Choosing to stamp the name of a playing competitor on your wedge is highly uncommon, but it’s not unheard of. During the 2015 Masters, Billy Horschel briefly used a PXG 0311 Milled wedge belonging to two-time major winner Zach Johnson. The wedge, which had Johnson’s name on the head, turned out to be the ideal grind for Horschel at Augusta. He ended up keeping the “Zach” wedge in play for a few more weeks.
In Thomas’ case, the Koepka-inspired wedge never belonged to Brooks at any point. So what’s it doing in his bag?
You have to go back to last year in Korea when the two were paired together at the CJ Cup.
“We were playing together, and we were talking about how all through the year, we were going to have a little action on how many times we holed out,” Koepka said. “I can’t even remember the last time I holed out.”
According to the Action Network’s Jason Sobel, each hole-out from over 50 yards during the head-to-head wager is worth $1,000.
Kobe.
What a shot @JustinThomas34. ?#MustSeeMoments pic.twitter.com/OmSGUpxV3r
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 18, 2019
“It’s just a little thing we have between us too, just kind of a hole out bet, and the monetary value doesn’t matter,” Thomas said. “Again, it’s kind of like I was saying earlier, it’s more of the fact of me doing that. But that’s just something a little fun between us that we’ve done.”
The money may not matter to Thomas, but he’s clearly enjoying the friendly competition. Thomas made it 3-0 in the season-long rivalry during the BMW Championship when he holed out for eagle from 180 yards on the 16th and yelled “I got some of that Brooks Koepka money” to caddie Jimmy Johnson.
While Koepka still has three more rounds to catch Thomas, he’s pretty much all but accepted defeat.
“I can’t even remember the last time I holed out,” Koepka said. “I don’t really hole out much, so that was a stupid bet on my part. Heck, I’ll pay him on Sunday.”
