The Open: Brooks Koepka still playing with a chip on his shoulder
Four-time major champion Koepka is still playing with a chip on his shoulder as he heads into The Open at Portrush.
By Keith Jackson at Royal Portrush
Last Updated: 16/07/19 12:33pm
Brooks Koepka insists he is not concerned over not being given the levels of recognition he feels he deserves for his dominance of the majors since 2017.
Koepka made his breakthrough at the US Open in 2017 and went on to successfully defend the title while repeating the feat in the PGA Championship but, ahead of The Open this week, he claimed that his accomplishments have been undervalued by the media.
The 29-year-old admitted he plays with a "chip on his shoulder" due to what he perceives as unfair treatment by the press, but he vowed to be fully focused on his golf at Royal Portrush as he bids for his second major win of the season.
"I'm over that, I'm over trying to get the recognition," he said at his pre-tournament press conference. "You either like me or you don't, that's life in general. That's not anything I'm too concerned about at this moment.
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"I think you always have to have a chip on your shoulder, no matter what it is. Every great athlete and every major sport always has one. Over the last year and a half, I just felt like if other guys had done what I had done it would be a bigger deal.
"Now it doesn't matter to me. I've got my own chip on my shoulder for what I'm trying to accomplish. I've got my own goals I want to set, and that's where I find I guess my chip. How many majors I want to win, how many wins, my own accomplishments.
"I'm literally just focused on golf. I want to play the best I can every week, I want to play well in majors. And if it comes, great; and if it doesn't, I'm actually happy with my life right now. I feel like I'm in a good spot and that's all that matters to me."
Koepka retained his PGA title at Bethpage in May, but he was runner-up at both the Masters and the US Open as he lost out to Tiger Woods and Gary Woodland respectively.
He insisted there was little he could do to prevent Woodland denying him a third consecutive US Open victory at Pebble Beach, but he remains a little annoyed by one late mistake at Augusta National, where he dumped his tee shot to the short 12th into Rae's Creek and went on to finish just one stroke behind Woods.
"The whole reason I show up is to win," he added. "It's incredible, but at the same time it's been quite disappointing. Finishing second sucks, it really does. But you've just got to get over it and kind of realise that any time you put yourself in contention, you learn from it and move on.
"I made a mistake there on 12 at Augusta. It really wasn't that big of a mistake, and for four out of six guys to put the ball in the water, it just shows you that the wind does whatever it wants on that hole and you just get unlucky.
"And then at the US Open, I just got flat-out beat. Sometimes that's going to happen. You've just got to get over it and move on."
