From Augusta National: Brooks Koepka Feels And Is Playing Like Himself Again—And Makes Surprising LIV Golf Admission
Christian Petersen. Getty Images.AUGUSTA — Some players love golf. Others love competitive golf.
Tiger Woods loves golf. Rory McIlroy loves golf. Brooks Koepka loves competitive golf. If he feels he can't be competitive, he'd be done. The thought crossed his mind late last summer, at the nadir of his injury and swing woes. He had missed the cut at the Masters and tried, unsuccessfully, twice, to break the back window of his courtesy Mercedes. Fifty-fifth place finishes at both the PGA Championship and the Masters didn't brighten the mood at all. His knee was preventing him from loading up on his right side. Uneven lies were brutal. He couldn't do his job the way he wanted to, and so he thought about quitting his job. To him, golf is a job. The end of his career would see his clubs collect dust.
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"I think I probably would have picked them up occasionally, a couple times a year, but that would have been about it. To me, it's my job, I love it, yeah, but it's not my life. You know, it's very difficult to say. I think if I definitely put them down, it would have been lucky to play maybe twice a month."
Then someone offered him $100 million. And so he took it.
Netflix's Full Swing shed light on the depths of Koepka's struggles with his swing, his confidence and his life. He looks an altogether different person here at Augusta National, where he's back to playing his macho brand of golf. He rips driver, he fires at flags and he makes the six-to-eight footers necessary to win major championships. It helps when you can actually crouch to read those putts, something he couldn't do 18 months ago.
Koepka holds a four-shot lead at the Masters after following up his seven-under 65 with a 67, and he now has the inside path to winning a fifth major and notching the third leg of the career Grand Slam.
"The feeling is probably pretty similar (to the 2017-19 stretch)," Koepka said. "I feel really good. I like the way I'm swinging the golf club, putting it, chipping it, driving it, iron play is solid. It feels really similar."
He's back to himself at golf tournaments—which means saying whatever's on his mind, no matter who it might piss off. In his post-round press conference, Koepka was asked whether his decision to join LIV Golf might've been a bit more difficult had he been this version of Brooks when they offered, not the Netflix version.
"Honestly, yeah, probably, if I'm being completely honest. I think it would have been. But I'm happy with the decision I made."
It's a bit of a chicken-and-the-egg situation, for one could argue that LIV's schedule—namely, its extensive offseason—gave Koepka a solid block of time to work on getting back to full strength. He wasn't willing to do that back when he played on the PGA Tour because he didn't want to fall behind in the FedEx Cup race. Toward the end of last year he began to notice a seismic shift in his knee—he won the last individual title of LIV's season in Saudi Arabia in October—and spent the next few months grinding in the gym.
"Towards the end of last year, I felt it, it was coming. It wasn't exactly all the way there. Probably, I'd say January I knew I was back. Just from working with Claude, working with A.C. in the gym, I knew everything was right where it needed to be strength-wise, mobility-wise and being able to do things with the golf swing."
It all came together again last week in Orlando, where Koepka became the first player to win two LIV Golf events. Still, the oddsmakers weren't sold—he entered this week outside the top 15 favorites, somewhere around 30-to-1. You know who is sold? Gary Woodland, who played alongside Koepka for the first two rounds.
"It was a clinic for 36 holes," Woodland said. "I played with him—we were in the final group at Bellerive on Saturday, and it was the same thing. Just in control of his game…I don't think Brooks has ever lacked confidence. It shows in his game. He plays aggressive. He plays super quick, which just shows you how confident he is. There's no question to anything he's doing, which is awesome to see."
That aggressiveness has been especially helpful this year, with all the atmospheric moisture softening the greens. He's taking dead aim, which is how he likes it.
"Brooks is a very aggressive player," says the always insightful Justin Rose. "He likes to hammer his putts in the back, and that's been helpful this year because the greens are slower. I always see the higher lines, play more break, but his game is perfect for the current conditions."
Those conditions will change dramatically—play was halted for thunderstorms around 3 p.m. on Friday, Saturday looks downright miserable: a high of 51, with heavy rain and wind expected all day. He's not worried.
"I'll be fine. I'll be loosened up, and plus, I think probably—at two o'clock or whenever the last tee time might be, it will definitely be a little bit warmer. Towards the end, I've already moved it for four and a half, five hours, so I don't expect anything."