Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy and Hideki Matsuyama walk off the 16th tee during the first round of the 2023 U.S. Open at The Los Angeles Country Club in Los Angeles, Calif. on Thursday, June 15, 2023. (James Gilbert/USGA)

Five-time major winner Brooks Koepka admits that Rory McIlroy is his biggest rival and predicts the Holywood star will soon get that elusive fifth win in one of golf’s biggest events.

The Floridian, who famously said in 2019 that he didn’t consider McIlroy a rival because he hadn’t won a major since he’d arrived on the scene, confessed to golf.com that staying one step of the Co Down man in the major stakes is what keeps him motivated.

Asked to pick one player from any tour to play with every single round for the rest of his life, LIV Golf star Koepka (33) said: “Most people are probably going to hate this answer but like Rory, right?

“Because I feel like maybe —divulging a lot — but there's a competition that I'm (not) sure maybe he's that way or not, but like, okay, I've gotta get one more than him and then he's going to try ... he's gonna get to five soon.

“And it's like a one-up thing… we're the same age, I think he's like a year older, but you know where we are in the game for me it's like okay, I want to try to be a little bit better than him because I think he's arguably one of the best players ever. So it's just trying to one up. For me, that's how it feels anyway.”

Koepka knows that no matter how far he gets ahead of McIlroy in a major, the Northern Irish star cannot be written off.

“Okay, I show up at a major, I want to try to make sure that I can get a big enough lead before he starts closing that gap,” Koepka said. “So for me that's that's the way it goes.”

McIlroy (34) looked destined to become the most successful European in major championship history when he won the 2011 US Open by eight shots at Congressional and set 11 US Open records at the weekend.

He would go on to win the US PGA in 2012 and The Open and the US PGA in 2014 to join Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as one of only three players to win four majors by the age of 25.

Brooks 🤝 Rory

Hope to see these two battle it out on a major championship Sunday this year
pic.twitter.com/E3L7G1VpQb
— claire rogers (@kclairerogers) February 23, 2024

He’s since gone winless in his last 34 major starts but after racking up 20 top-10 finishes in that span — including runner-up finishes in The Open in 2018, the Masters in 2022 and the US Open last year — Koepka knows McIlroy is the man to beat.

The West Palm Beach native emerged from the Challenge Tour and European Tour to become a superstar in 2017 when he won the US Open at Erin Hills and went on to retain the title at Shinnecock Hills in 2018.

He would take his major tally to three with victory in the PGA Championship at Bellerive Country Club in St Louis later that year and after retaining the title at Bethpage Black in 2019, he insisted McIlroy was not a rival for him.

“I've been out here for, what, five years,” Koepka said in October 2019, when he’d matched McIlroy with four major wins. “Rory hasn't won a major since I've been on the PGA Tour. So I just don't view it as a rivalry. I'm not looking at anybody behind me.

“I'm No. 1 in the world. I've got open road in front of me. I'm not looking in the rearview mirror, so I don't see it as a rivalry.”

McIlroy had suffered another blow in his rivalry with Koepka when they were paired together in the final round of the 2019 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis.

Koepka headed McIlroy by a shot after 54 holes and closed with a 65 to McIlroy’s 71 to claim the title.

“So, I go out in the final round and my mindset was . . . It’s another round of golf . . . a great opportunity . . . I’m going to try to play well. And I was beaten on the day,”

McIlroy told Paul Kimmage in the Sunday Independent. “Obviously, Brooks played great and shot 65 but I think, more than anything, I was beaten by his intensity and his desire. I was too relaxed.”

Later on in the season, McIlroy learned of a text Koepka sent to his friends before the final round in Memphis: “I’m going to crush him.”

“Yeah, and f*** he sort of did,” said McIlroy. “Well, Brooks and I have always got on great – we do get on great – but he was obviously taking that mindset, ‘It’s me and him’. And I guess it was a good thing that he thinks highly of me, or not highly of me, if he was saying he was going to crush me.”

The American signed for LIV Golf in 2022 as he battled serious injury but he looked to be back to his best when he contended for the Masters last year and went on to win his fifth major by claiming his third PGA Championship at Oak Hill, holding off Scottie Scheffler and Viktor Hovland.

McIlroy admitted last year’s Masters was a big learning experience.

While Koepka was reeled in by Jon Rahm on the final day, McIlroy was already at home in Florida having panicked and missed the cut when he found himself 10 strokes behind his rival as he started his second round.

“I've told this story numerous times now about the first green on Friday, and Brooks was on the eighth green and I saw the big leaderboard, and I was already ten behind at that point,” he said after his comeback win in the Dubai Desert Classic this year.

“I was ten behind after two days this week and ended up winning the golf tournament. That's a massive -- I feel like I've taken that learning already and put it into practise a little bit already. Yeah, that's a huge thing for me.

“But you know, everything now is, yeah, I've still got some big events to come but you know, I think from now until that first or second week in April, you know, at least a part of my mind is going to be towards getting myself absolutely ready for there.”

It appears that Koepka knows that even if McIlroy is miles behind him, he can’t write the Holywood star off.

As he told golf.com: “I want to try to make sure that I can get a big enough lead before he starts closing that gap.”