‘I’ve got enough friends – I don’t even have Rory’s phone number’

The go-to answer in years gone by is that the European Tour players are all chummy and socialise and stay in the same hotels while the PGA Tour superstars all do their own thing. Now we have clusters of US players staying in one big house at the Open, taking in Spring Break and telling everyone about it, and half of them all live in Jupiter, Florida.

In and around the area reside the likes of Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Rickie Fowler, Greg Norman, Gary Player, Ernie Els, Nick Price, and on and on. Phil Mickelson is also set to build a new home here. The weather’s great and so are the state income taxes – mainly because they don’t exist.

Tiger’s got an upscale sports bar, The Woods, there and this is where Fowler celebrated his 2017 Honda win and Thomas his major breakthrough the same year.

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Another Jupiter resident is Brooks Koepka, but he likes to do things his own way as he explained in a lengthy and very revealing interview with GQ.

“This might come across the wrong way but I already have enough friends,” he said. “I don’t need any more. Just because we work together doesn’t mean we have to be friends. I’ve got enough friends.

“You know, I have my friends that aren’t really into golf that much, and the only reason they’re into golf is because they follow me. I like to be able to get away from the game.”

When Koepka won his four recent majors it’s unlikely that he got his tour buddies out for a local knees-up.

“I just don’t want to be that close with everybody I compete with,” Koepka added. “Like, I don’t even have Rory’s phone number. I didn’t have Tiger’s phone number for the longest time. Like, I just never saved it.

“I’ll text guys after they win, you know, but I’m still competitive. I still get mad, I mean, I’m happy for them, but I’m still like, ‘Man, that should’ve been me’ or, ‘That could’ve been me.’ You know, you still just lost.”

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