IF you’ve already perused the above column – and that is by no means a given – then you’ll be aware of the excited fever Brooks Koepka stoked up en route to his victory in the Scottish Hydro Challenge at Aviemore back in 2013.
What the newly crowned US Open champion didn’t tell those in attendance that week was that he was considering pulling out of the event ahead of the final round. Perhaps it was just our terrible line of questioning that we never got the true story?
Koepka, who strode to his first major crown by four shots at Erin Hills on Sunday night, had bucked the trend by leaving his native USA for a golfing education on the European Challenge Tour.
He was certainly gaining top marks, with two wins during the 2013 campaign, but on the cusp of a third on Scottish soil, the rigours of touring life began to take a toll.
“I called Blake Smith [his agent] the night of the third round [of the Scottish Hydro Challenge] and I was like, ‘I don’t even want to play’,” recalled Koepka after his US Open conquest.
“I just wanted to go home. I don’t want to say I was homesick, it was just tired of golf and tired of travelling. I think I had the lead at that point and was about to win the third one.
“For some reason I just wanted to get out and go home. I’ve never felt
that way. I don’t even know what was going on. I think I had played so many weeks in a row, not a day off, it really got to me.”
Koepka did go on to win a third title of the season and was immediately fast-tracked to the main European Tour where he would become the rookie of the year the following season. The rest, as they say, is history.
On the first day of qualifying at the Amateur Championship, meanwhile, the Scottish duo of Craig Howie and Jeff Wright were both sitting on the fringes of the top-10 after a pair of four-under 68s at Prince’s.
Kirkhill’s Craig Ross posted a fine three-under 67 at Royal St George’s while Glencruitten’s Robert MacIntyre, the runner-up in last year’s championship at Porthcawl, opened the 36-hole strokeplay phase with a 72 at Prince’s.
East Renfrewshire veteran Craig Watson, the 50-year-old who won the Amateur Championship at St George’s back in 1997, had an 81 over on the Prince’s links.
The top 64 and ties after two rounds will progress to the matchplay stages.
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