The Open Pairs Brooks Koepka And Patrick Cantlay Together, Which Could Be Electric Given Their History

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Golf's governing bodies always gift us with at least a handful of great pairings for the opening two rounds of major championships, but the R&A truly outdid itself by pairing Brooks Koepka and Patrick Cantlay together for the first two days of The Open.

To get the full context as to why this pairing could be appointment viewing for golf fans on Thursday and Friday we have to go back to April and this year's Masters.

Outside of Jon Rahm winning the green jacket, one of the biggest storylines of Sunday's final round at Augusta National was the brutally slow pace of play, and most, including Koepka, pointed the finger directly at Cantlay.

Koepka and Rahm made up the final pairing Sunday and played behind the twosome of Viktor Hovland and Cantlay. Things seemed to reach a boiling point on the Par 5 13th when Cantlay was seen taking his sweet time walking to the green with Hovland already hitting his chip shot from behind the green well before the American got anywhere close to the putting surface.

After the round, Koepka took a direct shot at the Cantlay-Hovland group.

“The group in front of us was brutally slow,” Brooks Koepka said. “Jon went to the bathroom like seven times during the round, and we were still waiting.”

While that's not the most-exciting trash talk in the history of sports, it's not exactly common to hear players directly call out others at major championships.

Cantlay was asked about his pace of play, and Keopka's comments, the next week and pinned the blame on the golf course itself.

“I mean, we finished the first hole, and the group in front of us was on the second tee when we walked up to the second tee, and we waited all day on pretty much every shot,” Cantlay said. “We waited in 15 fairway, we waited in 18 fairway. I imagine it was slow for everyone.

“When you play a golf course like Augusta National where all the hole locations are on lots of slope and the greens are really fast, it’s just going to take longer and longer to hole out."

So, in summary, Koepka and Cantlay don't appear to be the best of buddies, and if the pace of play begins to crawl, expect to see some eye rolls and maybe some calling out by Mr. Koepka.

Hideki Matsuyama will have a front-row seat to the action as he rounds out the threesome for the opening two rounds.

Follow Mark Harris on Twitter @ItIsMarkHarris

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the PGA Tour, LIV Golf, and all other happenings in the world of golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.