For a golfer who has perfected a laconic swagger, Brooks Koepka can still be a surprisingly sensitive soul. A memory persists of how, at the 2018 Tour Championship in Atlanta, he was piqued by a lack of media attention, which he deemed disrespectful for a then three-time Major winner. “We don’t do many interviews, so I’m not going to go out of my way to do one,” he muttered.

And, yet, when he does deign to speak, the results seldom disappoint. A 45-second video of his broadside at the US PGA Championship against Bryson DeChambeau, the latest instalment in a deepening feud, might just be the most compelling picture of American Ryder Cup dysfunction.

It is difficult to pick a favourite moment from this miniature classic, so profoundly does DeChambeau’s very existence seem to irk Koepka’s soul. Perhaps it is the eye-roll as a glimpse of that tell-tale Ben Hogan cap appears in his peripheral vision.

Or his reaction to some apparent wise-guy advice that his putting ills could be cured by starting the ball on the right line: “I f***ing lost my train of thought, hearing that bulls**t.” Or his shrug when interviewer Todd Lewis tries to assure him that his outburst will not be allowed to air: “I honestly wouldn’t even care.”

The animus between Koepka and DeChambeau is a genuine, minimally disguised loathing. It has been simmering since 2019, when Koepka broached the subject of his rival’s slow play, describing it as “kind of embarrassing – it drives me nuts”.

Matters became more personal last year, when DeChambeau was asked to compare his newly bulked-up physique with Koepka’s. “I don’t think his genetics even make him look good,” he replied, acidly. “He didn’t have any abs. I have abs.”

An advantage that Koepka has long held over his bete noire, however, is glory on the grandest stage.

The barb by DeChambeau, winner of just one US Open, was his cue to post a picture of his four Major trophies, with the caption: “You were right. I am two short of a six-pack.” This heat has just been turned up to gas-mark nine by the drive-by shots at Kiawah Island. All of which illuminates the antipathies that stalk the PGA Tour, and offers a cogent explanation for why the US have lost seven of the past nine Ryder Cups.

First there was Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in 2004, projecting, perhaps, the least persuasive chemistry outside this month’s Friends reunion. Then came the glory of Gleneagles 10 years later, when Mickelson chose a televised press conference to describe all the ways in which Tom Watson was a terrible captain.

The most recent US defeat, in Paris in 2018, was the product of equally toxic dynamics. Who could forget how Patrick Reed lamented the laughably titled “buddy system”, which ended his partnership with Jordan Spieth?  

Little wonder that Steve Stricker, the US captain for September’s showdown at Whistling Straits, has made it a priority to emulate the cohesion of their European opponents. Except he is already fighting a losing battle.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]