Brooks Koepka Has Gotten His Game “Figured Out”

Before the start of the Tour Championship, Brooks Koepka said he had his game “figured out.” As he battles it out with Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas and others, remember that his confidence is very high now, due to some work he did at the end of last week and the beginning of this week.

Sure, Xander Schauffele is on the heels of Brooks Koepka, as are several other candidates like Paul Casey, Matt Kuchar, Patrick Cantlay, and Adam Scott.

However, it’s impossible to overlook Brooks Koepka, who has already done what he had to do to get himself into a position to win. Worse yet for the field, Koepka hasn’t even put the throttle down. The scary part for all other golfers is he thinks errors that crept into his game up over the summer are fixed.

"“I’ve got it figured out. I grinded last week,” he said to media prior to the start of the tournament. “Finally feeling comfortable over the ball and know which direction it’s going to go.”"

He kind of glared daggers when he said it, like, don’t even try to come after me because I’m so ready.

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Usually, guys at the top don’t admit that they didn’t have their game working, but Koepka’s got a mountain of confidence. As Tiger Woods used to say, his “feels” are on, as he explained.

"“Now it’s the feelings of, if I do hit a push cut or a pull draw, I have that feeling, and the ball’s doing that,” he said. “Where last time it felt like it was a pull draw, and it would be cutting.”"

While Koepka hasn’t won lately, he reached the top of the leaderboard after round one and believes the course lends itself to birdies.

"“If you’re on with your wedges, you can shoot a good score around here,” he noted."

The first hole, he said, is a wedge to the green, as is the 3rd and the 8th. Also, there’s one par five and two par threes, leaving three holes on the front that are non-wedge approaches.

"“If you can dial it in from anywhere from 70 to 130 yards, there might be six or seven holes where you might have that yardage coming in,” he said."

The essential part he insisted is keeping the tee ball in the short grass because the ball is too hard to control out of the Bermuda turf.

"“If you’re coming out of that rough, you can’t quite run it up the green. You can’t fly it on the green and hold it. So, it puts a lot more importance off the tee,” he added."

Halfway through round two, which was halted for a little over an hour due to rain, Koepka’s stats are much improved over round one. He has hit 71 percent of fairways and 71 percent of greens in regulation. In round one, he hit just 42 percent of fairways but managed 77 percent of greens in regulation.

With the course softened slightly by light rain, balls that land in the fairway will have more of a tendency to stay there. While Eastlake Golf Club has the sub air system that drains moisture from greens, they will still be slightly softer than when the leaders started. This will be an advantage to those with more holes to play, and that includes Brooks Koepka.

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