Brooks Koepka Still Not Thinking He Gets The Respect He Deserves Only Further Shows His Greatness | Mark Harris

Brooks Koepka has long played the disrespect card. Even when he was rattling off four major championship victories in eight starts from 2017-2019, himself, media members, and golf fans alike still, for some reason, viewed him as an underdog.

With a fifth major championship now under his belt and three LIV wins in a year's time, he still doesn't think he gets the respect he deserves.

"Five majors in and I’m still not the guy. If other people had done what I’ve done, then everybody would anoint them," Koepka recently told Golf Monthly.

It's clear that Koepka uses his underdog role as motivation, and it's worked incredibly well. Just because he may fabricate the level of disrespect he actually receives doesn't mean he gets recognized nearly enough for what he's accomplished in his career up to this point.

Brooks Koepka doesn't get the respect he deserves, and he knows it. (Photo by Octavio Passos/Getty Images)

Only 14 players in the history of golf have won more major championships than Koepka. He's won five majors compared to Rory McIlroy's four, won two more than Vijay Singh, and three more than the likes of Bernhard Langer, Greg Norman, Dustin Johnson, and Fuzzy Zoeller.

On top of winning five majors over the course of his first 36 major championship starts; he's picked up another 13 Top 10 finishes in 38 major appearances. This means that Koepka has finished inside the Top 10 in major championships at a 47% clip for his career. That is a ridiculous number.

Brooks Koepka's Mental Game Is Beyond Elite

“Honestly, I’m just built a little bit different," Koepka told Golf Monthly. "It’s just being mentally better. Look at Tiger, he was just mentally better than everybody else. If you know you can mentally beat everybody, and have more discipline, that plays a huge part. I know I will mentally outlast everybody, especially when it’s very difficult.

Even before making the jump to LIV Golf, Koepka wasn't consistently in conversations with Jon Rahm, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, or even Scottie Scheffler when it came to today's great players. Always mentioned, but more glossed over than praised when it comes to those other players.

Brooks Koepka's track record at major championships is absurd. (Getty Images)

What's so interesting about Koepka being an overlooked player is that he's now cemented himself as a 'big-game hunter' given the fact that he always turns up for major championships, yet that somehow has kept him under the radar to an extent.

He shows up to majors, consistently puts himself in contention on Sunday, and then moves in the shadows until it's time to do it all over again.

While the five major championship victories speak for themselves, perhaps the most impressive thing about Koepka at this point of his career is that he still possesses the mindset that he's a disrespected player.

Koepka wakes up every day as a five-time major winner with five major trophies in his living room. He has a generation-changing sum of money in his bank account. Yet he still manages to convince himself he hasn't done enough to be mentioned among the greats.

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