Koepka raising bar, and doing it his way
MEET THE new boss in golf. Not same as the old boss. Brooks Koepka is setting the new standard in golf now, and everyone had better follow along as closely as they can or they’ll be left behind.
The bar that Koepka is setting with his power and length combined with precision and accuracy — not to mention if he’s not the best putter in the game he’s pretty damned close — is similar to the way Tiger Woods once raised it back in the late 90s when he burst onto the scene.
This is not to say Koepka, fresh off Sunday’s PGA Championship victory at Bethpage Black, is Woods or ever will be. Woods, after all, did it for the better part of two decades and he’s still doing it to a different degree as a 43-year old Masters champion.
But the way Woods raised the level of the sport as one of the first players to bring working out into a regular regimen (with apologies to Gary Player), Koepka, who’s one of that generation of players who has emulated what Woods did, is raising the bar to new heights.
Koepka is an athlete first, and then a golfer. Woods always was an athlete first and then the most talented golfer on the planet with the strongest mind.
“This guy is making me realize I need to think about things differently,” Tony Finau said.
“Brooks gives us something to aim for,” Tommy Fleetwood said. “In a good way, it will pull us all up to be better. Definitely for me, to have a guy like Brooks to look at, to want to know what he’s doing that’s better than me, it’s only going to help. It’s only going to help my career to have that to aspire to. It’s a good thing at the moment.”
Koepka’s victory at the PGA gave him the third major championship in the
past five played. It, too, was his fourth major championship in the past eight majors in which he’s played.
That’s Tiger-like dominance.
And yet, the prevailing narrative to Koepka’s career has been how overlooked he’s been, a disrespect he’s latched onto and used as fuel.
“He’s like a left tackle for a football team,’’ veteran PGA Tour caddie Ron Levin said to describe Koepka after his win Sunday. “He’s the best, most valuable guy … but everyone wants to talk to the quarterback.’’
The quarterbacks in the game — leaders of the popularity polls — consist of Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Phil Mickelson, Jason Day, Rickie Fowler, to name a few. Those are the cool kids with the charismatic personalities.
Koepka doesn’t care about winning the press conference, he just wants to win major championships. Early last week, he matter-of-factly told reporters he expected to get to at least “double digits’’ in majors before he’s done or it would be a disappointment.
You know how many players in the history of the sport have won double digit majors?
Two. Jack Nicklaus (18) and Woods (15). Player has nine. Tom Watson has eight. Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead and Gene Sarazen each has seven. Can he be stopped? “You can’t teach somebody to think the way that Brooks Koepka thinks,’’ said Graeme McDowell, whom Koepka has credited for helping mold his demeanor. “I wish I could think that way. I wish I could use negativity the way he’s able to use it. He just drives himself to another level. Tiger was very different from that. He didn’t seem to need negativity. Tiger just could go to a different place mentally than the rest of us could go to.
“Brooks gets himself there via the little chips, via the negative comments he gets from people and he’s able to take himself to places that we’ve only seen from guys like Tiger. It’s impressive. Perhaps I need to start listening to him.’’
Perhaps everyone should.