Unexpected year for surging Koepka
BROOKS Koepka had no idea what to expect. He certainly didn’t expect to win two major championships this year. He didn’t expect to stave off a vintage Tiger Woods Sunday afternoon charge the way he did in winning the second of his two majors, the PGA Championship two weeks ago. He definitely didn’t expect to see Woods, whom he’d just vanquished with his own exquisite final-round performance, waiting for him in front of the Bellerive clubhouse so he could offer a congratulatory bro hug. He didn’t expect to win the U.S. Open in June at Shinnecock, where he became the first player to defend his U.S. title since Curtis Strange in 1989. He didn’t expect to be the heavy front-runner to capture the PGA Tour’s Player of the Year honors. He didn’t expect to be one of the favorites to win the FedEx Cup playoffs, which begin Thursday with the opening round of the Northern Trust at Ridgewood Country Club. Koepka, in fact, didn’t know whether he’d be playing golf at all this week, this year or any other year for that matter after missing four months with a complicated left hand and wrist injury. He said that, after spending twoand-a-half months in a soft cast and still not being able to push down on the cap of a shampoo bottle or hold a bottle of water in his hand without it feeling like a a sharp knife was protruding into his wrist, “I was like, man, I’m in for a really long recovery.’’
Koepka, speaking after his pro-am round Wednesday, said “there was no assurance’’ of any sort from his doctors that he was going to be able to play golf at a high level again.
“My ECU tendon was barely hanging on,’’ he said. “The ligaments were gone, basically. I remember seeing all the MRIs and all the scans that we did and, I’m no doctor, but it didn’t really look good as far as what they’re telling me I’m looking at and how it should look. I’m like, ‘It doesn’t look right.’
“[That injury] has ended some guys’ careers out here,’’ he said. “I was in a soft cast for almost two-and-a-half months and I’m watching everybody else play. The competition [is what] I missed so much. There’s absolutely no competition sitting on the couch. The only thing I think I was competing on was who could eat the most … and I was doing a really good job at that.’’
Koepka, forced to miss the Masters, finally got clearance from his doctors to hit balls the week before the Zurich Classic in April. He missed the cut that week in New Orleans, but was euphoric about simply being back in the arena.
“I wanted to be out here so bad and when I got out here it was kind of like having like an animal in a cage and you open that cage and they just can’t wait to get out,’’ Koepka said. “I literally could not wait to go just hit balls at Zurich on the range, just feel the excitement of … ‘All right, I’m finally in that atmosphere, I’m inside the ropes.’ ’’ Then came an epiphany. “I fell back in love with the game of golf,’’ Koepka said. “Sometimes I think it’s a good thing that it was taken away from me. I probably wouldn’t have done what I’ve done this year if I didn’t have that injury. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that it can all be taken away very quickly and really appreciate where you’re at, what you’re doing and appreciate the moment a little bit more.
“It’s kind of helped me relax a little bit, too, and just really enjoy the game when you’re out here, be focused. I’m a lot more disciplined, I think, since that injury.’’
Something else on the long list of things Koepka didn’t expect.
“[Getting] the all-clear to hit balls to seven days later teeing it up in a PGA Tour event, I was even shocked at how well I was hitting it,’’ he said. “Then to come out and win the U.S. Open to go back-to-back was so cool, so special. Then to follow it up with a PGA this year … looking back at April sitting on the couch watching Augusta, I don’t think I would have even thought of this that this could even happen.’’