What Brooks Koepka said after winning the US Open

Find out what 2018 US Open Champion Brooks Koepka said after winning the second major of the year

On being a two-time US Open Champion…

It sounds incredible. To be honest with you, probably couldn’t have dreamed of it in my wildest dreams. I’m at a loss for words right now, but it’s really incredible. I mean, I couldn’t be happier. We grinded our tail off this week to come back from 7-over and do what we did. It was pretty special.

I haven’t really thought about my legacy. That’s pretty cool. I remember Rich Beem at The Open Championship was talking about how there’s only 280-some guys that have ever won a Major. And once you keep doing it, once you win the second one, he told me it goes down a lot lower.

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What did you say, 80? Yeah, I think that’s pretty incredible to be a two-time Major champion. I think that’s neat, man. It really is.

On the importance of making bogey at 11…

It was really interesting, I mean, I’ve always been a really good putter. We made some clutch par saves but I think the one that really was massive for us was No. 11. To be honest with you, from where it was, I would have taken double. Definitely would have taken bogey. I think that was like making a birdie, maybe even making an eagle it felt like because it could have been a big momentum shift there, and we could have been playing tennis just going back and forth. To make bogey there was pretty incredible and I think kind of the reason why we won.

On still believing after being seven-over during the second round…

“Just keep going. I always felt like I had a chance and you make a couple birdies and you make up a lot of ground. I felt like I was never out of it. I was hitting it well, putting it well and just needed to keep grinding.”

On having a two-shot leading heading down the last…

“It’s nice, I’m not going to lying. … We knew left was OK. The lie was a little bit below my feet and obviously it’s not the shot you want to hit in, but when you have 13 feet and you’re just trying to lag it down there, it’s tougher than it looks.”

On playing with and against Dustin Johnson in the final round… 

I mean, I love Dustin. He’s one of my best friends. To play alongside him, it was fun today. I was excited about it. I figured he would be the guy to beat. I’m sure everyone in here probably had him favorite; and rightfully so, he should have been, being No. 1 in the world.

But I didn’t talk to him today. Maybe I said something on 3, and that was about it. We really didn’t speak that much. We’re both competitive. We both know we’re trying to beat each other and trying to win a golf tournament, trying to win a Major. There’s a little bit of stress.

But, I mean, I’m sure there’s nobody happier for me than Dustin. I’m sure he’s happy. When I get back home, he’ll the first one I call to go hang out. I look forward to doing that.

On why he performs well at US Opens…

U.S. Open just takes so much discipline. You have got to be a great putter and just kind of let things roll off your back. That is something we do pretty well. We were able to bounce back very well considering whether it be a bogey, a double and just kind of move on. It’s a fun week.

I enjoy the test. I enjoy being pushed to the limit. Sometimes you feel like you are about to break mentally, but that’s what I enjoy. I enjoy hard golf courses. I enjoy playing about the toughest in golf you are ever going to play.

On winning on two very different golf courses…

I think this whole thing of everyone said Erin Hills was set up for me. It was set up for a lot of guys that bomb the ball. I just happened to play a little bit better that week. This week is just back to a typical U.S. Open, where 1 over par wins the golf tournament. It’s just a lot of grinding. But I couldn’t be happier with the way I played.

This one’s a lot sweeter. To go back to back, I mean, that’s — I really can’t even put it into words. When you look back at history, it’s incredible. It really is. I really can’t even put words to it.

To win on two different styles of golf courses, I mean, I think I came in here on Wednesday and or whatever said the golf courses kind of played very similar, as far as shot shaping and the way they kind of look, and I still think that. But I mean, obviously, Shinnecock plays incredibly tough, and you knew that going in even par was going to be a really good score, and it turned out it was almost impossible to shoot even.

On his thoughts about the set-up and criticism of the golf course… 

Everybody’s got to play the same golf course. Yesterday probably should have been like it was today in hindsight, but it is what it is. You got to keep going, keep plugging away, and don’t get caught up in all the talk and just keep focused on what you’re doing.

You can’t get away from it and start being negative. I feel like it gets some negative thoughts going. If you start complaining, you’re looking for excuses. I’m not really one to make excuses.

It doesn’t really matter to me whether they lost it or not. If you were above the hole downwind, you had no chance. But that’s part of golf. You’ve got to understand where to leave it. Put it under the hole sometimes with an uphill putt and make sure you’re always leaving yourself an uphill putt.

Yes, it did get very difficult. There wasn’t much grass on the greens. I think everyone will say that. And it did get very tough. It was very borderline. Depending on the gust of wind, sometimes you felt it maybe wasn’t, and whatever. I got this thing, so I don’t care.