THE MODERATOR: Let's welcome Brooks Koepka, the current winner of the 2023 PGA Championship. Only question I have for you is can you tell us a little bit about what this last week has been like for you.
BROOKS KOEPKA: It's been in fast forward, that's for sure. I've enjoyed my few days off. Got to be around a bunch of my friends, my wife, which was fantastic. Didn't really get to see -- I saw my mom on Wednesday for the first time. She was over at the house, but I wasn't there or I was sleeping. I'm not really sure which one.
Saw my stepmom today, and my dad is here. I just haven't seen him, so I don't know where he's at. It'll be good to see him. Hang out with my brother a little bit, which was fun, so all the important people in my life and get to share with them because they've been there since day one, and I love them to death.
Q. I know that I was getting choked up watching you walk down 18, but it looked like you might have been, too. Was that an emotional moment for you walking up to the green knowing that you were about to take this home?
BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, I think it definitely set in kind of the steep hill out there and realizing that it was only like 10 feet, and I was like, okay, I'm pretty sure I can three-putt from here.
Yeah, it was pretty cool to really just realize, hey, that's the last two years, like I said, I think in a couple other interviews, it was like I went in fast forward, like just the highlights, the lows, where I'm at now, to all that stuff from -- Taylor was there for some of it, and it's like, my God, trying to bend my knee for the first few days walking Augusta three weeks after to not sure if you're going to play -- not sure if I wanted to, if I couldn't do it the way I wanted to, and to finally figure it out and win was pretty special, especially after Augusta.
Q. At LIV we really get to see the relationships that you guys have with your caddies because the caddies are part of the family here and you have a special relationship with Ricky. Can you tell us what that moment was like for you guys?
BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, Ricky was the one that came out, Ricky and Taylor were the ones that came out for my surgery, as well. I think my brother was playing in the Honda Classic, so my parents wanted to watch him. My wife had just had surgery on her ankle, so she couldn't fly, couldn't come out. Yeah, it was a big -- it was kind of a disaster, so it was kind of hard to find somebody to come because you had to have somebody there to drive you home.
So they came out, and Rick spent that whole time period, basically three weeks out in LA with me, and yeah, he gave up a lot for basically two years, kind of dealt with me through the ups and downs. I probably gave him too hard of a time during the lows. At the end of the day, he's the only one that wants to see me succeed more than I do. He's got a vested interest in this, and he's done a fantastic job.
He was in my wedding. He's basically blood to me. He's family. He knows that. I love the guy to death, and I think he deserves it all.
Q. You've been able to celebrate five of these now, majors. How different, if at all, was it to celebrate this one versus the previous four?
BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, this one was way different. Just with the other four, kind of came so quick. I guess they kind of came all at once. At the time looking back now, it just seemed normal, which is kind of weird because they're not easy to win, so when you do win them, it's just more -- you get more appreciative, more -- you realize how much hard work goes into it all, especially being down in the dumps, the lows. I'm not sure where my game was, and to finally get that success was was fantastic.
Like I said, even after Augusta, I applied what I would have learned at Augusta, which was huge, and would be nice to be able to pop one off.
Q. Speaking of celebrations, you obviously enjoyed your time the last few days before you got here. How was it to get to a course -- I don't know how much experience you have playing this course, but to get here, not really seeing much of it, and still be able to shoot a respectable score today?
BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, I mean, I used to do it all the time in college golf, junior golf. You don't see a golf course, you just go play it. I did all right back -- I know that was years and years ago for me, but it's part of it. I've done it before on the PGA TOUR. I've done it a few times where I've had to play, I think, a couple courses just blind. You've got other obligations.
But yeah, I felt fine. The golf course -- Ricky walked the golf course, so at the end of the day, he's the one telling me where to hit it anyway, so I just rely on him.
Q. I wanted to ask you about your driver situation. It cracked at some point, but it took a while to get the change.
BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah. I warmed up with it on the range, and then the hole I hit it on out here, it cracked. Thank God it cracked now instead of coming down the stretch last week.
But yeah, I guess the rule is it's got to be significantly damaged or something -- I'm not sure what the wording is, but the crack was, I don't know, not big enough or not damaged enough, and then the toe started to kind of cave in on the end. Once they saw the toe -- I kept calling them in every hole because the crack was getting worse, and the toe you could tell it was doing that. It happens. I've used it long enough, especially if you're going to hit it at those ball speeds.
