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SAUDI INTERNATIONAL POWERED BY SBIAJanuary 29, 2019Brooks KoepkaKing Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia TOM BENBOW: Please welcome Brooks Koepka. He's world No. 2, first time here in the media centre for the Saudi International Powered by SBIA. It's your first time here obviously. What are your first impressions of the facility, the golf club and the country? BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, obviously the golf course looks very, very beautiful. We got to see the last couple finishing holes driving out there. Just had a little shoot. Looks beautiful. The course looks like it's in good shape, spectacular, very big. Only been here for about a day and a half, but yesterday was unfortunate with the rain. I don't think it's rained here in a while, but the place is very nice and glad to be here. TOM BENBOW: You started your season in Abu Dhabi with a Top 10. Had a week off last week on holiday. What's the shape of your game coming into this week; do you know? BROOKS KOEPKA: I mean, I don't know. Last week, week off. Didn't play. Didn't touch a club. I mean, I've done that before and came out and won, so I feel like my game is trending very nicely. I felt like in Abu Dhabi, I felt very close to winning. I had the same feeling at Colonial when Justin won. Finished second, so I felt like my game was peaking and a couple weeks later, won the U.S. Open. I feel very confident. I feel very good about where it's at, and hopefully pop off a W here. TOM BENBOW: There's four of the world's top five here, one of the top of The European Tour schedule this year. How important is it for you to play against the best players week in and week out. Does that motivate you a bit more? BROOKS KOEPKA: That's what everyone wants to do. Everyone wants to play against the best players in the world, and any time you can play an event where you have four of the top five, you've obviously got a lot of competition, a lot of guys to beat, a lot of good players to beat, and that's fun because you want to play against the best. That's what I'm here to do, week in, week out, whatever it is, we want to play against the best. It's always fun to take your talents up against theirs and see where you match up. It will be a good test for the next couple weeks going to Mexico and then Augusta here in what two months month and a half, two months. TOM BENBOW: You're in kind of a tussle with Justin Rose for world No. 1 status. He just won last week. How much do you think about that when you come here to play? Do you think about just trying to beat him or do you just think about beating the field? BROOKS KOEPKA: No, I'm just trying to do whatever I can. I'm not trying to think about world No. 1. I'm not trying to just beat Justin. I know if you beat Justin you're going to have a good chance of winning a golf tournament, I know that; he's playing so well right now. He's just got to stay patient and keep doing what I'm doing. Everything I'm doing right now, I'm on the right path to making sure that my game is going to be good over these next few months. I feel like all the work I've done, I'm starting to see the results and I feel very, very close to being consistently winning a lot more. Q. About a year ago, you weren't even playing. So over that year period, are you surprised at how much you've been able to accomplish in that year considering you were kind of hung out there for a while and really at some point not even sure exactly what would happen? BROOKS KOEPKA: I wasn't concerned. I was, I guess, with how my wrist was going to be but once I knew I was back, I had no concerns there. You know, I had taken a lot of time off and come back and won golf tournaments. I've taken a month off and won the week after I've come back, starting to hit balls on a Monday. So when I came back, I felt great. I was very pleased with it. Just kind of get on with it. Lucky enough, I'm very talented, athletic, strong and knew my wrist wasn't going to be too much of an issue. To come back and feel as good as I did earlier, I knew I was in good shape. Q. Sorry to be the one to bring it up, but can you talk us through the pictures last week and did you get a bit of ribbing on that? BROOKS KOEPKA: We had a great holiday. It was fun. Me, Dustin, Jena, Paulina, my caddie and Jill, so it was fun. We had a good time. I mean, we always love. We're always goofing off and having a good time on holiday. I forgot who brought him they brought one for me and one for my caddie and just goofing off, just laughing. I was trying to pretend like I was some Instagram model, you know, standing on my at this pointy toes because that's how the girls make their butts look good. I just didn't know you can't flex. I saw a picture, I forget of who it was, a cartoon character wearing on and it was pretty funny. Got a good laugh out of it. It's all in fun. I enjoyed it. It made everybody laugh and I'm sure it made quite a few people that saw the picture laugh, so that's all it was for. Q. Obviously you're here to concentrate on yourself, but the sort of form Bryson is in at the moment, he's pretty impressive at the moment, isn't it? BROOKS KOEPKA: I'd say so. He's on a really nice run. He's playing some good golf. It's fun to watch. The little bit I've watched, it's been impressive. I think any time you get on one of those rolls, it's a good feeling. You're very confident. You feel like everything you do, you catch the lucky breaks right when you need to and you make those clutch, maybe par saves or birdies where they are kind of momentum shifters and he's doing a good job of that. Then, you know, he's obviously finishing the golf tournaments off, which is big, and you figure he's going to be up there this week and I mean, it's impressive golf. It's fun to watch. He's going to be around for a while. So I'm sure we'll be playing against each other for hopefully the next ten to 15 years. Q. Do you find it interesting that someone could come into it the game, somebody completely different, and I'm not going to say dominate but certainly take a very good chunk out of the game. It seemed like the game couldn't find that but there he is there. Is that kind of odd to you? BROOKS KOEPKA: It definitely seemed odd in the beginning, the way he approaches the game, but there's always something new that guys are trying to find a new way to kind of get up on the next guy. You try to find an advantage, try to find something that doesn't have to work, but as long as you believe in it, it's going to be good. Obviously what he's doing, works. It's not for me, I can tell you that. Whatever he's doing I heard air density, moisture on the golf ball, rough, all that stuff, it's too much. I just know how far I hit it, when I want to hit it three quarter full, all this stuff. But he's