Player Blog: Chase Koepka

It’s my first time in Australia. It was a tough decision to pick between Mauritius and here, because they’re both great places, but I’ve always wanted to come to Australia. The jetlag isn’t too bad since I was in Hong Kong last week. The weather is similar to how it is back home for me and I wanted an experience coming down here and to see what it has in store. I’m going to check out the beaches, the restaurants and the malls. I’m staying in a good spot and I’m a ten minute walk from everything, so I’ll be exploring as much as I can. I also want to try and see a kangaroo up close!

I was about four years old when I first started playing

. My brother, Brooks, was starting to play tournaments and I was just hitting balls with him and my dad. There was a tournament meant for five and six year olds, but it was the last one of the season and my dad knew the guy who was running the junior golf federation. He let me play even though I was four. I enjoyed it and stuck with it, even though I only had a certain amount of time for it because I was playing so many other sports.

I played baseball, basketball and golf, so there were some days where I’d have a golf tournament in the morning, basketball in the afternoon and baseball at night. There wasn’t a complete focus on golf when I was younger and probably the same with Brooks. It wasn’t our focus until we got older. I think I had about four sporting events in one day, but one of them was flag football. I think I spent more time on the ground than actually playing, so I didn’t last too long with that!

I realised I wanted to focus on golf when I was 13 or 14

. I knew I wasn’t going to make it in the NBA. I was a little short and slow and watching guys dunk it when I was in sixth grade showed me I don’t quite have the potential! I think I made a good choice. I’ve always supported Miami Heat, it’s only an hour and a half drive away. I love watching college basketball and I was watching basketball this week in the hotel room.

It was very competitive in our family

. We’d be playing ping pong or pool and my brother and I would get in fights over points. I remember playing cards with my grandparents and Brooks and I got in a fight over that. My grandpa said, “There is one game that both you guys can win at and it’s called 52-card pickup” and he threw the deck at us! Whatever it was we were always competitive, but it was nice and has made us who we are today. We want to succeed at everything we do.

The first event I played on the Challenge Tour was in Scotland last year and I finished close to last.

I had finished college golf and was quite tired from the college season, because it can get quite long. The conditions in Scotland were tough and I thought, “I need to get a lot better.” I played in the Czech Masters and finished 19th, but I just couldn’t get anything done in those first couple of Challenge Tour events. I went through Q-School but didn’t make it and was so frustrated with myself. I got back home and worked hard and was looking forward to coming back.

I got three invites this year and two events on my own category and turned it into a European Tour card.

It was just a whirlwind. In a lot of the events I was finishing in the top ten and getting into the following week and was just on a roll. Once I started playing well I just wasn’t missing cuts and it was a complete change. The year before I was maybe a bit stubborn and unwilling to change the way I played. That was the biggest thing, learning to accept the conditions and gain new shots. The conditions are so much different to back home. Obviously I don’t play much golf in the cold, which was a big thing. Cold for me was about 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

Shooting high scores was a good thing because it beat me up a bit. I felt I was getting a little better, but it was about just learning how to hit the ball in the cold wind. It sounds crazy, but a warm wind versus a cold wind is completely different. It was tough for me to wrap my head around. I was asking so many guys and saying, “I’m hitting what I think is a pretty good shot, but it’s just dropping out of the air.” When I came back, I was finally starting to play well.

My brother said to me: “When you come over here you learn to play every golf shot.”You play in different conditions every single week. There are warm places like Italy, but two weeks before I was shivering in bed in Scotland after I was finished playing. I love the aspect of change wherever I go. The Challenge Tour does a great job of finding places we can play and you learn how to score. Guys go out there and they’re trying to get to a level and play with all they have. Everybody wants to make the European Tour and there are so many good players on the Challenge Tour.

It seemed like there would be a better opportunity over in Europe. It was tough, because I’d only been to Europe once when I was about nine years old. I was more nervous than anything, because I’d be thinking about things like catching trains and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d caught a train! There were a lot of new experiences, but it was quite exciting travelling the world at 22 or 23. I wouldn’t change it.

I had an idea of how it would be because of my brother. I didn’t realise how crazy it is sometimes, like how many days you spend in an airport. It can take a full day to get from place to place and you’re trying to cut costs as much as you can. You might not take a direct flight and have to stop in a few different places, so you’re doing everything you can.

I knew if I won in Kazakhstan I’d get my European Tour card. Tapio Pulkkanen beat me in the play-off, but when I found out I’d got my card anyway I just didn’t know what to do. I called my family and they knew before I did. I had no idea until I walked off the green.

I met Tapio a few months before the first stage of Q-School last year and thought he was very impressive. Tapio and I roomed together a few times this year. Our games are completely different and it was nice to practise with him. He was Challenge Tour Number One this year, so I picked a good guy to be with!

After he won the U.S. Open, Brooks wanted me to celebrate with him in Vegas.I had just got into the next Challenge Tour tournament in Denmark and thought I need to go and play. I remember sitting on the third hole and it was so rainy and windy. I’d hit two balls about 50 yards right into some bushes and the horn blew for a suspension, so I wasn’t that happy. I could have been in Vegas, but I thought I’m just going to focus. I remember finding my first ball when we went back out and it was somewhat in play. I made bogey there and went on to finish fifth. It ended up paying off for me.

This year we had a Vietnamese Thanksgiving dinner!I went out with Harold Varner III, David Lipsky and his girlfriend and Julian Suri for Thanksgiving in Hong Kong. It was a lot of fun, but then we played credit card roulette and I had to play for the meal! Karma will come back my way some time soon.

I support Everton and they’ve had a few American players recently.

Tim Howard is the best American goalkeeper in history and I wanted to support a Premier League club, and my assistant coach in college was big on soccer. A lot of the Europeans in my college team were big on soccer, so I started to get into it and I just picked Everton. Unfortunately, they’ve not been great this year. I’ve been hiding my face after some of the games, but hopefully they can turn it around. Even with all the signings they’ve made, there could still be some big changes. I’m hoping to go to a few games when we’re back in the western part of Europe.

Brooks has always pushed me to be better than I was yesterday

. He wants the best for me and even after school he’d say to go and hit some balls first and set a really good example for me. I’ve watched what he’s done and he’s set a very high bar. You want to keep up, but he is seventh in the world, so there are only six guys ranked better.

I don’t want to compare myself to him too much, but we’ve had similar paths. I’m trying to keep it low key and stick to what I’m doing. I don’t want to be caught up with what he’s doing all the time. I do get reminded about it a lot and that he did win the U.S. Open, but it’s ok and I laugh about it. The Challenge Tour guys think it’s quite funny. That’s the biggest thing, to not get caught up in what he does. It’s a weird situation, but I’m doing the best I can with it.

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