Masters 2024: Brooks Koepka hit Rory McIlroy with a not-so-subtle jab on the eve of the Masters

Throughout his career, Brooks Koepka has gone out of his way to let people know he’s not some golf nerd who can recite the game’s history book. But you can be damn sure he’s aware of where his total of five major championships stacks up with the legends of the sports—especially compared to one of his current rivals.

Koepka joined Barstool’s Pardon My Take podcast to discuss this week’s Masters and the subject of his interesting warmup routine in which he only hits golf balls with even-numbered irons came up. It was then when he couldn’t help but take a not-so-subtle jab at Rory.

“I don’t know, I’ve always done it that way,” Koepka said. “I never really look at anybody else or what they’re doing on the range. I would say guys probably do the same thing, maybe not the odd clubs, they might go even, you know? Rory is probably even with four, it’s even, five is odd.”

Damn, that’s pretty cold. But in case you missed the dagger, Brooks has five majors (odd) and Rory has been stuck on four majors (even) for nearly a decade. In fact, all five of Koepka’s majors have come since McIlroy won his most recent one at the 2014 PGA Championship. Have a look at the clip:

Now to be clear, these Jupiter, Fla. guys are friends. They were pretty chummy on the Augusta National range earlier this week and here’s a shot of them yucking it up together at last year’s U.S. Open.

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Ross Kinnaird

But as we saw in the opening episode of the second season of Netflix’s “Full Swing,” Rory is also well aware of where he stands in terms of major count. And it really irks him that one of his contemporaries has passed him in that area, which Koepka did with major win No. 5 at last year’s PGA Championship.

Of course, McIlroy could even up the score this week with a long-awaited maiden Masters win, which would give him the career Grand Slam. And perhaps just as importantly, give him back the edge in trash talk when it comes to Koepka.

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