Q. Have you looked at the Stanley Cup Finals schedule versus the U.S. Open schedule?
BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, if I'm playing the U.S. Open, I'm not going to go, which kind of sucks for me.
But yeah, I know the schedule with Dallas winning last night. I think the first game will probably get pushed to probably Friday or Saturday next week. So I can't go to that one because I've got my wedding anniversary, so we'll be on vacation, so I can't go to that one, but the second game if Vegas wins, I could probably go to that one, and then the two at home, which will be sweet.
Q. I think game 7 will be first round at LA.
BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, I'll be honest with you, I hope they close it out before that, but I'll be honest, my majors are a little bit more important. I'll let them handle that, and I'll celebrate with them later.
Q. When you're using that driver that's damaged, how much do you feel it off the face? Can you just tell right away that something has gone a little haywire, and how do you manage that?
BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, it just feels like you're hitting a marshmallow, honestly. It's a weird feeling. It feels like you hit it off the bottom back of the club.
Like I said, I don't know what -- beyond damage or whatever wording they used, it's just weird. I don't know, I think golf is a little bit behind the times in ruling. If it's cracked, just replace it. If you damage it yourself, I get it, anger or anything like that. But I don't know, I just think -- it's weird. We know it's broken. Everybody agreed on that. That's just the rule. I don't know, it's part of golf, I guess.
Q. How difficult is it at all to kind of refocus on this tournament after winning the PGA, going and celebrating at the Heat in Florida and doing all that stuff and then coming here and refocusing?
BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, it's just part of it. Just get back to somewhat of a normal routine. It felt good just to play golf again, kind of get it out of the way, and hopefully play a little better the next few days knowing the golf course a little bit more, knowing where to hit it, where to miss it.
I don't know, what was the lead, 6, 7 --
Q. 8-under?
BROOKS KOEPKA: So they birdied a couple coming in. I think Dustin shot 5 and he's right there in fifth, so a good solid round tomorrow and kind of jump back in it.
Q. With this team format, you winning the PGA, does something like that lift up the entire tour do you think with all the guys -- not just you but all the guys finishing well?
BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, it definitely sparks some energy into, I think, players, caddies, staff, from the top down I think it definitely sparks energy.
If you really look at it, from Augusta until now, I think we've really built momentum, built a good -- just with good play. That's all it's been. To have three out of five guys I think top 5 at Augusta; Adelaide, how many people were there, the atmosphere there, which was the best tournament to that time. It just feels like everything is just rolling right now, and that's a good thing.
Q. Do you have a plan in place tomorrow to watch the Heat after your round?
BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, I don't know. I'm assuming we're teeing off at the same time, 1:15? Yeah, hopefully get done, play good, put my feet up and watch it.
Q. Knowing everything you went through physically, were there moments where you started to see the self-doubt creep in, and now that you're feeling like you have your physical capacity back, what's the difference in how you view things?
BROOKS KOEPKA: The difference? Just more appreciative for my health. I've got to spend a lot more time just doing basic small stuff that everyone else probably thinks is not necessary or very easy for them to do. It's a lot of balance work, stability stuff and mobility stuff that I have to do every day. Well, I haven't done it the last few days. But just to make sure that everything is going well.
Honestly, we've got great people on our team. We've got Mark Wahl and Andrew Cummings, and they've done a phenomenal job, and we've ran tests, and actually my right leg is better than my left right now, so we've just got to keep doing what we're doing.
Q. When you were coming back from injury, you hear a lot of athletes talk about not trusting it and then they do. Do you recall a moment when you kind of trusted it again?
BROOKS KOEPKA: Probably in January this year is when I trusted it. I knew it was stable. I know I've talked to Dr. ElAttrache plenty of times. I know it's stable. It can't go out; there's stitches still in there, and it's not going to do anything.
But there's still like a doubt, right, if I've -- if I'm going down to do one-legged squat or whatever the case may be, there was doubt for a very long time, just how low I could actually get down. I couldn't squat down to read a putt normally until January or February. The leg was still kind of kicked out.
