The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Back on course
Healthy and happy, Koepka could be a force at Travelers
Brooks Koepka drove the 329-yard ninth hole at Harbour Town within 42 inches of the cup for one of his two eagles Sunday. The week before, he got caught dropping the F-bomb on national television, congratulating Jon Rahm after the Spaniard’s chip-in birdie at Colonial.
In the two weeks since the return of the PGA Tour, we have seen glimpses of the return to power and candid glory of Brooks
Koepka. With a seventh at the RBC Heritage, we also saw his first top-10 finish in 10 months. Yet it also was clear Tuesday that if you wanted to make Koepka happy in advance of the
Travelers Championship, you needed only to ask him about his younger brother Chase.
There is something at once romantic and cutthroat about Monday qualifiers. They are a weekly reminder of how difficult it can be to chase a life’s dream. There was 51-yearold Ken Duke, former Travelers Championship titlist, carrying his own bag in an unsuccessful attempt to get back to the tournament he won seven years ago. And now, with Brooks watching, here was Chase Koepka, 26, gaining one of the two Travelers qualifying spots in a 5-for-2 playoff at Ellington Ridge.
“I’m super pumped for him,” Koepka said. “I’m probably more excited for him to play than myself.”
Although Chase made the cut in two appearances last fall to finish 67th at Shriners Open and 46th at the CJ Cup in South Korea, this will be his first PGA Tour event this season where he didn’t get a sponsor’s exemption. He has limited Korn Ferry Tour Status, too, so since returning from the European Tour, his is a life that includes Monday qualifiers and mini-tour events.
Is it tough for his brother to play in his shadow?
“Yeah, absolutely,” Brooks Koepka said. “Why wouldn’t it be? Every time
he comes in to do an interview, 90 percent of the questions aren’t about him. They’re about me. If I’m being asked about him, I love it. It’s one of the few times I get to talk about him. Even when he’s playing golf at a course back home, 90 percent of the things are about me. That’s got to be annoying. It bothers me. He’s a lot different person than I am. He’s a little more quiet, soft-spoken, nice kid, funny. I feel for him. He’s in a tough spot. It’s a no-win situation.
“If he doesn’t become No. 1 in the world and win four majors, he’s never going to be as good as me. That’s not necessarily the case. I don’t know what his goals may be. They may be to play the PGA Tour for five years, for a year, maybe win an event. He’s got a chance this week to make those dreams happen.”
With nine of the top-10 players and 15 of the top 20 in the world, the scores could go low, low, low this week at TPC River Highlands. Koepka insists he is no fan of shootouts and likes the thought of the finishing holes with the water as an equalizer. He does not like life without fans.
On Monday, the PGA Championship, where Koepka is two-time defending champion, announced it, too, will be played with no spectators in early August because of COVID-19. Also on Monday, The Guardian reported the Ryder Cup will be postponed until 2021.
“It doesn’t feel normal at all,” Koepka said. “You make a 30-foot birdie putt, it’s just like when you’re playing in front of your friends. It’s weird, kind of hard to build momentum. At the same time, it’s our jobs.”
The wild fist-pumping, the unbridled energy, the raucous fans … Koepka is staunchly in favor of a Ryder Cup postponement until the galleries are allowed.
“The Ryder Cup is so much different than any other golf tournament,”
Koepka said. “It’s a true sporting event. The fans are a crucial part of it.”
Koepka brought his chef, free weights, basically his own gym with him to Cromwell. He’s not hanging around other golfers. A few hours before it was announced Cameron Champ became the second PGA Tour player to test positive for COVID-19, Koepka said he is taking this very seriously.
“I told everybody on my team they’re pretty much on lockdown,” Koepka said. “Three, four months off with an injury, three months sitting at home with COVID-19. I’m dying to get out here and do what I do.”
Last year at this time, Koepka was dominating, a menacing physical presence. He was No. 1 in the world for more than eight months. He won the 2017 and ’18 U.S. Open and was second to Gary Woodland last year at Pebble Beach. He successfully defended his PGA Championship title last May at Bethpage. He took fourth at the British and won the WGC-Fed Ex St. Jude. After finishing third at the Tour Championship late last August, he underwent a stem cell procedure on his bad knee. He slipped during the SJ Cup in October and aggravated the injury. He didn’t return until January to finish 34th in Abu Dhabi and 17th in Saudi Arabia on the European
Tour. Back on the PGA Tour, he was 43rd at the Shriners, cut at the Genesis, 45th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Not good.
“At The Players (cut short in March by COVID-19), I felt like I was close to where I wanted to be,” said Koepka, ranked fourth in the world. “The contact and ball flight were back. The sound was back. All the spin. I wouldn’t say I had my A game last week, but I’m knocking on the door and each week getting better and better.”
That’s got to scare folks a tad, and he probably likes that. Koepka is known to speak his mind. The other day he said if television announcers would just shut up and listen, there would be no need for golfers to wear mics. The boom mics pick up everything. He is evidence.
After he harshly singled out Bryson DeChambeau for slow play last year, that squabble was patched up. When Koepka appeared in the ESPN Body Issue, DeChambeau did poke fun of Koepka for not having sixpack abs like him. Koepka answered with an all-time burn: a picture of his four major trophies and the caption “You were right. I am two short of a 6 pack.”
DeChambeau, the mad scientist of golf, used the time off with COVID-19 to also bulk up like crazy. He is driving the ball a country mile.
Good for him,” Koepka said dryly, before complimenting him for putting in the work.
Yeah, a final pairing of Brooks and Bryson on Sunday would be quite the show.
When Koepka, 30, won his first of seven tour titles in 2015 at Phoenix, he said he thought Chase would be better than him.
“He’s only (four) years into his career,” Koepka said. “He got to the European Tour. I don’t think that’s a failure. I don’t want to say he didn’t enjoy Europe, but he didn’t maybe embrace it as much as I did as a steppingstone. He kind of looks ahead a little bit instead of where he’s at. Maybe that’s one of his downfalls.
“He has as much talent — I played with him a bunch and I’ve played with guys out here — and he’s 10 times better than these guys. He should be out here. A lot of it is opportunity.”
Chase also changed his ball and all his clubs over in Europe and, Brooks said, even superstar players can go downhill after that. He also said Chase “tries too hard” — sometimes he needs to let the game come to him. Don’t complicate things.
“Sometimes he might doubt himself a little bit,” Brooks said. “I don’t know what the problem was. I don’t ask him about it. I don’t talk to him about it. Let him do his thing. Let him be his own man. He’s a grown-up. He can figure it out.”
He doesn’t get a chance to see Chase play often. During the pandemic, he didn’t get much of a chance to see him at all. So just being out at Ellington with his best friend on the bag for Chase this week was a joy.
“I got be honest, though,” Koepka said. “I feel bad for my parents having to watch us in all these tournaments. It’s no fun. Watching sucks. I’m not a parent. If I ever have a kid playing a sport, I’m going to be nervous as hell.”