Sleuthing The Koepka Interview Origins: How Can We Ever Look At The Player Impact Program The Same Again?

Golf.com’s Dylan Dethier has dug into the leaked Brooks Koepka interview never aired by Golf Channel and it only raises more questions about the purity of the PIP race.

When a once-secret $40 million bonus pool with seemingly pre-determined standings is compromised, it really makes you wonder, why we even bother to get up in the morning?

Dethier went to the source, the mysterious @RJWinfield, who knows none of the individuals involved. Instead he obtained the video after it started going around via a MediaSilo link, Golf Channel’s preferred site for in-house video sharing. The big question with millions at stake: why was the interview’s first take uploaded?

Dethier has dug into the origins of the Koepka interview and it only raises more questions about the purity of the PIP race:

Multiple sources with direct knowledge of the matter said that Koepka himself had requested the clip from a Golf Channel contact to watch himself and send to friends for a laugh. He hadn’t intended for it to spread so widely, the sources said, but he might not have cared that it did, either. Remember how the video ended?

“I honestly wouldn’t even care,” Koepka said.

Maybe he meant it.

While there may not have been intent by Koepka for the clip to go viral, millions of views and some serious Meltwater/Google/MVP Index engagement, which, when multiplied by FedExCup standings rank and divided by a number of Vice Commissioner McIlroy’s choosing, Koepka may have improved his PIP status when things accidentally went viral.

Or, was it accidental?

This could be a $1 million difference in the final standings. I think I’ve lost all faith in formerly secret marketing program points races.