Koepka’s knee ‘great’ despite his poor play
Candid multiple champ shares thoughts, as 2020 PGA Tour tees up in Florida
“That’s golf. You can play your best but some guys just come out and will flat-out beat you. And you have to accept that. That’s what I think makes this game so beautiful. You can play your best and just get outplayed ... There’s certain times when it works out in your favour and times when it doesn’t. You’ve just got to understand that this guy played unbelievable, shake their hand, and accept it.”
Guess which multiple major champion and fountain of wisdom said that? Jack? Arnie? Bobby Jones?
Nope. It was Brooks Koepka on Wednesday, ahead of this week’s Honda Classic.
With a bothersome knee injury apparently behind him, the former world No. 1 is making just his second stateside PGA Tour start of 2020 this week as the tour’s Florida swing kicks off.
The golf world wasn’t quite sure what to make of the brash golfer when Koepka broke onto the major championship scene in 2017 by winning the U.S. Open. Comments that sometimes he found golf boring — although his first love is, wait for it, baseball — created a rushed image of Koepka as a jock crashing the country club gates.
Luckily for us, Koepka kept on winning and we had the chance to realize that not only is he perhaps the best interview in golf, but the rarest of great athletes who will talk you through their process and mental game without treating it like the Manhattan Project.
Many top golfers have used news conferences to show how clever they are, realizing a quick wit is a great way to get through an inquisition from sportswriters without saying anything valuable. Koepka, on the other hand, faces everything head-on, which can come across as abrasive if you’re not listening closely.
Here’s what he said Wednesday about his knee and his recent poor play:
“The knee’s great ... I wouldn’t be playing if I didn’t feel like I could come out here and compete at my best. I’ve just played bad. Simple as that.”
Koepka has teed it up just five times worldwide in the six months since last year’s Tour Championship. Over that time, he twice has had treatment on a partially torn patella tendon in his left knee.
On Wednesday at his hometown event in Palm Beach Gardens, he deemed himself 100 per cent.
Two weeks ago Rory Mcilroy jumped past the American to reclaim top spot in the rankings. Koepka has repeatedly said there is no rivalry between the pair, one reason being, according to Koepka, Rory has’t won a major in five years.
Zing!
Actually, Koepka seems to mention his non-rival a fair bit. In a recent interview with GQ, Koepka was asked about his relationship with fellow PGA Tour players.
“Just because we work together doesn’t mean we have to be friends; I have enough friends,” he said.
“I just don’t want to be that close with everybody I compete with — like, I don’t even have Rory’s phone number.”
Koepka is off next week then plans to play three weeks in a row beginning at the Players Championship as players begin to look toward Augusta.
If Koepka’s knee is good to go, and Mcilroy continues his great play, you can expect the “non-rivalry” of these two refreshingly authentic athletes to grow.
Hopefully like azaleas in spring.
CH-CH-CH-CHANGES
Talk of the Masters always begins as the PGA Tour hits Flor- ida, and this year is no different. No course in the world changes as much as Augusta National, yet somehow it looks the same every year. But the changes don’t go unnoticed by the world’s best players. The biggest change over the years is obviously the length of the course, but that has had a ripple effect up to the greens.
“I know that the greens over the years, every green has been rebuilt, and every green is a little bit flatter than it was back then, giving us a little bit more room,” Tiger Woods said this week.
“Just because the fact we’re a little bit further out, they are giving us a chance. Granted, that’s not saying the greens are easy; they are far from it, but they are a little bit flatter, and the areas that we have to hit to are a little bit bigger, but granted, we are so much further back than we ever used to be.”
Koepka said on Wednesday that he thinks many players are too cautious at Augusta.
“The more I’ve played that golf course, the more I’ve realized that you don’t need to be as conservative as I think a lot of people will tell you, a lot of guys that have been around there for years and years,” Koepka said.
“You look at it. There might be a slope that’s right to left on a green and they’ll tell you to play off of it and it will feed right down to the cup, but at the same time if you just aim at the flag it’s flat right there.”