Brooks Koepka talks to the media ahead of the 14th Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship at Abu Dhabi Golf Club on Monday. (Photo by Matthew Lewis/WME IMG/WME IMG via Getty Images)

By Kent Gray
That big chip with the media Brooks Koepka has apparently carried around on those ample shoulders of his for the past year or so was knocked out of bounds by the three-time major champion on Monday. Well, sort of.

Back at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship for the first time since missing the cut at as a relative unknown in 2014, Koepka inevitably faced questions about a lack of love from the media that he hasn’t exactly been backward in coming forward about himself.

ESPN were the latest to snub 28-year-old when they somehow omitted the Ryder Cupper from their list of the 20 most dominant American athletes of 2018, despite his ascent to world No.1 on the back of a successful U.S. Open defence and PGA Championship triumph.

Now world No.2 and fresh from a fifth PGA Tour win at the CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges in South Korea before Christmas, Koepka did his best to put the distraction to bed at his pre-tournament presser at Abu Dhabi Golf Club.

“I was upset for one week on something and I think people kind of blew it out of proportion and made this whole thing against me against the media, me saying I don’t get enough attention,” the reigning PGA Tour Player of the Year started.

“I think it just blew up a little bit more than probably what I intended for it to do. You know, I was mad for all of five minutes probably when I said that, and it just took on a life of its own. I’m not upset.“

Koepka was clearly ready to move on but that’s not to say he’ll forget the slight, perceived or not.

“I think my only thing that I was just saying was, you know, if it had been a couple other people, I think it would have been a bit different. I mean, Jordan [Spieth] did the same thing, and you know, obviously with Tiger coming back, it’s a little different.

“And just a few other people, if they would have done it, I felt like it would have been a little bit different. I mean, I can tell there’s a difference; I’ll put it that way.”

There’s little chance of Koepka being unappreciated by anyone in Abu Dhabi this week, least of all Falcon trophy hat-trick hunter Tommy Fleetwood who will play alongside the America and European Ryder Cup team-mate Tyrrell Hatton, in the opening two rounds in Abu Dhabi, off the 10th tee at 7:40am on Wednesday and the 1st at 12.05pm Thursday.

Koepka is the highest ranked player in the field and infinitely more confident than when he carded rounds of 73-77 to miss the cut on the National five years ago. The new calendar year started slowly with a opening round of 76 en-route to a lowly 24th place in the 32-man Sentry Tournament of Champions but he closed the week in Hawaii with a 69 and clearly has ambitious plans for 2019 – even if last year is an almost impossible act to follow.

Brooks Koepka hits a second shot on the 9th hole during the second round of the Sentry Tournament of Champions at the Plantation Course at Kapalua Golf Club on January 4, 2019 in Lahaina, Hawaii. (Photo by Masterpress/Getty Images)

“Yeah, I always set goals every year,”  Koepka said, revealing the No.1 priority was to remain injury free after a wrist issue forced him to sit out last year’s Masters tournament at Augusta National.

“But yeah, wrote a bunch of different goals down. I think I did about half of them last year. Just trying to improve on that and make sure I can knock a few more off that list.”

Can you give us insight into the goals you didn’t achieve in 2018?

“To make sure I make all the cuts. I missed a cut, I think one cut in about a year and a half. Didn’t finish top-10 half the time. Wasn’t healthy; that’s a big one. And then, you know, obviously win a major and win multiple times on tour, I knocked those off.

“Little things like that. Going to bed, 10 o’clock at night every night on the road. Working out five days a week on the road, minimum. It’s not always on the golf course. I’ve got to kind of separate it. You know, goals on the road and then the golf goals, and then goals at home. So I kind of separate them all into different categories and go from there.”

Koepka might be looking forward but admitted it was good to rekindle old relationships and memories from when he plied his trade on the European and Challenge Tours.

“The camaraderie over here is a bit different. I like it more, personally, than I do in the States. It seems there’s 30 or 40 guys on a flight, basically the whole flight is everybody, you know, players, caddies, things like that.

“Everyone kind of hangs out in two or three hotels and everybody seems to — you go to dinner, you have a hard time over here [not] running into one player because there’s 30 or 40 of them or caddies or coaches, whatever it might be, all at the same restaurant and I think that’s kind of fun. Everyone’s always laughing, joking. The attitude over here is a little different. The sense of humour over here is a little better, so it’s quite fun.”

Koepka likes to be part of the banter, despite his reserved relationship with the media and poker-faced demeanor inside the ropes.

“I don’t take anything too seriously. I’m pretty relaxed. I know a lot of people – you see me on the golf course, my personality, I’m pretty serious, I’m not smiling that much. But off the golf course, I’m completely different, laughing, joking all the time, and trying to enjoy everything.

““I’m still the same me. I don’t know, if people are afraid to come up and say hi, they shouldn’t be, but I’m the same me that I was from the beginning.”

If Koepka is the same golfer he’s been in the past year, expect him to spend a lot more time with his new media friends this week.