Yeah, there's always that doubt, and I think honestly, Netflix probably captured a lot of that, you're like, man, is this ever going to be normal, and you start thinking this is the new normal and you don't ever get back to what it was.
It was just a big difference, big difference between being able to do things and actually feeling like -- just feeling like yourself again.
Q. Non-major weeks, how are you living it up off the course when you're not playing? We saw how you did this week. That's probably not every week.
BROOKS KOEPKA: Probably not every week, no. You only get to celebrate the fifth one really that hard for a bit.
But most of the times just hanging out with my boys, hanging with my wife, hanging with friends, doing whatever we want. We go on the boat. We just have a good time. We just try to enjoy it and get away from golf. My boys don't really play golf, so they're down to do anything, they just want to, like I said, go on the boat or do something like that, play corn hole, play some kind of game.
Q. More personal on the Heat, as someone who invested in them responsibly last night, devastated. How are we looking tomorrow night? Should we invest in them?
BROOKS KOEPKA: I hope so. I've been a mush for them. The last two games I've showed up, they've lost, so they should probably get me to stay away.
Q. That's good you're here.
BROOKS KOEPKA: It's great. Listen, I'm happy I'm not there. I don't want to be the reason they lost.
No, they've got a bunch of good guys. They're playing well. Jimmy has been fantastic pretty much all Playoffs.
It's been impressive to watch, and I know Tyler is hurt with his hand, but hopefully they can get him back. We'll see what happens. But yeah, they've just got to finish a game off.
Q. First thing, the black lab, had he or she seen the Wanamaker Trophy before?
BROOKS KOEPKA: My dog? Yeah, it's seen two of them.
Q. Now that you're at five and you're 33, reasonably where do you see you can go?
BROOKS KOEPKA: I've always said double digits. I think I've said that a few times. But yeah, I don't think it's unreasonable. The last few years -- it was just kind of like last year, I felt absent from the majors, but even in '20 right after my surgery or '21, I was still contending. I don't see any reason why I can't. Your prime in golf is probably 30 to 40, so I've got another few good years in me.
Q. If you had to say which one would be the hardest for you to win, which one do you think it is?
BROOKS KOEPKA: I don't know. I have no idea. I mean, I think I can win them all. I think everybody should say that. Otherwise why would you tee it up?
Q. But I guess the question is the two that you've won seem similar somewhat in setup and what the courses are. Obviously Augusta you played great, so I don't think that's a question. But the Open Championship is always so different for everybody --
BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, a lot of it's tee time, right? A lot of it's tee time. I feel like I've played well. I don't know what all my results have been there off the top of my head right now, but I feel like -- I love links golf. I've enjoyed playing it. St Andrews historically I've always played really well. Just throw that in with bad timing last year, which I was super disappointed about. But yeah, I definitely feel like there's golf courses over there at the Open that definitely set up for me.
Q. When you were sitting in the winner's chair at Turkey, would you ever have thought you've gotten to five majors?
BROOKS KOEPKA: Probably not, no.
Q. I had a chance to talk to your dad as he was walking off. He played with Donald Trump and got a chance to interview him and he brought up the word "rarefied air." When you were playing on the Sunshine Tour, you're a product of the mini-Tours. Did you have those dreams like I'm going to be a five-time major champion someday?
BROOKS KOEPKA: I mean, I think -- it's easy to say yeah and you hoped it, but it didn't probably sound realistic at the time. I don't even think my dad really thought I was going to make it on tour for a bit until it kind of happened. I think that fulfilled a dream of his, right. Being able to watch me and my brother play, which is pretty cool.
But yeah, it's kind of crazy to think about all I've been able to accomplish. Even this last one, it hasn't sunk in yet.
But I think he told me I've tied him in club championships. I really want to get off this five number, please, I'm begging, so I don't have to hear that anymore.
Q. Getting off the five number, looking ahead to LACC, do you have any experience there? Is it going to be a new track for you? Are you really looking forward to that test?
BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, I played it in college. We went there as a team, Florida State. Must have been 2011 or something like that. We all went out there and played. But I haven't played it since. I have no recollection.
I think the only thing I remember about it is the Playboy Mansion is off one of the holes, but that's all. So I remember that. But other than that, I have really no recollection of any hole.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports