Brooks Koepka on Rory McIlroy question? "Most people are going to hate this"
Brooks Koepka has opened up on his 'rivalry' with four-time major champion Rory McIlroy and believes the Northern Irishman will soon match his tally.
Rory McIlroy's critics suggest Brooks Koepka lives rent-free in the Northern Irishman's head.
But it appears Koepka often thinks about the Ulsterman quite a lot too and regards the 34-year-old as his biggest rival.
LIV golfer Koepka lifted the lid on his friendship with the four-times major champion in an interview with the Irish Independent.
As far as Koepka is concerned, he just wants to 'one-up' McIlroy given they are both the same age.
It has often been suggested by some that McIlroy and Koepka don't see eye-to-eye.
Related:
- Sir Nick Faldo reacts to viral Rory McIlroy clip: "Wait till he gets to 66"
- Rory McIlroy's former agent rips into his latest PGA Tour / LIV Golf idea
- Rory McIlroy's former agent rips into his latest PGA Tour / LIV Golf idea
McIlroy even labelled the American five-time major champ as 'duplicitous' after he joined the breakaway tour in 2022.
But the two live near each other in Jupiter, Florida, practise a lot together and appear to have a great respect for each other's games.
Koepka also claimed that he believes McIlroy is one of the best players ever. And he thinks McIlroy will match his tally of five majors soon.
Asked who his biggest rival is, Koepka told the publication: "Most people are probably going to hate this answer, but like Rory, right?
"Because I feel like maybe —divulging a lot — but there's a competition that I'm [not] sure maybe he's that way or not, but like, okay, I've gotta get one more than him and then he's going to try ... he's gonna get to five soon.
"And it's like a one-up thing… we're the same age, I think he's like a year older, but you know where we are in the game for me, it's like okay, I want to try to be a little bit better than him because I think he's arguably one of the best players ever.
"So it's just trying to one up. For me, that's how it feels anyway."
Scroll down...
Koepka raced into the early lead at the 2023 Masters before ultimately losing out to Jon Rahm.
McIlroy missed the cut and later told of how looking at the leaderboard and seeing Koepka a staggering 10 strokes ahead of him early doors affected his play.
"I've told this story numerous times now about the first green on Friday, and Brooks was on the eighth green and I saw the big leaderboard, and I was already ten behind at that point," McIlroy previously told Sky Sports.
He then pointed to the fact he was 10 behind at the 2024 Dubai Desert Classic but then, out of nowhere, fired a moving day 63 and went on to win the tournament a record-breaking fourth time.
Koepka said that no matter how big a lead he or any other player has, you can never write off McIlroy.
"I want to try to make sure that I can get a big enough lead before he starts closing that gap," he added. "So, for me, that's the way it goes."
Read next:
Ben joined the GolfMagic team in September 2021, initially as a content executive.
These days, he assumes the position of content manager.
