Gary Woodland And Brooks Koepka Dismiss Caddie Rule Breaking Claims

A lot has been made of the recent incident involving Brooks Koepka’s caddie Ricky Elliott, with it appearing that Elliott said the word “five” to playing partner Gary Woodland’s caddie, Brennan Little, potentially indicating the club Koepka had used.

However, after an investigation from the Competition Committee, it was determined that there hadn’t been a rules breach, with a statement reading: “Following the completion of Brooks Koepka’s round, the Committee questioned his caddie and others in the group about a possible incident on No.15. All involved were adamant that no advice was given or requested. Consequently, the Committee determined that there was no breach of the Rules.”

Now, following their second rounds, both Koepka and playing partner, Woodland, have given their views on the incident, with Woodland stating: "At the end of the day, Brooks hit his shot on 15. I asked Butchy if he saw what he hit. He said no. Luckily for us because Brooks ended up hitting 5-iron. 

"I hit 5-iron. I asked Butchy what the club was, and he said it's a choked-up perfect 5. I hit my shot. When we were walking down, I asked Brooks what he hit, and he said 5. If I would have known that, I probably would have hit 6-iron, and I would have hit 6-iron in the middle of the water. Luckily for me, I didn't know what he hit. That's the end of it."

Koepka also backed up what his fellow countryman had said, explaining the video by saying: "When I finished today's round, they were brought in -- like I said, I'm taking my glove off. The last thing I'm going to do is give it to Gary Woodland, the US Open champ. And the funny part about it is I think if he would have known we were hitting five, he would have hit six because I don't think Gary is that short and he's 10 in front of me, 12 in front of me."

He went on to add: "I think what they said was they were signaling to somebody else or he was signaling to somebody of what it was. It wasn't Butchie. Because they asked us what we hit walking down the fairway, so they had no idea."

Obviously, as is the way with most things, a lot of individuals within the golf world are divided on the matter, with Paul McGinley stating that “it’s very obvious," before adding "it’s staggering" in relation to how Koepka wasn't dealt a penalty. However, former Caddie of the Year, Craig Connelly, claimed that it "happens every single day, multiple times a round and if there's a caddy on here who says they've never done it, then they're talking s****!"

According to Woodland, he doesn't seem overly surprised with the reaction to the rules incident, with the 38-year-old saying that "they told us inside it was taking a big life. At the end of the day, I didn't hear anything or I didn't see anything. My caddie didn't hear anything or see anything either."

He went on to add: "Usually the caddies are telling the media or TV guys. The TV guys, the boom guys are out every hole, and they're usually telling them, so it's easy to pick it up from there. I don't know if there was a boom guy or not. I have no idea."