Two of the biggest names in golf had to be separated at a party after the United States lost the Ryder Cup to Europe in 2018. But representatives of one of the culprits denied any involvement. Jim Furyk’s team were still licking their wounds following a humbling 17.5-10.5 defeat to the Europeans at France’s Le Golf National five years ago when the alleged fracas occurred.
Top stars Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka – both former world No. 1s – were at a post-Ryder Cup party that was hosted by the European team when they ended up in an ugly confrontation with each other.
According to the Telegraph, witnesses were “clearly shocked and upset by the nastiness, which was very threatening”. The pair, who are friends, had played together in Saturday afternoon foursomes but lost to Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson.
Similar claims of an incident were also reported by the Guardian and The Golf Channel. Although details of what caused the incident were not forthcoming, Johnson’s then-fiance Paulina Gretzky (whom he married in 2022) was central to the fracas and Jena Sims – Koepka’s girlfriend – was also involved.
But when pushed for a comment on the situation, Koepka’s agent denied the claims. As per Golf Digest, Blake Smith said: “From what I gather I believe someone made this story up. Nothing to report on our end.”
The USA’s disappointing loss on the outskirts of Paris had revealed disharmony in the visitor’s camp. Patrick Reed claimed that Jordan Speith did not want to play with him in a pairing before criticising team captain Furyk for resting Reed on the Friday and Saturday afternoon sessions.
However, according to French sports newspaper L’Équipe, cracks had started to show before the Americans had even arrived in Paris, with Johnson and Koepka alleged to have been involved in an earlier fight on the team plane.
The two stars, who both now ply their trade in the breakaway LIV Golf League and were the USA’s top-ranked players at the time, worked out at a Florida gym together and earned themselves the nickname the ‘Bash Brothers’ because of their big-hitting style.
Extra weight was added to the alleged story when Gretzky subsequently deleted every picture she had of Koepka from her Instagram account.
But whatever happened on that night in the European Team Room, it hasn’t had any long-lasting effect on Johnson and Koepka’s friendship.
When quizzed on the incident by reporters at the first LIV tournament of this year in Mexico, Koepka played it down. He said: “Yeah… This one makes me laugh. We were just messing around, horsing around. We were in the European Team room, we were just having fun. We actually went out in Paris later that night.
“So if there was a scuffle it wasn’t too bad. We were just horsing around. It’s what guys do. We still play a lot of golf. We’re back home (and) hanging out with each other. So, no issue and he’d say the same thing.”
