Talkin' Bout Practice
Brooks Koepka is really leaning into this whole 'range rat' thing with this range montage under the lights
Elaborate troll or completely genuine act? Sometimes, it's impossible to tell with Brooks Koepka.
For the early part of his explosion onto the PGA Tour scene, Koepka told us he didn't even really like golf all that much. That he found it boring. He took an Allen Iverson approach to practice, specifically for non-major events. "I just practice before the majors," he said before the 2019 Open Championship. "Regular tournaments I don't practice. If you've seen me on TV, that's when I play golf."
Apparently, Koepka's opinion on practice has drastically changed this fall, a response to a poor stretch that has included a 67th-place finish at the Shriners, a 38th at the CJ Cup and a missed cut at Mayakoba. Prior to that MC in Mexico, Koepka described himself as a "range rat," completely contradicting everything he's said in the past about practicing for regular PGA Tour events. "I'll sit on the range all day," he said.
The four-time major winner backed up that claim on Thursday evening in Houston, where he'd gotten off to another slow start before play was suspended due to darkness. That darkness didn't stop Koepka from leaning all the way into this new "range rat" persona, though:
Hmmm.... does this remind you of anyone? *Kermit sips the tea GIF*
So, is he trolling or is he seriously Mr. Lunch Pail and Hard Hat guy now? There's a third option, too, and it's that this perfect edited/possibly staged video was what Koepka needed to back up the "range rat" assertion. OK, there's a fourth option as well -- he might actually be pissed off enough about how he's playing that he's desperately trying to figure out what's wrong (as of this writing, he's tied for 45th in Houston). Everything is on the table with Koepka, and the match with DeChambeau later this month only furthers the notion that this could be mind-games material.