{"id":623528,"date":"2026-04-23T15:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/623528\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T15:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:24:11","slug":"brooks-koepkas-new-partnership-might-surprise-you-it-shouldnt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/623528\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooks Koepka\u2019s new partnership might surprise you. It shouldn\u2019t"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve been pining for a break from the slog of stroke-play events on the PGA Tour schedule<\/a>, this is your week. <\/p>\n

On Thursday, the Zurich Classic of New Orleans<\/a> kicks off at TPC Louisianna, with self-selected two-man teams playing four-ball in the first and third rounds, and foursomes in the second and final rounds. Most of the squads\u2019 origin stories don\u2019t require much explanation: Matt and Alex Fitzpatrck? Brothers! Jacob Skov Olesen\u00a0and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen? Fellow Danes! Ben Griffin\u00a0and\u00a0Andrew Novak? Defending champions! But there is at least one partnership that might give you pause: Brooks Koepka<\/a> and . . . Shane Lowry?<\/p>\n

Lowry gets it.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo the outside it might not look like it makes sense,\u201d he said from the tournament Wednesday, his odd-couple partner by his side, \u201cbut, you know, to us it does.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

It might appear nonsensical because we\u2019re more accustomed to seeing the Irishman (Lowry) and American (Koepka) locking horns than we are leaning on one another. They\u2019ve never gone head-to-head in a Ryder Cup match, but they have twice played in the same Ryder Cup, including in the contentious edition outside Rome in 2023. That was the week when Day 2 of the matches culminated with Lowry and other Europeans chirping Patrick Cantlay\u2019s caddie<\/a>, Joe LaCava, on the 18th green. That tension spilled into the parking lot where Lowry had to hold back Rory McIlroy from berating Justin Thomas\u2019s caddie, Jim \u201cBones\u201d Mackay \u2014\u00a0and yet more ugliness back at the team hotel where McIlroy allegedly got into it with Koepka\u2019s caddie, Ricky Elliott.<\/p>\n

None of this is to say that Lowry has ever harbored any beef with Koepka or vice versa, but given the history between their camps (or at least their continents), it\u2019s still surprising on some level to see them syncing up.<\/p>\n

Thing is, though, Ryder Cup rivalries can evaporate quickly under the warm South Florida sun, especially in the Jupiter Island area where palms trees are outnumbered only by multimillionaire Tour pros. Patrol the Bear\u2019s Club, Medalist or Old Palm on any Tuesday morning during an off-week and you\u2019re likely to spot a cluster of brand-name pros from both sides of the Atlantic enjoying one another\u2019s company, if not taking one another\u2019s money.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody plays the same golf courses, so we see each other pretty much every other day,\u201d Koepka said Wednesday. \u201cI don\u2019t go a day without seeing a guy out here, so there\u2019s always conversations. There\u2019s always people talking, having lunch, doing whatever, practicing together. It happens way more frequently than I think people realize.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also on the list of popular Tour-pro hangs in the neighborhood is Michael Jordan\u2019s swank club, Grove XXIII<\/a>, which is where Lowry and Koepka played a round together a few months back \u2014 and where Lowry popped the question.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to him, \u2018I might need a partner for New Orleans\u2019\u201d Lowry said. \u201cHe goes, \u2018Well, I\u2019m going to have to play there.\u2019 That was it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lowry played with McIlroy in the previous two Zurichs (they won together in 2024), but when McIlroy bowed out of this year\u2019s edition, Lowry needed a date. Koepka, meanwhile, just needed starts. Since his January return from LIV Golf to the PGA Tour, he has lacked the necessary FedEx points to qualify for the Signature Events; he\u2019s hopeful, with Lowry\u2019s help, to improve his status this week.<\/p>\n


\n \"LeBron <\/a><\/p>\n

The inside story of LeBron James\u2019 surprising YouTube Golf debut<\/a><\/p>\n

By:<\/p>\n


\n Dylan Dethier <\/a><\/p>\n

Lowry and Koepka\u2019s relationship extends beyond the borders of South Florida. They first got to know each other in 2012 and \u201913 when Koepka was cutting his teeth on the DP World Tour. Lowry has known Elliott, Koepka\u2019s looper, for even longer. When Lowry won the Open Championship in 2019, Elliott, who is from Portrush, was among a swell of well-wishers waiting to congratulate Lowry by the 18th green.<\/p>\n

A few weeks after Lowry and Koepka\u2019s round at the Grove, Lowry texted a follow-up note to both Elliott and Koepka to make sure they were still on for the Zurich. But Lowry said he didn\u2019t have a firm commitment from Koepka until he ran into him several weeks later.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Are we going to tee it up in New Orleans?\u2019\u201d Lowry said. \u201cHe said, \u2018Yeah, let\u2019s do it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The betting sharpies like Lowry and Koepka\u2019s chances this week, setting their odds only behind favorites Matt Fitzpatrick, who has won twice in the last month, and his brother Alex, who won the DP World Tour\u2019s Hero Indian Open last month. And on paper Lowry and Koepka do look like a good fit.<\/p>\n

Lowry is accurate off the tee and can work the ball in both directions. (\u201cMy job is to try and hit it in the fairway,\u201d Lowry said.) Koepka\u2019s iron play is nearly unrivaled (he\u2019s 2nd in SG: Approaches). And Lowry has been holing putts (31st in SG: Putting).<\/p>\n

The setup suits their eyes, too. \u201cI like the way we\u2019re going with him hitting off certain holes and me hitting off the other holes,\u201d Koepka said. \u201cEverybody feels comfortable on the holes that we\u2019re going to play.\u201d Koepka added, \u201dThen the best-ball side of this whole thing, he\u2019s been playing great, so just let him go do him and stay out of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lowry feels pretty good about his partner, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s Brooks Koepka\u201d Lowry said. \u201cHe\u2019s got five majors. You know what I mean?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019ve been pining for a break from the slog of stroke-play events on the PGA Tour schedule,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-623528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}