Page 18 - Sports Illustrated Kids (October 2018)

Brooks KOEPKA

team
PGA Tour

spotlight
Long overlooked and
overshadowed, the 28-year-old

Floridian has enjoyed one of
the most exciting stretches in
recent memory. After winning
three majors (two U.S. Opens

and the PGA Championship)
in 14 months, he’s no longer
an underdog.

he night of the first round of
the U.S. Open in June, Brooks
Koepka counted the people
counting him out. The
defending champion was
T watching from the living

room of his rental house in Southampton,
New York, as Golf Channel flashed through
the leader board—at five over par, Koepka
was tied for 46th—and then showed a
graphic of “notable” players, in this order:
Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Justin Rose,
Jordan Spieth, Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy,
Rickie Fowler, Jason Day, Tiger Woods, and
Phil Mickelson. No Brooks Koepka.
The forgotten man seethed. “I just won
the event, top 10 in the world, and there’s 10
guys on that list, and not one of them is me,”
he says.
Koepka collects slights the way he once
collected Pokémon cards. He catches them
all. He dreamed of attending Florida, but the
Gators did not recruit him; he went instead
to Florida State. He was never invited to play
in the Walker Cup as an amateur. He did not

qualify for an automatic spot on the 2015

18 / SPORTS ILLUSTRATED KIDS