The reality wasn’t as awkward as the video made it appear.
PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh explained his interaction with Brooks Koepka, which appeared to leave the newly-crowned PGA Championship winner befuddled.
However, Waugh said it was just a joke shared between two old friends.
“I literally said to him, ‘I think they have four million pictures of me. They must have 24 million pictures of you. I’ve never seen one of them and I don’t know if you ever have,’” Waugh told Todd Lewis of Golf Channel.
“He cracked up, he laughed and we kind a turned around and smiled at each other. That was it. Somebody chose to think that was a diss and I hadn’t shaken his hand. I already talked to him five times since he won. I certainly shook his hand and told him how proud I was of him.”
Koepka won his third PGA Championship on Sunday at Oak Hill in Rochester, New York, holding off Viktor Hovland and Scottie Scheffler for a two-shot victory.
It was his fifth major victory overall and he became the first LIV golfer to win a major event.
As part of the post-round celebrations, he took photos with PGA execs and other key figures in the sport with the Wanamaker Trophy.
The snippet of Waugh and Koepka was part of Golf Channel’s post-round coverage and led some on the internet to suggest it was less than cordial.
Waugh had also made some critical comments to the Times of London before the event, questioning LIV Golf’s future, adding further fuel to the fire as Koepka is one of the bigger names to defect to the rebel tour.
Waugh said, though, he has known Koepka since he was in eighth grade and “couldn’t be happier” for him.
“It couldn’t be sillier or further from the truth and everybody is trying to make it into this LIV thing which it’s got nothing to do with,” Waugh said.
Koepka is on an epic celebration tour: Chugging beers out of the Wanamaker Trophy, then attending Panthers and Heat playoff games near his home in Florida.
Koepka, who is playing in the LIV event in Washington, D.C., this week, has not commented on the exchange.