Brooks Koepka delivers a beatdown on Bryson DeChambeau in The Match

Brooks Koepka trounced Bryson Dechambeau in The Match, but did the result settle everything between the two once and for all?

“Did we just become best friends?” Amanda Balionis asked in their joint post-round interview. “No,” Koepka said. 

But the two appeared to earn each other’s respect after Koepka put on a show at Las Vegas’ Wynn Golf Club, recording four birdies en route to a 4-and-3 win in nine holes in which DeChambeau hit one of six fairways.  DeChambeau, who hasn’t played competitively since the Ryder Cup, conceded the 12-hole match after a missed birdie putt on the ninth hole.

When Koepka left his tee shot just feet of the hole on the par-3 ninth,  DeChambeau asked his nemesis, whose best finish in his last eight Tour starts is T-22, “Where is this on the PGA Tour, man?”  “You’re playing so good right now.” 

“It’s kind of like my major right now,” Koepka said. 

Then right before Koepka rolled in the winning putt, he said to Dechambeau: “Not going to lie, I just wanted to spank you.”

The tension between the two began at the 2019 Northern Trust and was rekindled at this year’s PGA Championship after a viral video of a Golf Channel video that never aired, which led to a summer of back-and-fourths with each other. But it seemed the two found a commonship after Team USA’s Ryder Cup beatdown, hugging it out. And after Koepka delivered his own beatdown, he had praise for DeChambeu. 

“Obviously, watching him up close and personal is pretty neat, pretty special to watch him hit the ball,” Koepka said. “Like I said, there is respect there, but at the same time it was fun to come out here and settle this.” 

But Koepka said he isn’t looking to hash things out again in the future. DeChambeau, though, would take another shot at his competitor. 

“I’ve always had respect for Brooks,” DeChambeau said on the broadcast following his loss. “He’s won four major championships and what he’s done for the game and at the end of the day it was 12 holes and he got me. So, hopefully, there will be a rematch sometime soon.”