Brooks Koepka is at a significant and feeling pretty much as good as ever. His well being. His trophy rely. His temper.
Especially his temper.
Koepka all however shrugged on the chaos surrounding golf, an settlement between the PGA Tour and the Saudi nationwide wealth fund that pays for LIV Golf, which turned enemies into associates. He remembers having breakfast at The Grove in Florida when he heard the news. And then he went out to observe for the US Open.
“There’s four weeks a year I really care about and this is one of them,” he mentioned. “And I want to play well.”
But when he completed talking Tuesday, he hopped off his chair and mentioned with the slightest smile, “See you at Travelers.”
That can be the Travelers Championship subsequent week, a PGA Tour occasion that excludes him as a LIV member.
A couple of minutes later, after a short tv interview, Koepka was headed towards the clubhouse at Los Angeles Country Club when somebody referenced his cheeky comment by saying, “Really, Brooks?”
Another smile, and he moved his hand in a round movement to point stirring the pot.
Rarely has such huge news had so few solutions, and Koepka was amongst those that wasn’t positive the place this enterprise settlement among the many PGA Tour, European tour and Public Investment Fund was headed, significantly because it pertains to the way forward for LIV.
Nor does he significantly care.
Koepka cares in regards to the majors, and nobody is enjoying them higher in the meanwhile.
He had the 54-hole lead on the Masters till Jon Rahm tracked him down, and Koepka gained his fifth main, the PGA Championship, at Oak Hill. That was his favourite, primarily due to accidents to his knee that made him marvel if his greatest golf already was behind him.
Koepka has mentioned if wholesome, which may have made his determination to defect to LIV Golf final yr harder.
He’s pleased with the place he’s, irrespective of the format or how usually he performs. Everything is geared across the majors.
The file is astounding. Along along with his 5 majors, his has 4 runner-up finishes. Dating to 2015, when Koepka first turned eligible for all of them, he has completed within the high 10 in 18 of his final 30 majors.
He has spent one spherical over two days on the North course at LACC, the entrance 9 on Monday and the again on Tuesday, after which there might be 9 holes on the ultimate day of observe.
In the midst of those preparations is chatter about the place the PGA Tour and LIV Golf is headed underneath the settlement. Some imagine it may be a distraction, others determine all of it goes away as soon as numbers begin to fill scorecards on Thursday.
Koepka doesn’t thoughts both approach.
“The more chaotic things get, the easier it gets for me,” he mentioned. “Everything starts to slow down and I am able to focus on whatever I need to focus on while everybody else is dealing with distractions, worried about other things.”
He believes that’s one cause he thrives within the greatest occasions.
“I enjoy the chaos,” he mentioned.
His definition of chaos is not only what occurs off the course. Koepka thinks again to Shinnecock Hills for the 2018 US Open, when the course acquired away from the USGA (once more) and nobody from the ultimate 22 teams broke par within the third spherical. That’s the yr Phil Mickelson swatted a shifting ball on the thirteenth inexperienced out of frustration.
Koepka wound up profitable, making him the primary back-to-back US Open champion since Curtis Strange in 1989.
“Everybody was … complaining,” he mentioned. “They were all so focused on the golf course they kind of forgot about what was going on, that they were there to play a major championship. OK, the greens are pretty fast. But if you leave yourself with an uphill putt, it’s not too bad.”
He smiled as if everybody ought to know this.
Koepka clearly has a profitable system, and that begins with good well being. A yr in the past, having not given his left knee time to heal, he tied for fifty fifth in two majors and missed the reduce within the different two. It was throughout that stretch he puzzled if he may compete with one of the best each week.
And then LIV got here calling and paying, he had a full offseason to get well, and he appears just like the Koepka of outdated.
He’s again to being “Big Game Brooks.”
Koepka is aware of the historical past of the foremost, that it’s how careers are measured. But the eagerness comes from expertise. He certified for the 2012 US Open as an novice, was tied for the lead after 9 holes enjoying within the remaining group (1 underneath) “and just gagged it up on the back nine.” He shot 42 for a 77 and missed the reduce.
A yr later, he was invited to the PGA Championship and spent the ultimate spherical enjoying with Tiger Woods.
But it was 2014 at Pinehurst No. 2 that actually sparked him. He had no probability that week — Martin Kaymer gained by eight — however Koepka fought his approach right into a tie for fourth.
“That was kind of the first taste of it,” he mentioned.
The end successfully earned Koepka, who began his profession on the Challenge Tour in Europe, a PGA Tour card. He gained the Phoenix Open the following yr and has been a pressure in them ever since — at the least when wholesome.
That’s the place all of it begins with Koepka, who in nice kind on so many ranges with one other main on the horizon.