Koepka, 30, stated he has a lot of pals at home in Florida, and he normally plays practice rounds alone on the tour. It is him versus the field, and he always likes his chances.
SAN FRANCISCO– When Brooks Koepka teed off in the quiet calm of Thursday early morning, he figured he was not simply a competitor, however a preferred to win the P.G.A. Championship.
All golfers consider their opportunities against the field. Koepka is the one going to do the mathematics out loud.
” The method the golf course sets up removes practically half the people,” Koepka said on Tuesday, with bluntness that has pertained to specify his character and champion play.
” And then from there, half of those guys probably will not play well. From there, I feel like, mentally, I can beat them, the other half. Youve most likely got 10 guys. Thats the way I see it.”
On Thursday, with the glossy Wanamaker Trophy that he has won the past 2 years set down on a table nearby as a reminder of the stakes, he sent his very first drive at T.P.C. Harding Park almost 300 backyards. By the time he returned to the clubhouse hours later on, his hopes of becoming the first gamer in nearly 100 years to win the P.G.A. Championship in three consecutive years were strongly intact.
Koepka shot a four-under-par 66, one stroke off the first-round lead, held by Jason Day and Brendon Todd. His always brimming confidence bordered on spilling over.
” Im delighted for the next 3 days,” he said. His laid-back sentences never end with exclamation points. “I can definitely play a lot better, and simply require to clean a few things up, and well exist come Sunday on the back 9.”
It would be not a surprise. Not only is Koepka the very best major-tournament gamer of the past couple of years, he is a bold counterpoint to golfs gentry, as sincere as a polygraph test, as composed as the stoic Monterey cypress trees that line the Harding Park fairways.
He has no interest in making golf good friends– he told Golfweek just recently that he is “not close with any of the people out here”– possibly due to the fact that he is brazen in his singular pursuit: to win more majors.
4 of his seven profession triumphes came at majors, an unusual ratio in an era of revolving weekly trip winners. He won the 2017 and 2018 United States Opens, then completed second in 2019. He won the 2018 and 2019 P.G.A. Championships, and is trying to end up being the first to win 3 in a row considering that Walter Hagen won from 1924 to 1927.
In his last five starts at golfs 4 majors, he has actually finished no even worse than 4th.
Some well-known contemporaries still wish for their very first major champions– players like Rickie Fowler, Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau. Others found major success, but have not won in numerous years– gamers like Rory McIlroy, Justin Spieth and Dustin Johnson.
Most of them get more attention than Koepka, maybe due to the fact that they much better comply with the video games traditional civility. Koepka does not soften his edges to make others more comfortable. Instead, he tweaks a few of those that considered rivals– by everybody but Koepka.
In 2015, when press reporters suggested that Rory McIlroy was a rival, Koepka pointed out, properly, that McIlroy had not won a major because 2014, before Koepka was a full-time member of the trip.
Early this year, DeChambeau buffooned Koepkas physique, saying he did not have any abs. Koepka published a photo of his four significant prizes on Twitter and stated DeChambeau was. “I am 2 except a 6 pack,” he wrote.
The P.G.A. Championship, which bunched golfs biggest names into several threesomes for Thursday and Friday, somehow did not pair Koepka with DeChambeau. Having actually developed himself like a linebacker this year and now golfs longest driver, DeChambeau teed off in the afternoon with Fowler and Adam Scott.
Already, Koepka, Zach Johnson, Justin Rose, Xander Schauffele and Martin Kaymer were amongst those already ended up at four under.
Koepka was paired with Gary Woodland, who beat Koepka by 3 strokes at the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. Woodland shot a three-under 67 on Thursday, and functioned as a daylong suggestion of all that separated Koepka from his last chance at a historical three-peat.
” It would imply additional since I wasnt able to do it at the U.S. Open,” Koepka said after his round. “I believe that drove me nuts a little bit.”
He also had fun with Irelands Shane Lowry, a pal and frequent golf partner in Florida throughout the spaces in the rejiggered schedule this year. The two chummily bantered as they used Thursday.
” He drove it long and directly, and he has that little fade back,” stated Lowry, who shot 68. “Hell be hard to beat this week, I d state.”
Playing the back nine initially, Koepka birdied 4 of Harding Parks final 6 holes, the courses exacting final test of rough, trees and water. It was his crucial stretch, an appealing prophecy. Koepka was not that impressed.
” No, you can always play them a bit lower,” he stated. “Birdie each of them.”
Koepka has not always been cool under pressure. As a teen, he said, he was a perfectionist in an imperfect game, undone by his temper.
It soothed him and transformed him. He eventually took it to its logical, emotion-free conclusion. Even as tournament pressures construct, Koepka usually looks as comfy as a superhero in a climactic scene.
” I dont believe– my mind goes blank,” he stated previously this week. “I kind of, I guess, blackout a bit in some cases while were out there. I do not believe of any swing thoughts. Dont consider anything.”
When it is all over, he only thinks he ought to be holding the trophy– once again–.
Koepka admits to a lesser focus throughout routine PGA Tour occasions. That much has actually appeared considering that golf rebooted; nursing a partially torn patella tendon in his left knee, he has finished in the leading 10 only two times. But he ended up in a tie for second in the last tournament prior to the P.G.A. Championship, a warning to others that his favorite season had gotten here.
” I take pleasure in when it gets tough,” he said on Tuesday. “I enjoy when things get complicated. Theres constantly catastrophe lurking. Its something I enjoy, where every shot truly means something.”
With another major triumph, Koepka would sign up with the likes of Phil Mickelson, Seve Ballesteros and Byron Nelson, as a five-timer. Koepka wants to blow past that class. Over the winter, he set a new profession goal: 10 significant titles.
Just three males have reached double digits: Jack Nicklaus (18 ), Tiger Woods (15) and Hagen (11 ).
The next 11 months may be informing. There will be 7 significant championships if all goes as scheduled.
Despite his bold talk, Koepka has the pedigree of an underdog. He was not a junior star like numerous of his peers. Lightly recruited for college, he went to Florida State (and was a four-time all-American), however invested a number of seasons grinding on a secondary tour in Europe prior to making his PGA Tour card.
Early this year, DeChambeau mocked Koepkas physique, stating he did not have any abs. Koepka published a picture of his 4 major prizes on Twitter and said DeChambeau was. Koepka confesses to a lesser focus during regular PGA Tour events. With one more major triumph, Koepka would join the likes of Phil Mickelson, Seve Ballesteros and Byron Nelson, as a five-timer. Playing the back nine initially, Koepka birdied four of Harding Parks final 6 holes, the courses exacting final examination of rough, trees and water.
