|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
THE HONDA CLASSICFebruary 25, 2014Brooks KoepkaPALM BEACH GARDENS, FLORIDA JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Brooks Koepka into the interview room here at the Honda Classic, making his fourth start of the season on the PGA TOUR, and a tie for third at the Frys.com Open. If we can just get some comments on the state of your game. BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, it's good to be back in the States playing. I've been overseas in the Desert Swing over there, played well, but it's always nice to be back in the hometown and get out here and play and have my family around, so it's always nice. JOHN BUSH: You had a tie for third at the Fry's.com Open on this Tour, you recently had a tie for third in Dubai. Just talk a little bit about the most recent finish on the European Tour and your prospects for this week. BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, I've played playing really well since Fry's. I tied for third there and tied for third in Dubai. Playing good, worked pretty hard in the off‑season trying to get the short game a little better, and everything seems to be clicking right now. No complaints. Q. I know you've been trying to get in this tournament for a few years. Talk about your reaction when you heard that you got a sponsor exemption. BROOKS KOEPKA: It's nice. Like I said, hometown, grew up here, so grew up wanting to play this tournament. This was always the one I came out to watch. I remember carrying a sign for a bunch of guys when I was younger just trying to be around them, so to get out here is nice finally. Q. How well do you feel you know this course, and how many times have you played here? BROOKS KOEPKA: I've played this golf course maybe 30 times, just from playing U.S. Junior, U.S.Amateur qualifiers I think were out here, high school golf, obviously, things like that. So I know the course pretty well. But some changes were made. You can tell some bunkers were taken out and things like that. But course is in good shape, and looking forward to the week. Q. Maybe talk a little bit about you mentioned being a standard bearer here. Talk about that a little bit. BROOKS KOEPKA: I did the pro‑am yesterday, on Monday, with a bunch of high school kids, and that was probably the one that really got me. Getting to play with PGA TOUR players was always good and being able to pick their brains. I don't remember who I played with, it was a long time ago, but I know I picked his brain pretty hard and I'm sure he thought he was kind of an annoying little high school kid. But it was fun. That was nice. But carrying a sign was good. Any time you can get inside the ropes when you're a little kid and get to watch the guys from up close, it's special. Q. Peter was in here earlier talking about the roommate situation. You're not there very much. BROOKS KOEPKA: No, we're not. Q. He mentioned you guys had some similarities and differences. What's it like rooming with Peter? What are some of the differences between you two guys? BROOKS KOEPKA: Well, we've broken a ping‑pong table. We're pretty competitive if you couldn't tell, on the golf course and off the golf course. You know, it's fun. I've enjoyed it. I'm sure he has, too, and it's great. We're both playing well, too. So we're both kind of pushing each other to get better and better as the years are going on. I think we've been living together for just about a year now, so it's been nice. Q. Who broke it, and why did it happen? BROOKS KOEPKA: I hit a shot down the line, down the corner, and Pete reached out for it and just, right over the table and broke it. No, it was fun. Yeah, we've had‑‑ it's been fun. With that ping‑pong table it gets a little aggressive. We've got another roommate, Matt Broome, who loves to play, too, so it's always fun. Q. Ken Kennerly said you write every year asking. BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, since I've been about 16, so it's nice to finally get the exemption. It's great. Q. He said he felt great he could give it to you. Do you have a big family that will be here for the tournament? BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, my dad will be out here, my stepmom will be out here. We had a little bit of a family incident. My mom won't be able to be out here, so she's out in Phoenix right now. I'm sure she'd love to be out here. But I think they'll wake up early in the morning, too, to go watch, so it will be nice to have them out here, and actually I think they're excited to watch me play because it's been a long time since they've done that. I know they came out to a tournament we talked about earlier, Vegas, they went out there. My dad and stepmom went out there to watch, so it'll be special for them because don't get to do it too often. My brother was going to come over, but I told him not to come. He's got to focus on his game. He's a good little player over at South Florida. He needs to take care of his game. That's more important than coming out and watching me. Q. Are you playing Puerto Rico? BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, I'll be there. Q. What's the jet ski count up to now? BROOKS KOEPKA: We've actually been waiting. Pete, I guess, is going to get a house, so we'll finally get them then because it's kind of pointless to have them when you're inland and can't do them. We've been kind of borrowing Fowler's every once in a while to go out. But when we get that place on the water we'll definitely have a couple. Q. He admitted earlier he's guilty of drinking out of the milk carton. Are you aware of that? BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, he's bad. He's always doing it. It's good fun, though. He's always doing it. We're messing around in that house all the time, so it's good fun. Q. I was just curious if you had a strategy for exemptions to use, all early or‑‑ BROOKS KOEPKA: Well, I'm playing well right now, so I think right now I wasn't planning on going and playing in Europe at this point, I was going to go three