[PHOTO: David Becker]
This past weekend, Bryson DeChambeau took to X to confirm the long-rumoured match between himself and LIV compatriot Brooks Koepka and PGA Tour stars Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler. The announcement was significant less for what it confirmed – which was oddly announced in a press release 10 days before DeChambeau made the news “official” – but the multiple hatchets it seemed to bury.
The most obvious, of course, was the ongoing Cold War between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour, who have been trying to broker peace for more than a year. The upcoming crossover seems to be yet another step towards reunifying professional golf. Then there’s the small matter of Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau, who not so long ago loathed the mere presence of each other with a zeal typically reserved for heavyweight boxing rivals. That all seems to be water under the Hogan Bridge, however, as Koepka responded to DeChambeau’s tweet on Saturday with a perfect quote plucked straight from the script of “Step Brothers”.
Did we just become best friends? https://t.co/MwzRqrhm0r
— Brooks Koepka (@BKoepka) October 19, 2024
This is irrefutable proof that time heals all wounds… or at the very least that the enemy of your enemy is your friend. Koepka and DeChambeau presided over one of the pettiest feuds in sports history, insulting each other’s abs, rolling their eyes at one another on international TV and offering free beer to fans to taunt the other. At times, the bickering bordered on bullying, and the PGA Tour even had to step in to put a stop to the antagonistic “Brooksy” chants. Now the duo are chumming it up as teammates and maybe even stacking their beds together to make bunk beds.
We’ll see where this goes from here, but with Brooks and Bryson seemingly maturing and on the same side of golf’s ongoing schism, we doubt this will be the last BFF behaviour we see from the old foes.