Brooks Koepka Thinks He Can Catch Tiger Woods in Majors
The ever outspoken Brooks Koepka is at it again, and now thinks he can catch Tiger Woods in major victories.
Koepka recently sat down with Golf Digest and made the declaration. Koepka, 31, has four majors under his belt and needs 11 more to catch Woods, who is second all-time behind Jack Nicklaus (18).
"In my mind, I’m going to catch him on majors. I believe that. I don’t see any reason that can stop me," Koepka said. "I’m 31. I have another 14 years left. If I win one a year, I got Jack . People misconstrue that as being cocky. No, that’s just my belief. If I don’t have that belief, I shouldn’t be out there.
"If you don’t think you can win, why the hell are you teeing it up? 'Yeah, I’m just going for second place this week.' There’s a lot of that on tour. Even elite players are very happy with that. Second? Sports are made to have a winner and a loser. You’re one or the other."
Koepka is spot on here with his confidence, but the odds are seriously stacked up against him. For one, nobody dominates golf anymore like we watched Woods do. And Koepka might be the closest on tour today in majors with 15 top-10 finishes in majors since 2015, but that pales in comparison to what Woods did in his prime.
Woods had 13 major victories at the time he was 31 and that was before he had any major injuries ailing him. Koepka has already had a knee issue pop up in many events the last few years, something that will likely nag him the rest of his career.
The confidence is to be appreciated and Koepka's honesty is undoubtedly great for golf. In that same interview, Koepka explained why he likes talking trash.
"I might not always show it, but I’m so intense inside at wanting to beat the living crap out of you at whatever we’re doing. It eats me up inside. We could be playing ping pong or cornhole or whatever. I just want to embarrass you," Koepka said. "If golf wasn’t the 'gentleman’s sport' it is, I would trash talk my entire way through it. I’d love to be in the NFL and just stand over you like Tyrann Mathieu does after a tackle."
Now that's confidence and something that is so refreshing to hear out of a pro-golfer's mouth. After all, isn't this how we talk with our buddies every Saturday out on the links?