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Given his three recent major victories, Brooks Koepka presents one of the tour’s most enticingly watchable profiles. And that in turn makes his virtual no-show at Kapalua more puzzling. He shot 288 to finish solo 24th and never seemed to be a serious factor. What happened?

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His problems began on the tee, normally Koepka’s guaranteed strength. In 2018, he averaged +0.66 Strokes Gained Off The Tee, more than the combined total of his Strokes Gaines approaching the green, around the green and on the green.

The Kapalua fairwayas measure as much as 90 yards wide, yet Koepka occasionally appeared lost in them. He hit only 60 percent and averaged -0.9 Strokes Gained Off The Tee per round. That’s a self-imposed penalty of 1.5 strokes per round emanating from his usual strength. No wonder he finished back in the pack.

To offset that poor driving week, Koepka would have had to step up in one or more of the other three major skill areas. Unfortunately for him, he basically played his standard game approaching, around and on the greens. Since Koepka fits into the “average” category in all of them, he had nowhere to turn for help.

His putting provided the coup de grace to whatever hopes he may have harbored. For the 2018 season, Koepka was marginally better than average on the greens, averaging +0.17 Strokes Gained per round. At Kapalua, he cost himself nearly four-tenths of a stroke per round with his putter.