FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, June 17th, 2018
NOTABLE QUOTES: GOLF CENTRAL LIVE FROM THE U.S. OPEN – SUNDAY PRIMETIME
Golf Channel Notable Quotes
Golf Central Live From the U.S. Open
Final Round, Sunday, June 17
Shinnecock Hills Golf Club
Southampton (Long Island), N.Y.
**Media also can access notable quotes via @GolfChannelPR on Twitter or by visiting www.nbcsportsgrouppressbox.com.**
U.S Open Final Results
1 Brooks Koepka +1 -2 on Sunday
2 Tommy Fleetwood +2 -7 on Sunday
3 Dustin Johnson +3 Even par on Sunday
4 Patrick Reed +4 -2 on Sunday
5 Tony Finau +5 +2 on Sunday
On Brooks Koepka, 2018 U.S. Open champion at 1-over par (2-under 68 on Sunday)
Rich Lerner – “Eight days after Justify won the Triple Crown right here in New York, another thoroughbred gallops to a major championship double. Super cool. Superstar. That is Brooks Koepka.”
David Duval – “What stood out for me was the grittiness he had. The determination. Brooks played beautiful golf. He used all facets of his arsenal to get the job done today. Great driving, great iron play, great pitching, great putting and great wits. He kept his wits about him all day.”
Duval – “He hung in there and did what the U.S. Open asked you to do. Move forward, try to pick up a birdie here and there, make some pars and don’t make any big mistakes. Hence he is the U.S. Open champion again.”
Frank Nobilo – “There is something about that lovely mix of raw power and deft touch. Basically he out DJ’d Dustin Johnson.”
Brandel Chamblee – “I think there could be no more obvious example of how this game has changed than by watching Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka. Two heavyweights. Two of the strongest men, if not the strongest men, in golf. A mix of obscene talent and obscene power mixed with great touch.”
Chamblee – “Koepka has convinced me. Tiger Woods was the guy who came in and busted up all of the myths about working out. I almost thought he was more of an end than a beginning. I almost did. I thought he was a one-off. But nope. He spurned on and gave us these guys, these giant guys that can hit it straight and have great touch.”
Nobilo – “The cut fell at +8. Through the first 22 holes, Brooks Koepka was 7-over. Since then, it was the Koepka that we saw last year. Everybody is going to start going to the gym again. He’s a gym rat, he’s as strong as a house. We’ll blow that theory out the window. He just keeps pumping iron and pumping out 350 yard drives. He now joins McIroy and Spieth as 3 sub-30 year old multiple major championship winners.”
Lerner – “In the end Brooks Koepka finished it off. Face to face with Dustin Johnson, and now back to back like Curtis Strange. When it matters most, he’s the big game hunter, fearless. And at the end of a punishing week at Shinnecock Hills, peerless for the second year in a row.”
Brooks Koepka speaking with Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis following his victory
Brooks Koepka – “Just stay patient and get off to a good start. I saw that guys were spinning the balls on these greens, they were a little softer than they were yesterday. I saw some good scores and knew if you hit the fairway and hit the greens you are going to have some good looks.”
Koepka – “Anytime somebody shoots a 63 in the U.S. Open that is incredible golf. Hats off to him [Fleetwood]. That is some incredible golf. It really is. I saw Patrick [Reed] get off to a good start too. I knew there was some chances early on where you could kind of build some momentum and feel good going into that back nine.”
On Tommy Fleetwood, 2nd at 2-over par (7-under 63 on Sunday)
Lerner – “45 years to the day that Johnny Miller left Oakmont as the winner with a 63, Fleetwood nearly pulls it off with a 63 on Sunday.”
Duval – “It was an incredible display today, doing exactly what Shinnecock and the U.S. Open asked you to do today. As soon as he was done, personally I thought he was the winner of the golf tournament. I thought posting that score so early with the treachery that Shinnecock Hills has on the back nine, I thought he was going to be the winner.”
Tommy Fleetwood speaking with Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis following the tournament’s conclusion
Tommy Fleetwood – “Honestly something in my mind just told me as soon as I came up I was one shy. So I never got too up. Brooks hit a couple of tee shots and looked like he was giving me a little bit of a chance at times and then always holed the crucial putts. As a golfer and a golf fan, I actually really enjoyed watching him and how he handled himself on the back nine and how he closed it out. It wasn’t great for me, but watching him I had nothing but admiration and I enjoyed watching how he finished it off winning a major.”
Fleetwood – It is so easy to look at the last three holes when I had the putt on 16. 17 I had a great iron shot in and then 18, great iron shot and I had that chance. I hit the putt I wanted to on 18. It broke a little bit more and was pretty slow from short of the hole. You can look at it as a disappointment or you can say, I must have played really good golf to have had that many chances at the score that has been in the history books for a long, long time. I’m very proud of myself for joining the names who have shot a 63 at the U.S. Open. It is so easy to dwell on one or two putts that could have put me in a playoff or made it to have shot a 62. I made so many good ones as well on the back nine. At the start of the day, it is always hindsight. As I was having my breakfast, if you would have said you could shoot a 63 today and not move an inch, I would have said thank you very much. I’ve got to keep that in mind as well.”
Fleetwood – “It is definitely stages that you go through in your career. As I look at it now, hopefully for me it is stages that I am going through now. I now have my highest finish again in a major. I’m competing more in bigger tournaments. Hopefully it is all just a staircase for me to be winning one or maybe more. Where my game is at, I’m very pleased and it is always nice to have that satisfaction or that acknowledgement that your work is paying off by some results and it gives you the confidence moving forwards. After this week, I’ll just get my head down again, get practicing and when the big events are around I know I can end up there after 72 holes.”
On Dustin Johnson, 3rd place at 3-over par (Even par 70 on Sunday)
Chamblee – “Strokes gained tee to green, Dustin Johnson was the leader. On the greens, especially this weekend, it was nothing short of a nightmare.”
Duval – “The confidence that he showed through the first couple of rounds, especially on the greens, holing the putts, he looked like he believed he was making the putts. This weekend he looked very ‘wishful’ and ‘hopeful’ that he was going to make the putts.”
Duval – “He just wasn’t as quite as sharp this weekend. What I saw was tentativeness this weekend. Certainly the golf course was incredibly difficult yesterday. Today, I think he was playing in a way against himself, in Brooks Koepka. A player who could match him power for power, shot for shot, chip for chip. Putt for putt. I think he just didn’t quite have it.”
On Sunday at the U.S. Open
Nobilo – “Tip of the hat to the USGA. They just stuck the flags in the greens, slowed the greens down. Put some water out there, this was going to be about someone playing their best golf.”
-NBC Sports Group-