in the desert, which I did, and then come back over here and see if I can get in a couple qualifiers. We didn't know we were going to get sponsor's exemptions, but that was the plan, try to play, Florida, Bermudagrass, grew up on it, so I see that as kind of an advantage for me. But try to use as many as we can at this point and go from there. Q. When do you go back? BROOKS KOEPKA: I think Malaysia will be the first one, so we'll head back over, because there's really not much going on on the European Tour. You had WGC last week and then another one next week, so there's not much going on. I don't do well with the whole travel thing flying over and back, so going over for one week or two weeks just isn't good for me. Q. Blake told me last week at Match Play you sat around basically for three days hoping. How tough was that, and is there any rust, any concern about rust? BROOKS KOEPKA: No, no rust. It was nice to get out and go play practice rounds, prepared like I was in the tournament, but as far as not getting in, that happens. I should have played better somewhere else. There's some putt I could have made, going up on like a three‑footer and maybe missed it. I don't remember doing it, but maybe more focus somewhere. It could have been one shot could have been shaved off anywhere and I probably would have been in, so just got to look at myself for that. Q. How much do you keep up with the World Rankings? Do you look at them on Monday morning, and how much does getting into the top 50‑‑ you and Peter are kind of right next to each other. BROOKS KOEPKA: I don't look at it. I don't really watch golf. I don't pay attention to anything. You know, it sounds bad, but if I'm not playing, I'm usually not watching or seeing what's going on. I love to watch other sports. I'm big into that, and golf is‑‑ I'm around it 24/7, and if I'm not playing, I just like to get away from it because it can kind of consume your life if you get too much into it, I think. Q. Do you think football players watch The Golf Channel on their off days? BROOKS KOEPKA: I don't know what they do, but I'm assuming they do. A couple of them will be out here tomorrow, right? That's what I heard, Roethlisberger and a couple more. I'm assuming they do. They're pretty good, too. Q. When you got the exemption, Peter said he was happy for you. Were you kind of pulling for him to get his exemption? Is there any tension at home? BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, absolutely. No, there's no tension. Every time I've been home and he's been in the lead or right around it, you know, I've been there, I'll wake up early to watch him. Same thing goes when I'm there. I've been kind of hanging around waiting for him to finish up when he was at Madeira and won. I'd love to see him succeed. Everything seems to be going well, but hopefully I'll be right there with him to kind push each other. That would be a fun final day on Sunday coming up, and hopefully both of us be together. That would be neat. Q. I know you worked with Bob Toski as a youngster. Are there any other coaches in this area? BROOKS KOEPKA: I've actually never worked with him. I never worked with him. He belonged at the club my dad was with and was just kind of always around him, but never really got any lessons from him. Q. Is there anybody in the area that you're still close to that did a lot of coaching of you? BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, there's a guy Warren Bottke. He's up at Abacoa. I still stay in touch with him every once in a while. He was kind of like another father figure to me, and he was ‑‑ he's what really, I guess, got me to where I am now. He's a great coach and just a great guy. Q. Are you expecting to see him out here? BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, I think he might be out. I haven't talked to him this week. My phone has been kind of going crazy, so I've kind of just left it off, but I'm assuming he'll be out here. Q. What have you learned about the difference in Sunday golf versus the first rounds? BROOKS KOEPKA: It's hard to win, it really is. It's hard to win. But the way I see it, if I just keep giving myself chances, I'll knock the door down soon. Obviously Fry's was a little disappointing not to win going in with the final round lead, and then in Dubai, taking it‑‑ I think I had a one‑shot lead going to the back nine. You know, you've just got to learn from it, take something from it and try to move on to the next time, at least when you get in that position, and like I said, just learn from it. That's the best thing I've done from all my events. Q. (Inaudible.) BROOKS KOEPKA: No, people laugh, I actually didn't listen to my caddie at Fry's, Ricky Elliott. We were coming down on 17 and I hit it in the water, and you think we were one back, which is fine. You can make birdie on that hole, maybe birdie 18, and we kind of had the discussion about the clubs and I thought 3‑wood was going to fly the green, so I tried to‑‑ just over‑cut it, tried to do too much with the ball instead of listening to him, just hit it. He's been out here for a while and caddied for Ben Curtis, so just using him a little bit more. But as far as in Dubai, yeah, Steven kind of‑‑ he played pretty well. Not too upset with that one. I played pretty good. Q. What was hard about winning? Was it you or was it someone else? BROOKS KOEPKA: I mean, the run Jimmy Walker has been on is pretty good. He's playing pretty good right now. But Fry's, yeah, I felt like I had a really good chance to win if I would have just listened to him on 17. You have a chance coming up the last hole. That's all you can really ask for come Sunday. Like I said, in Dubai, it was just kind of grind it out. The back nine seems to kind of‑‑ I lose a little bit on the back nine I guess you could say. It's not as strong as the opening nine or the rest of the 54 holes. So if you want to look at it that way, I guess you could say that. JOHN BUSH: Brooks, we appreciate your time. Play well this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|