Koepka rallies for 72 after 5-over start

Brooks Koepka stepped back in the sand, took a deep breath and composed himself ahead of a third shot from the greenside bunker.

Moments earlier, Koepka had been brought to his

knees at Carnoustie amid a wild stretch of six dropped shots in five holes that left the U.S. Open champion unusually flustered.

Just when his opening round looked like it was

unraveling, he fought back. Koepka reached the turn in 41 before rallying with a stunning 31 on the back nine for a 1-over 72 on Thursday. It left him six shots off the lead and with his ambitions of back-to-back major victories just about intact.

“I could care less, man ... 1-over, I don’t think is going to kill me,” Koepka said. “... I definitely didn’t shoot myself out of it, which very easily could have happened.”

The defining image of Koepka’s round came on the par-3 eighth hole, when he got down on both knees, leaned into a bunker and attempted to flick the ball out. It was a shot he had practiced on Tuesday with his coach, Pete Cowen, but Koepka said he got “too cute.” The ball stayed in the sand and settled in a bad lie.

For his next shot, he took plenty of sand and not enough ball, which rebounded off the wall of the bunker and dropped back in. Koepka got up and down for a double-bogey 5, which came after a double at the par-4 fifth when he hit an approach so wide that he was forced to putt

under TV cables held up by two men. He also bogeyed

Nos. 7 and 9.

At 5 over par, were bad thoughts starting to creep in?

“I’m not one to give up,” said the world’s No. 4 player, who has won the last two U.S. Opens. “I’m not one to ... feel sorry for myself. ... You’ve just got to keep plugging away.”