According to golf coach Pete Cowen, Brooks Koepka still blames him for not winning the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.

• Related: Tiger’s ex-girlfriend Erica Herman drops lawsuit and NDA appeal against golfer

In an interview with Essentially Sports, Cowen reflected upon winning that 2019 U.S. Open with his client Gary Woodland, as his former (and now current) pupil, Brooks Koepka was in search of his third consecutive U.S. Open victory.

“Brooks always says to me, you cost me [my third US Open title].”

The British coach shared that to this day, Koepka still says to him “I would have won three tournaments in a row. That would have been unique.”

“So, he blames me for helping Gary.”

Koepka finished second in the tournament to Woodland, which is quite the effort for a player seeking three consecutive wins at the toughest test in golf.

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Tiger Woods’ ex-girlfriend, Erica Herman, has dropped her lawsuit against the 15-time major champion. She also dropped her appeal to the NDA she had signed when beginning her relationship with Woods.

Back in May, Florida judge Elizabeth Metzger heard Herman’s case to have the non-disclosure agreement nullified and determined that there was no evidence of any sexual harassment or abuse and therefore states that the non-disclosure agreement must be honored.

The judge gave an 11-page ruling and said the implication of sexual misconduct was “vague and threadbare”.

“Herman has had the opportunity to provide factual specificity for any claim relating to sexual assault or sexual harassment, however, she has not done so,” wrote Metzger.

The ruling is consistent with what Woods’ lawyers have been declaring. They’ve previously stated that the “case does not even attempt to assert a cause of action rising to the level of sexual harassment under any federal, tribal, or state law”.

Herman responded by filing the appeal that was dropped this week.

Fox News shared Herman’s statement to the court which read that she “was never a victim of sexual harassment or sexual abuse at the hands of Tiger Woods or any of his agents, and it is her position that she never asserted a claim for such.”

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Zach Johnson was the latest losing captain in a long string of Americans failing to get it done on European soil. At this week’s RSM Classic, Johnson spoke about the disappointing result for the first time since the team left Marco Simone.

“I’ve got a lot of 20/20-hindsight things that I certainly think about. Arguably, some regrets. But I think again something of that magnitude, win or lose, you’re going to have that, that’s sports. And I think that’s when you care, you’re passionate about something, you’re going to have those natural feelings.”

The American team received some criticism for their lack of competitive reps leading into the event, while the European team was playing with regularity up until the start of the Ryder Cup, most notably with all twelve team members playing at Wentworth for the BMW PGA Championship.

“The common denominator that I go back to that I wish I could have changed, or not changed, I wish it would have dawned on me earlier is just the pure commodity of time and understanding that it’s precious. You know, we had the practice round trip. No regrets. Amazing. I don’t think the guys would say they had any regrets in that, at least I hope they wouldn’t. It was spectacular,” he said. “If I could have put more value into time management, I could have put my guys in a better position to play golf at a better rate early on.

Zach pondered on what would be the best balance of rest vs. competition in between the FedEx Cup and the Ryder Cup.

“Ideally you want to have some fresh guys. I don’t know if it’s the captain’s role to say, hey, you guys got to go play,” Johnson said. “I don’t know if that’s the proper way to approach it. Bottom line is the FedEx Cup takes a lot of time, energy and they need to rest, too. Some guys played Napa. There was only a couple I guess if I think back on it.”

“Yeah, there could be some truth in that. And you had their guys playing the BMW, which is one of their signature events. You had I think it was 10 or 12 that were like in the top 15, something like that, maybe even better than that, which is pretty ridiculous. You had that and you only had one time zone change for them to travel. Actually, a couple were on the same time zone. There’s some merit to be said there, too.”

Despite the European dominance at home, Johnson still believes it’s anyone’s game in future Ryder Cups.

“You never know, anybody can beat anybody at any given time,” Johnson said. “The fact of the matter is what we’ve kind of said here, I don’t think I put my guys in the best position for success. Those guys on the European side were playing great golf and didn’t have far to go.”

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