bringing a new group of people to the game of golf, which I think is pretty cool. You know, you look at people who are very, you know, engineer oriented, mathematics, stuff like that, and it really if you're into that, it could be very cool. Golf clubs that are one length, that's unique. My brother played quite a bit of golf with him growing up because they are close to the same age, so I've known about him for maybe six or seven years, maybe even longer, and watched him win the NCAA Championship, things like that. Don't get me wrong, he's a tremendous talent, unbelievable player, but I think everything he's doing is working for him, and he believes in it. Just doesn't need to vary from it. Doesn't need any advice, just stick with it and keep going and see what else he can find. Q. Just to follow, does it seem odd to you that there are so many guys now, that when you walk into a Tour event, European Tour, PGA TOUR, whenever it is, that almost any of these guys can win, where maybe ten years ago, there were five or six guys to focus on, and now it seems like almost everybody. BROOKS KOEPKA: I think you see that all throughout sports. I think you see guys, maybe ten, 15 years ago, you only see a couple guys that were really great athletes in their sport. But I think now, there's so much information, so much technology behind it. Everybody is just becoming better and better athletes, understanding their bodies, understanding what it takes. From a young age, you're kind of groomed to be you're thrown in competition, trying to learn how to win and do these things, and that's why I think you go from basketball to football, there's so many great players. In golf, it's all very compact now and there's not the this is the greatest guy right here. There's ten, 15 guys where if they go on a run for four or five years, they can really dominate. I think that's how it is now. I think everybody is just becoming bigger, stronger, faster, understanding more. There's more information. Understanding on the off days how to take care of yourself. There's more information of, hey, I play better on the second week out, the third week out. Guys are looking more into that instead of just playing whenever they felt like it or just because they like a golf course. Q. You talk about wanting to play with the best in the world, very obvious, but is the upbringing you had in terms of The Challenge Tour, The European Tour, do you think you've had the best possible route in terms of picking up experience and confidence? BROOKS KOEPKA: It was the best route for me. I think that was important for me going around the world, traveling, going to all these different places, playing four days, when I was just getting out of college, instead of just trying to chase Mondays. I think if I even chased Mondays now, I would probably get into only four or five of them. I wouldn't get into that many of them. It's very difficult to do that. To go play four days, learn about my golf game, learn about how I was under the gun because I know this sounds different, but you see a lot of great college players, and then all of a sudden, they turn professional and for whatever reason, they can't cut it. Whether it's just an added pressure, you know, guys sometimes think about money, whatever it might be. There's a transition there, in the early stages, and you know, being able to come over and play and really learn how to be a professional, learn how to play golf for four days, travel, it was perfect for me. It took me out of my comfort zone, which I think I needed to do. I matured a little bit. You have to when you're on your own. I said it today to somebody; some of my best friends today are some of the guys I met on The Challenge Tour, whether it be some of the players, caddies. We've all kind of worked our way up and it's been fun to see. Q. You're halfway to the career Grand Slam. Of the two you still have to knock off, is there one you feel more confident, and why would that be? BROOKS KOEPKA: I feel very confident about the British Open. I like links golf. I think it's fun. I think to me, I see so many different shots. I see so many ways to be creative, and that's something my mind, I'm very creative in my mind. I see a bunch of different things. I think it's always I remember coming over when I was maybe 12, 13, somewhere around that age, coming over and playing Carnoustie, St. Andrews, a bunch of different places and just kind of fell in love. That's been something that ever since I was a little kid, I've enjoyed playing. Now that I get to come over a couple times a year and play links golf, it's something that the more and more I play it, the more and more I love it. I feel very confident around St. Andrews. I feel like I'll definitely win one there. That would be the one that I would pick probably before Augusta, just for the fact of Augusta, I don't know what it is, whether it's just the first major I really haven't ever been healthy going into Augusta. I've played it three times, I believe, and two of the times I haven't been fresh, and the other one I was hurt. But healthy around that place, you never know. Q. And Portrush, no one has played an Open there is that exciting, going there, a fresh challenge? BROOKS KOEPKA: I think it is. My caddie is from Portrush, so that's an added bonus. I know he's probably more excited than I am to go back. I think it will be good for him. He'll have the homecoming and it will be cool to see. It's one place I've never been; I've never been to Ireland, so looking forward to that. It's crazy how many countries I've been to and that's one place I've never been to. I think it will be fun. I've heard great things about the golf course, so I'm looking forward to going. Q. What's the sort of craziest golfing land you've ever played in? BROOKS KOEPKA: Craziest? Q. Well, you used the word crazy just now. But I was thinking something you found that you hadn't expected in the countries you've played in. BROOKS KOEPKA: They are all unique. I mean, I'm pretty open minded, definitely for an American. I definitely do things a little bit differently than probably most Americans where I enjoy travelling the world and going to all these different places. Going to different countries and embracing the culture and really diving deep, and even on my vacations, I come over here and go to Asia quite a bit and see all these different things. I try to find the beauty in every country, whether it be the architecture, the culture, the people, things like that. So nothing seems out of weird, out of context for me. I just kind of embrace it and really enjoy my time wherever I'm at. Q. Have you played in Iceland? BROOKS KOEPKA: No. Never been there. TOM BENBOW: Thanks for joining us and best of luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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