When Brooks Koepka dismissed Tiger Woods' rivalry ahead of a massive Major championship

LIV golfer Brooks Koepka once dismissed his rivalry with the legendary Tiger Woods. The former world number one shared his views with the media ahead of an upcoming major.

Back in 2019, Koepka and Woods were scheduled to play alongside each other at the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black. The duo was paired with Francesco Molinari for the first two rounds of the major. Before the 2019 PGA Championship began, Koepka dismissed talk of his rivalry with Tiger Woods, stating that there is no '"huge history".

The five-time major champion also stated that it was fun to play against the 15-time major champion. While talking to the media, Koepka said:

"I don't see it as a rivalry. It's just golf. It’s not like there's a huge history like football, where you've got a rivalry that's been over 20, 30 years. It's just really been the last couple years. It’s fun to play against him; best player to ever play the game, we're talking about. But if you guys want to talk about rivalry, I think that's pretty cool to hear."

Over the years, Tiger Woods and Brooks Koepka have competed against one another in the majors on several occassions. At Bellerive Country Club, the legendary golfer lost the 2018 PGA Championship title to the former World Number One by a two-stroke margin. In 2019, Woods won the Masters by beating Koepka, Xander Schauffele and Dustin Johnson by one stroke.

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When Tiger Woods managed to break Brooks Koepka in the quiet challenge

In February 2025, Koepka took on the "Quiet Challenge" with Golf Digest where he was presented with a long list of names given by the host. The LIV golfer remained silent for about 30 seconds while listening to names like Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson and Xander Schauffele.

When Tiger Woods' name was announced by the host, Koepka could not keep a straight face and admitted:

"I was going to hold out but yeah Tiger I can't. I can't even joke about that one. But yeah, yeah Tiger. Tiger's kind of got that one."

Take a look at the clip shared by Golf Digest on X:

Despite falling short in the 2019 Masters, Koepka praised Woods' achievement, stating that the victory was special. In another interview from 2018, the five-time major champ labeled Woods as "the greatest player" and further stated that Woods was the reason why his generation was playing golf.

Edited by Pravashis Biswas