Koepka: ‘Playing with Trump was one of the coolest moments of my life’

Since taking office in January 2017 President Trump has played golf over 250 times and a large chunk of them have been with the pro stars. How’s this for a list of tour buddies? Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Annika Sorenstam, Gary Player, Lexi Thompson, Justin Thomas, Ernie Els, Bryson DeChambeau, Hideki Matsuyama and John Daly.

Now we can add Brooks Koepka to the list after he, his brother Chase, his dad Bob and the 45th President of the United States, who claims to play off low single figures, teed it up at Trump’s course at West Palm Beach in Florida.

“He’s asked me to play golf maybe three or four times, and it just hasn’t worked out,” Koepka said. “His schedule is kind of busy, so it’s kind of changed a little bit. I had to cancel on him I think once or twice, too, just some things I had going.

“It was fun. I actually had a blast. We laughed it up. It was fun. It was great to get out there. I hadn’t played that course in years and I’ve been lucky enough to be around quite a few Presidents and sitting Presidents where it’s been probably one of the top five coolest moments of my life, getting to play golf with the President.”

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Koepka has met four of the five living Presidents, including Barack Obama when he visited the Floridian.

“I didn’t get to play with him, but getting to meet him, that was some of the coolest memories. When I’m on my death bed, that’ll probably be one of the coolest things I’ve ever done, getting to meet those guys. It’s so cool. It really is.

“When you look back and as a 13-year-old kid, you’re going, oh, it’s so cool, because they used to come down here quite a bit, being like, oh, cool, that’s the President and getting to meet both of those guys as they’re sitting Presidents is very unique and very special, and it’s something I won’t forget.”

The question came up following Koepka’s interview with GQ and, in here, he explains that it wasn’t a difficult decision on whether to accept the invite.

“I don’t care what your political beliefs are, it’s the president of the United States. It’s an honour that he even wanted to play with me. I respect the office, I don’t care who it is,” Koepka added.

“Still probably the most powerful man in the entire world. It’s a respect thing. That’s what I don’t understand about the teams that don’t go to the White House. Like, if I see an older man, it’s ‘Yes, sir or mister’. I wouldn’t be like, ‘Hey, Jack, what’s up?’ It’s like, ‘Hey, Mr. Nicklaus, how are you?’ Out of respect. Doesn’t matter who it is.”

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