Mayakoba Golf Classic: Can Brooks Koepka Stay Hot This Week?

Brooks Koepka has gotten off to a solid start to the 2020-21 PGA Tour season. Can he keep it up this week at the Mayakoba Golf Classic?

As the Mayakoba Golf Classic gets underway this week, many eyes will be on Brooks Koepka. Specifically, eyes will be on which Brooks Koepka shows up in Mexico.

Koepka has been outstanding when healthy over the past two or three years. In fact, since 2017, his record on tour rivals nearly anyone’s.

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In 2017, he won his first major championship title by winning the U.S. Open at Erin Hills in Wisconsin. The next year, he proved that wasn’t a fluke in any sort of way by repeating at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills in New York. He became the first player since Curtis Strange in 1988 and 1989 to repeat as U.S. Open champion.

He added to his championship pedigree by winning the PGA Championship, also in 2018, at Bellerive Country Club. That’s three majors in two seasons. Very solid indeed.

Koepka had a huge season in 2019. He won his fourth major by repeating at the PGA Championship. He added titles at the CJ Cup and at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational.

That’s five tournament wins in two seasons, with three of them being majors. Impressive for sure.

But Koepka battled hip and knee pain for nearly all of the 2020 season. He clearly wasn’t the same player that he had been the previous couple of seasons, and his results showed that.

He did tie for second at the St. Jude, coming up just short of defending his title. But outside of that showing, it was largely a wasted season for Koepka as he battled his ailments.

Koepka did not play in the FedEx Cup playoffs, electing to take the time off to rehab his injuries and to prepare for this season. And so far, it has worked.

Koepka has entered three tournaments so far this season on the PGA Tour. He tied for 28th in the CJ Cup in October, where he shot 68-68 on Friday and Saturday.

He was in contention at the Houston Open in early November, where he shot 65-65 on the weekend to rally. That was one of the first signs that the real Brooks Koepka might be back.

Then at the Masters, Koepka never really got his game going, but he was also never really out of contention. He shot 70-69-69-70 to finish 10-under par. Of course, that ended up being 10 shots behind Dustin Johnson, but no one was beating DJ that week.

Koepka needs a good showing this week in Mexico to keep his positive momentum going. Look for that trend to continue this week with a healthy Koepka putting himself in the mix to win.