Ryder Cup: Brooks Koepka tells LIV golfers who failed to make USA team to 'play better'
Team USA are looking for their first Ryder Cup win on European soil in 30 years; three members of their team which secured a record win at Whistling Straits two years ago have since joined LIV Golf, with Brooks Koepka the only one to make this year's team
Thursday 28 September 2023 07:26, UK
Brooks Koepka has told his fellow LIV golfers they should have played better if they wanted to secure a Ryder Cup berth in Rome this week.
Koepka, a five-time major winner, was the only member of the Saudi breakaway venture to make Zach Johnson's team. He finished second at The Masters this year and won the PGA Championship in May.
Bryson DeChambeau, who won his second LIV event in successive months on Sunday, complained it "would have been nice to have a call" from Johnson but he finished 54th on the qualifying list due to poor performances in majors and an ineligibility to play PGA Tour events.
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Koepka, who has had his issues with DeChambeau in the past, had no sympathy. "I don't make the decisions," he said.
"Everybody had an opportunity to get here. I had the same opportunity as every other LIV player, and I'm here.
"Play better. That's always the answer."
The 33-year-old Koepka was asked whether the Ryder Cup had come into his thinking when he made the decision to defect to LIV in the summer of 2022.
"I had a lot of other things going on in my mind," he added. "I don't think Ryder Cup was one of them at that particular moment but I think the closer this got, the more it was definitely in the front of my mind.
"I knew it would be tougher, but I think after Augusta I kind of had my eyes on it.
"I went to maybe 20th, somewhere around there on the points list, and then from there it was just motivation to get on the team."
Despite being the only LIV golfer at Marco Simone in Rome, Koepka insists he is not flying the flag for them.
"I feel like I'm representing the USA. That's what I've got on the front of my hat this week," he said.
"It's not a group of individuals in that locker room. We're just all one team, and that's the way we think.
"That's what I believe, and I'm pretty sure everybody else there thinks that."
Clark plays down McIlroy comments | 'Europe could be leaking oil'
One of the USA's four rookies on the team, Wyndham Clark, believes Europe's team could be "leaking oil" by the final session as he claimed his comments about being better than Rory McIlroy from earlier this week were taken out of context.
Clark edged out McIlroy to win his first major title at the US Open in June and when asked on Golf Channel's 'Golf Today' programme about the chance of facing the Northern Irishman in Sunday's singles, Clark said: "That's exactly who I want. I'd love to play Rory."
"I have tons of respect for Rory," he added. "Because of that respect, I also want to beat him. I like to think I am better than him, and I want to prove that."
While Clark attempted to play down those comments on Wednesday, he also questioned whether Europe's players would pay the price for their build-up to the week.
"The question, when the guy asked it to me, what am I supposed to say?" Clark said at his press conference.
"If I say I think he's better than me and he's going to beat me, then I'm going to get ridiculed because people don't think I have any self-belief.
"And then if I have self-belief, which I do in myself, people take it out of context either way, so it was kind of a tough question.
"I don't know if Rory saw the full interview or if he just saw the little snippet that everyone is running with or if he's seen it at all. I have not seen him or talked to him.
"I would love to talk to him because I imagine he'd probably give me some jabs here and there. I'd love to get a chance to play against him this week, and if it doesn't happen, that's fine."
Clark is one of nine members of the US team not to have played competitively since the Tour Championship at the end of August, while all 12 European players made the cut in the recent BMW PGA Championship, with seven finishing in the top 10.
"It's great that they got to play, but I also think they might be maybe a little mentally fatigued as this week goes on," Clark added.
"This is obviously a very intense environment and mentally challenging, and then you also add in a pretty physically demanding golf course - being so hilly and up and down - maybe, come Sunday, they might be leaking oil and we'll be fresh."
Live coverage from the opening day of the Ryder Cup begins on Friday from 6am on Sky Sports Golf. There's also live content each day in the build-up to the tournament. Stream the PGA Tour, DP Tour, Ryder Cup and more with NOW.
