Boring? Unpopular? Yes, that was the perception of Ben Hogan in the 1950s when he gave autograph seekers an icy stare and took out the sweet-swinging Sam Snead.
That was the fate of Jack Nicklaus when he was beating the charismatic Arnold Palmer in the 1960s. 'It was simply awful the way his shots would get a tenth of the applause of Arnie's,' recalled Gary Player recently.
When it was Jack's turn to play, the fans standing in the heavy rough would hold up signs saying: 'Hit it here fat boy'.
Brooks Koepka kisses his girlfriend Jena Sims after winning the US PGA Championship
It was also the fate of Sir Nick Faldo in the 1980s whenever he was compared to Seve Ballesteros or Greg Norman, and of Tiger Woods at Bethpage in the 2002 US Open when he defeated Phil Mickelson.
So, Brooks Koepka didn't just join the legends of the game on the honours board with his fourth major victory in two years following an epic final round at the US PGA Championship on Sunday. He's also acquired a couple of tags that have so often befallen the game's serial champions.
The fact is, winning golf can be quite boring for the casual fan. At Bethpage, the idea is to find the fairway, find the green and two-putt. What is so exciting about that?
Winning golf is also about having tunnel vision, and there's nothing appealing about a man who can't see the fans, as Tiger couldn't in his heyday, and stares straight ahead.
Koepka gave Sims the cold shoulder when she tried to give him a kiss before the final round
Koepka showed he is cut from the same cloth when he gave his girlfriend Jena Sims the brush-off as she moved in for a kiss as they arrived before the final round. He was already in focused mode.
The irony of the final day is that Koepka made it very exciting because for a while he played anything but winning golf.
He had four bogeys in a row as his seven-shot lead at the start dwindled to just one, and the New Yorkers reacted like they do when the Yankees lose four games in a row. They gave him hell.
'DJ! DJ!' they screamed in his face as Dustin Johnson made his charge. 'You're a choker,' was heard more than once. Koepka's reaction afterwards was that of a born winner. He didn't complain.
'I kind of deserved it,' he said, in plain disgust at his scorecard. 'I couldn't tell you the last time I had four bogeys in a row.'
If anything, the fact he went on to stop the runaway train hurtling in the wrong direction and still won was perhaps more impressive than if it had been supposedly boring and he'd won by 10. He showed he can dig deep in the dirt as well as flat outplay everyone.
'Four majors out of
