Brooks Koepka: Frustrated by Play he Seeks Double Dose of Harmon

Brooks Koepka has been frustrated by his recent play.

An 81 Saturday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational was the low point in his recent return. Brooks Koepka blamed no one but himself, which was a stand-up act. But he needed to get it fixed. He knew his swing was off and he was at the end of his rope because what he had done in the past didn’t get him back into a good spot.

"“I felt like I just I had so much going on in my head, so many swing thoughts and needed to clear the slate,” Koepka said about his swing dilemma. “The Harmons are family to me, and so we flew out Sunday, went and saw Butch (on) Monday, and got in (to The Players Championship) yesterday afternoon.”"

Brooks Koepka said the swing problems were his fault was his, not anyone else’s. He called his main golf instructor, Claude Harmon, and asked if it was OK to go see Claude’s famous dad, Butch Harmon.

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"“Claude was giving me, telling me the same things he’s said for five years, the three keys that we have just worked on, and for some reason I just couldn’t do it,” Koepka admitted."

Koepka, like many high-level golfers, had worked with Butch Harmon in the past. The elder Harmon is widely recognized as one of the best golf coaches ever. When he was growing up, his father Claude Harmon, winner of the 1948 Masters, was a very good golf professional in the days when the PGA Tour was more of a part-time occupation for professional golfers. Claude, Sr., also was the golf professional at Winged Foot GC.

In the evenings at home, while some kids watched television or read books or played board games, his father would have them watch golf swings on film. They would study the best swings of the era and any era for which there was film available. Butch, as it turned out, happened to have a great memory for what he saw.

He got the cause and effect. Really all the Harmon boys did, and they all became golf professionals. They were all good players. But it was Butch who eventually carved out a place for himself teaching the best of the best.

"“I’ve seen him at Floridian a million times, and he’s stood there when I’m hitting balls with Claude, and he’s stood there at the Ryder Cup,” Koepka explained about the relationship between himself and Butch Harmon. “It’s one of those things where I just needed a different set of eyes, maybe something might click, because I was failing.”"

It’s hard for any athlete to admit that they are not invincible, but Koepka is honest to a fault.

"“You go through feelings where sometimes they say release the club or hold it off, whatever it might be, and it’s fairly simple, but right now, for whatever reason, it just felt difficult. I couldn’t do it,” he admitted."

The elder Harmon watched Koepka hit four swings, then told him what to do. Koepka said he had planned on being out there for a day, but Harmon saw the issue and told him to fly to Ponte Vedra for The Players. To get out and practice. According to the best eyes in golf, Koepka was on the mend.

"“He felt like everything was on the right track, and now it’s our job to make sure that it progresses, and it progresses nicely with Claude,” Koepka said."

Granted, part of the problem is likely that Koepka’s only had 22 rounds of golf since his knee surgery last fall. Even though you think you are moving the right way after that, often, you aren’t. Ask anybody who’s injured anything. But Koepka said the blame lies squarely with him.

While it probably does, the cause of getting off was more than likely that his knee, even though it didn’t hurt, it just wasn’t working exactly the same way it did before the surgery. ( I’ve had meniscus surgery and a broken ankle, and neither one of them did much for my ability to move. Of course, I’m older, so there’s that issue as well. )

Compounding the problem, Brooks Koepka also fell into the trap of winning big tournaments and somehow thinking he needed to improve after winning four majors. A lot of golfers make that mistake. However, he’s over it. He wants to go back to what got him to the top, to No. 1.

Many PGA Tour seasons ago, when Fred Couples was at the top of his game and on the PGA Tour, his coach, Paul Marchand would sometimes go to events to eye Couples’ swing. When it was in the spring, it was to get Couples ready for The Masters or The Players.

Marchand told me an interesting thing about Couples swing and about all golfers’ swings in general. He said that golfers, no matter who, have tendencies to hit shots a certain way. As an extreme example, the late Bruce Lietzke always hit a slice that most people could not live with on the golf course.

He could start the ball over the left rough and have it land somewhere in the right-center of a fairway. Lietzke won 13 PGA Tour events with his swing. That slice was his tendency, and instead of trying to fix it, he played with it. It was repeatable. He knew where the ball was going.

In Couples’ case, Marchand told me that while everyone envied Couples’ long swing, that happened because Couples was exceptionally limber. His tendency, Marchand said, was to get too long in his backswing because he was so limber. One thing the two of them tried to do was to keep Couples’ swing from getting so long that it caused shots to go off-line.

Basically, Brooks Koepka is a fader of the golf ball, and his fade was somehow faulty.

"“We could see it on video,” Koepka said, “and what I was trying to do and didn’t know how to get there.”"

Koepka admitted that Butch told him the same things that Claude had told him, but in a slightly different way that somehow clicked and felt better.

"“I can see it in the film now when we’re on the driving range or on the golf course like today, the positions it’s in is a million times better,” he noted. “It goes through your whole golf bag, your whole swing, all your tendencies go through your whole golf bag.”"

He said his tendency is to come over the top in his swing, and that it had bled into all his clubs and even his putting.

"“My putting is not exactly the perfect stroke, but at the same time, I come over it a little bit, and it’s just like my golf swing,” he admitted. “And when you get bad tendencies, they seem to go all the way through your putting, and that’s why I’ve struggled so much.”"

Brooks Koepka said in the past, he’s made fun of guys who have made swing changes after being successful, and yet he fell into that trap.

"“I think I’ve always laughed because you see guys do it before you,” he noted."

Now what he’s doing is getting back to the fundamentals that he and Claude were doing before the last major victory and before the knee problems.

"“What I’m trying to go back to right now is make it very fundamental, very simple and keep the main thing the main thing,” he added. “Keep those three points I worked on with Claude for five years and that’s the only thing we have ever worked on, and that’s what we’re going to.”"

Everybody knows how determined Brooks Koepka can be. Once he gets his fader fixed, watch out. He will be collecting majors again.