Koepka: Beef with DeChambeau is 'good for the game'

Brooks Koepka believes the rivalry between him and Bryson DeChambeau is a positive for golf.

"I think it's good for the game. I really do,'' Koepka said, per ESPN's Bob Harig. "The fact that golf's on pretty much every news outlet for about two weeks pretty consistently, I think that's a good thing.

"It's growing the game. The younger generation - I get the traditionalists who don't agree with it. I understand that, but I think to grow the game you've got to reach out to the younger generation, and I don't want to say that's what this is, but it's reaching out to a whole bunch of people.''

The rivalry became magnified following the PGA Championship when a video leaked of Koepka showing obvious frustration toward DeChambeau during an unaired interview.

Koepka explained his actions in the video.

"He wasn't speaking to me. He was either signing his scorecard or wherever, and I was just to the right of the media tent, or I guess right in front of the microphones where you guys all were, and I don't want to say he was like screaming - he was saying something about how he hit a perfect shot, and it shouldn't have been there, and it was just very, very loud. I don't think the mics picked up on that, but it felt like just so that the fans could hear.

"With the media right there, you kind of know, hey, look, we're all kind of in this area, just tone it down, and it was just so loud. Then I think he realized that he had gotten right behind me, and he toned it down a little bit, but it was still - and I just lost train of thought, which I think was pretty obvious.''

The two players then engaged in a Twitter feud the following week, in which DeChambeau claimed he's living "rent-free" in Koepka's head.

DeChambeau received crowd chants of "Brooksy" this past week at the Memorial Tournament, which he called "flattering."

Koepka, ranked eighth in the world, and DeChambeau, the world's No. 5 player, have differences dating back to January 2019.