'A Lot Of People Are Very Afraid Of The Truth' - Brooks Koepka On Masters 'Choke'

Brooks Koepka has admitted that he choked during the final round of The Masters to finish runner-up with fellow LIV Golf player Phil Mickelson as Jon Rahm closed out the Augusta National title.

The 33-year-old made the admission in an interview with Golf Monthly, saying: “I don’t care what other people think. People are afraid to be honest. Nowadays, we try to put it softly so it doesn’t sound too bad, but you can’t tell me that’s not what I did.”

That echoed comments he made in May, the month after frittering away his four-shot lead over Rahm to watch his dreams of wearing the Green Jacket slip away. Back then, Koepka said he "choked away" the potential Masters victory, and he's no less honest five months on.

Nevertheless, it is a startling admission from a player hardly lacking in self-confidence, and who went into the tournament with four Major titles already to his name. However, Koepka explained that’s just the way he is. He continued: “I’m brutally honest and I’m always going to speak the truth. A lot of people are very afraid of the truth and they don’t want to hear it.”

“It eats away at me when I finish close to winning. I try to figure out what the problem was and what I was thinking. A lot of guys aren’t truly honest with themselves, but I will go through everything; was it physical or mental, or the process of the shot selection? I know what it was, it was pretty easy, and we fixed it.”

That is an understatement, because in the very next Major, the PGA Championship at Oak Hill, Koepka claimed the title for the third time, with another player who has struggled to victory in Majors over recent years, Rory McIlroy, not too far behind with a T7.

The Ulsterman has also been one of the biggest critics of Koepka’s circuit, but the American insists the pair share plenty of mutual respect.

“We’ve never talked about it, but that’s how I see it. If he wins, I’ll text him and vice versa. We’ve kept that relationship for a while now.”

“We’ve got a good relationship,” explained Koepka. “I wouldn’t say we’re best friends – I’ve got my boys and he’s got his – but we’re fairly close as far as players go.

“We don’t hang out together outside of golf, but there is a mutual respect and we both understand we’re probably two of the guys of this generation. I don’t know what he thinks, but I’ve had a lot of fun with our rivalry. That’s how I’ve always viewed it."