Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau will not play in the same group for the first 36 holes of the U.S. Open.
They weren’t asked to, either.
Shortly after tee times and groupings were released Tuesday morning, Brad Faxon said on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio that the USGA had approached DeChambeau and his agent, Brett Falkoff, about DeChambeau playing with Koepka, and that DeChambeau’s camp declined.
Falkoff later told GolfChannel.com that that report was untrue.
“The USGA did not reach out to Bryson regarding a potential pairing with Brooks Koepka. Bryson is fully focused on defending the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines this week.,” Falkoff said.
Craig Annis, the USGA's brand manager, told ESPN.com that "Bryson was not asked."
Koepka will instead play alongside Collin Morikawa and Justin Thomas on Thursday and Friday at Torrey Pines, while DeChambeau is grouped with Hideki Matsuyama and Tyler Strafaci.
The feud between Koepka and DeChambeau has been one of the most talked about subplots for this week's U.S. Open, ever since a viral video showed Koepka visibly and vocally annoyed by a passing-by DeChambeau after the PGA Championship. The two followed by trading barbs on social media, including Koepka offering free beers to any spectator thrown out of the Memorial for heckling DeChambeau.
DeChambeau said a couple of weeks ago, "I've personally got no issue." Koepka later added that he thinks the beef is good for the game.
“The fact that golf's on pretty much every news outlet for about two weeks pretty consistently, I think that's a good thing. It's growing the game," Koepka said. "You know, the younger generation – I get the traditionalists who don't agree with it. I understand that, but I think to grow the game you've got to reach out to the younger generation, and I think that's what – I don't want to say that's what this is, but it's reaching out to a whole bunch of people. It's getting golf in front of people.”