open TV schedule for 2018
Round 1 : Thursday
Golf Channel: 1:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Round 2: Friday
Golf Channel: 1:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Round 3: Saturday
Golf Channel: 4:30-7 a.m.
NBC: 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Final Round: Sunday
Golf Channel: 4:30-7 a.m.
NBC: 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.
This story was originally published July 18, 2018 at 4:57 PM.