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In a 1972 monologue that has gone down in comedy lore, George Carlin outlines “seven words you can’t say on TV,” none of which fit for print on the family-friendly pages of this site.
In professional golf, there are actually eight such words: the aforementioned Carlin curses, plus another five-letter obscenity.
throttle.
In the 1990s, NBC analyst Johnny Miller did his best to make the c-word a more acceptable part of golf slang, and on several occasions used some variation of the word when players showed signs of stress late on Sundays. But since Miller’s retirement from the cab, utterances in the C-Word by his successors have been as rare as an albatross.
That is why the ears chanted Wed when Brooks Koepka Joins Barstool’s “Pardon My Take” Podcast He described his inability to protect a four-shot lead Sunday at the Masters last month as “suffocating”.
“Yeah, I would describe that as stifling,” Koepka said with a big smile to hosts Dan Katz (aka Big Cat) and Eric Sollenberger (aka PFT Commenter). “It was too bad. I mean, come on, you got a four-shot lead. All you have to do—I was playing nice and I smothered it. But it’s all right. We’ll figure it out.”
Koepka is friendly with Big Cat and PFT and has appeared on their podcast several times. It should also be noted that Big Cat and PFT foster a casual, relaxed atmosphere in their show that puts their guests at ease, and in many cases leads them to be more conversational or flippant than they might, for example, behind a PGA Championship press-conference stand.
Which is exactly where Koepka found himself Wednesday afternoon answering questions about his stifling comments.
Kupka was asked, what exactly does he mean? Can he explain?
“I’m just kidding around with those boys,” Koepka said. “These boys are so fun. Part of my taste. I love these guys, Big Cat and PFT. They’d be thinking about it if I didn’t say it, so you might as well post it right away first so they can’t say anything.”
“Isn’t that really how I felt?” a reporter asked.
“Theoretically, yes, it does. It chokes, doesn’t it? If you have a lead and you cough, it chokes. But at the same time, I don’t dwell on it. I’ve been in the lead, that position, a few times and I didn’t get the benefit of it.” It. I can’t do it every time. I’m not perfect. As long as I can learn from it, I’ll be better off than it.”
As a refresher, Koepka had four shots Sunday He led at Augusta National but not by four shots from 54 holes. That’s because the rain-delayed third round wasn’t completed until early Sunday afternoon. When the players finally went through three rounds, John Rahm narrowed Koepka’s lead to two.
However, Koepka’s history indicates that he will close the deal. The previous three times he had a 54-hole lead in a major, he had prevailed. Unfortunately, this trend will not continue. Over 22 holes on Sunday, Koepka failed to make a single birdie, sliding from 13-under for the tournament all the way to 7-under. Meanwhile, Ram scored an impressive under-69 in the fourth round, which proved good enough to earn his first green jacket. When Kupka scored the 72nd hole for a three-putt on 75, Ram was moments away from a four-shot victory.
When Koepka confronted the press after his tour, there was no talk of choking, at least not publicly. Koepka said he “played kind of average, and I didn’t get any good breaks either.” He said he hit good shots that ended up in bad points. “But I didn’t feel like I played too badly,” he said, “and obviously then I just tried to play it up there at the end, but it wasn’t good enough.” And the slower gameplay speed didn’t help matters either.
On Wednesday at Oak Hill, Koepka said he didn’t sleep Sunday night of Masters week as his brain tried to process what had happened. “I thought about it for a few days after that and really honed in on what I was doing and what went wrong,” he said. “From there just don’t let it happen again. That’s the whole point, right? You’re not trying to dwell on it. Yeah, it’s fun to be second, but at the same time, as long as you learn from it, you’ll be fine.” .I think I’ve finished 4th in four or five majors now. Just trying to learn from every single one of them.”
What exactly he learned from this year’s Masters heartbreak Koepka refused to say, but it presumably has to do with how he plays with the lead in the big moments. In other words, if Koepka finds himself with another 54-hole pad at Oak Hill this week, don’t bet he’s screwed up, and loses the lead again.