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Brooks Koepka talks the Olympics, Kobe Bryant, and Tiger at the Masters in a SiriusXM Town Hall broadcast

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Kimberly White/Getty Images for SiriusXM

While Brooks Koepka’s comments on SiriusXM regarding Patrick Reed grabbed the headlines this week, the four-time major champion spoke about several interesting subjects in the town hall broadcast, including the Olympics, Kobe Bryant and what Tiger Woods said to him following the 2019 Masters.

On the subject of the Olympics, Koepka stated how he was currently on the fence about the event, explaining how he believes it would be “cool to be an Olympian” but that it has “thrown a kind of a wrench in the schedule.”

“Right now, to be honest with you, I’m kind of 50-50. I want to do it, yes, I think it would be awesome to do. But at the same time we have majors, WGCs, the playoffs, its all kind of… I mean, these (motions to PGA Championship trophy) take it out of me, I’ll be honest with you. You come down and I need two days just to kind of mentally recharge.

It’ll be interesting just the timing of it, where it is at. The playoffs are kind of important. I’d like $15 mil. I think that’d be nice. I’d like to be fresh for that. If anything I’m leaning more towards going. It’s an honor. You play for your country.”

On hearing of Kobe Bryant’s death, Koepka spoke about how he was blown away, how he found it difficult to believe it was real, and how despite never meeting Bryant, the loss hit him so hard that he ended up crying in his hotel room.

As Bryant was his childhood idol, Koepka said he got on the phone that night to Nike to ensure that the unfinished project of his Kobe Bryant-inspired golf shoes would be completed to honor the basketball great.

The 31-year-old lost out to Tiger Woods by one stroke at the 2019 Masters, and recounted how Woods was quick to remind him that this levelled up their affair after Koepka had seen off Woods’ challenge at the 2018 PGA Championship.

“Augusta was interesting because, coming down the stretch I rinsed one on 12. We all know what happened. We all know he won. But it was crazy walking off the green and being there to congratulate him. The first thing he said was, ‘One-and-one now.’ (laughs)”

The entire Brooks Koepka Town Hall special will be rebroadcast on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio on Wednesday, Feb. 19 (10:00 pm ET), Friday, Feb. 21 (8:00 pm ET) and Sunday, Feb. 23 (noon ET). The full special is also available now on SiriusXM On Demand.

Brooks on the Olympics

Brooks on Kobe Bryant

Brooks on Tiger at the Masters

Gianni is the Managing Editor at GolfWRX. He can be contacted at gianni@golfwrx.com.

19th Hole

‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

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An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.

However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.

Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.

Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”

Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.

Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.

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19th Hole

How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

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Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.

Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.

Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.

Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.

Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.

“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course.  Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”

According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.

“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”

Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.

Check out Young’s winning WITB here.

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19th Hole

Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

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Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.

Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.

Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.

The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.

Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”

“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”

Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.

However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.

“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”

Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.

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