Azinger questions Koepka’s love for playing in Ryder Cup

Brooks Koepka says in an interview with Golf Digest that Ryder Cup week is hectic and “a bit odd” because it takes him from his individual routine and leaves him no time to decompress.

It was enough to make Paul Azinger wonder if Koepka should even play next week.

“I’m not sure he loves the Ryder Cup that much,” Azinger said during a conference call for NBC Sports, where he now serves as the lead golf analyst. “If he doesn’t love it, he should relinquish his spot and get people there who do love the Ryder Cup.”

For Azinger, the Ryder Cup is personal.

He played four times and is best known for his dispute with Seve Ballesteros and an epic battle with Nick Faldo in 1993 that led to a draw. Azinger also was known as “Captain America” in 2008 when he introduced a pod system to get the players more invested. The U.S. wound up beating Europe at Valhalla that year.

Koepka never said in the wideranging interview he didn’t like the Ryder Cup.

He has played on the past two teams, and even competed on a badly injured ankle in the 2016 PGA Championship in a bid to qualify for the team, which he did.

“I don’t want to say it’s a bad week,” Koepka told Golf Digest in a Q&A. “We’re just so individualized, and everybody has their routine and a different way of doing things, and now, it’s like, OK, we have to have a meeting at this time or go do this or go do that. It’s the opposite of what happens during a major week.”

Koepka has back-to-back wins in the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship and has a reputation for playing his best in the majors.

He does his own thing and says it’s important to switch off when he’s not playing.

The Ryder Cup is different. “It’s tough,” Koepka said. “There are times where I’m like, ‘I won my match. I did my job. What do you want from me?’ I know how to take responsibility for the shots I hit every week. Now, somebody else hit a bad shot and left me in a bad spot, and I know this hole is a loss. That’s new, and you have to change the way you think about things.

“You go from an individual sport all the time to a team sport one week a year,” he said. “It’s so far from my normal routine.”

During the conference call, Azinger was asked what advice he would give to U.S. captain Steve Stricker on handling the prickly relationship between Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau.

Azinger said both of the golfers are capable of putting the team on their shoulders and “carry this Ryder Cup team, and they can also be a royal pain in the neck.”

And then he referenced the interview with Koepka, who is recovering from a wrist injury that occurred when he hit a tree root under the turf at East Lake at the Tour Championship.

“Not everybody embraces it,” Azinger said of the Ryder Cup.

“But if you don’t love and you’re not sold out, then I think Brooks — especially being hurt — should consider whether or not he really wants to be there,” he added.