


One of the more contentious golf rivalries in recent memory will be rekindled at The Open Championship.
Brooks Koepka and Patrick Cantlay, who publicly duked it out over the pace of play during this year’s Masters, are paired together when The Open Championship tees off on Thursday.
Hideki Matsuyama is the third golfer in the group.
Koepka, 33, was playing behind Cantlay, 31, at The Masters in April, and took shots at how slowly Cantlay was playing.
“Yeah, the group in front of us was brutally slow. Jon [Rahm] went to the bathroom like seven times during the round, and we were still waiting,” said Koepka, a five-time major winner.
Cantlay pushed back on the accusations.
“I mean, we finished the first hole and the group in front of us was on the second tee when we walked up to the second tee,” Cantlay told reporters before the RBC Heritage Open the following week.
“We waited all day on pretty much every shot. We waited in 15 fairway, we waited in 18 fairway. I imagine it was slow for everyone.”
Cantlay also mentioned that the course itself and the wind were part of the reasonings behind the slower pace of play.
“When you play a golf course like Augusta National where all the hole locations are on lots of slope and the greens are really fast, it’s going to take longer and longer to hole out,” Cantlay continued.
“I think that may have been what attributed to some of the slow play on Sunday, and then also when the wind is gusting and the wind is blowing maybe inconsistently, that’s when guys will take a long time, too. I think it’s just the nature of playing professional golf, where every shot matters so much.”
According to the latest odds on BetMGM, Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler are co-favorites to win the year’s fourth major at +750; Koepka is at +2000 and Cantlay is +2200.