Brooks Koepka Regrets Comment Ahead Of PGA Championship Final Round

The four-time Major winner regrets saying he didn't know the guys on the leaderboard after three rounds

Brooks Koepka Regrets Comment Ahead Of PGA Championship Final Round

Brooks Koepka says he regrets a comment he made before the final round of the PGA Championship.

The four-time Major winner was two behind Dustin Johnson after 54 holes at TPC Harding Park where he said he doesn't know a lot of the guys on the leaderboard.

"A lot of guys on the leaderboard, I don't think have won (a Major), I guess DJ has only won one. I don't know a lot of the other guys up there," Koepka said.

Rory McIlroy said he was taken aback by Koepka's comment regarding DJ 'only' winning one Major.

"If you’ve won a Major championship, you’re a hell of a player. Doesn’t mean you’ve only won one; you’ve won one, and you’ve had to do a lot of good things to do that," McIlroy said.

“Yeah, I mean, sort of hard to knock a guy that’s got 21 wins on the PGA Tour, which is three times what Brooks has."

Related: 11 of Brooks Koepka's hardest-hitting quotes of 2019

Speaking exclusively to Golfweek, Koepka said he hasn't spoken to DJ but regrets saying that didn't know some of the guys on the leaderboard.

"To be honest, when I’m looking at a leaderboard I’m never looking at who is behind me or tied with me, I only look ahead. I view myself as going forward no matter what. So I regret that part of it," Koepka told Golfweek.

"That’s what I was trying to say — that I didn’t know who was on the leaderboard at that point because I hadn’t looked. I just genuinely didn’t know the guys at 8 and 7.

"That part I regret and I wish I had used different words because I didn’t pay enough attention to who was under Dustin because he was my main focus.

"We pretty much know everybody, we grew up playing golf with them and it came across that I had no idea who these guys are. And that’s completely false."

Related: What's wrong with Rory? - The Golf Monthly team discuss

The players at seven and eight under included Paul Casey, Cameron Champ, Scottie Scheffler and eventual winner Collin Morikawa.

Koepka shot a four over par round of 74 in the final round to finish at -3 and 10 strokes back of Collin Morikawa.

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