Farmers Insurance Open: What’s Wrong with Brooks Koepka?

Brooks Koepka teed it up again this week at the Farmers Insurance Open. Koepka came into the event with hopes of doing something big.

But, as he did last week at the American Express, Koepka missed the cut. He shot 72 on the South Course on Thursday but struggled on Friday on the North Course.

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Koepka should have known that Friday would not be his day from the very beginning. He started play on the back side, beginning with the par-5 10th hole. He got into the rough, then had to get up-and-down from the fringe for his par. For a long hitter like Koepka, not making a birdie on a par five is almost like making a bogey.

Then on the 11th hole, he actually did make a bogey. After three straight pars, Koepka bogeyed the par-3 15th hole to slip to 2-over par.

He would par the 16th hole but finished his first nine with bogeys on both the 17th and 18th holes. Koepka went out in 4-over par 40.

Koepka made the turn and started his second nine with three straight pars. But he bogeyed the fourth hole to slip to 5-over par.

To his credit, Koepka did not give up on his round. He would birdie the fifth and sixth holes to get back to 3-over on his round.

But he would bogey the eighth and would finish with a 4-over par 76. Koepka missed the cut by five strokes.

It’s not just that he missed the cut this week. This event marks three consecutive events where Koepka has not made the weekend, including both of his starts in 2021.

Koepka claims to be healthy, after battling lower body injuries last season. His season started well, with a T5 at the Houston Open and a T5 at the Masters. But since then, Koepka has not made a single cut in three starts.

Is he still injured? If so, he needs to get himself right before April, when the Masters will be played again. That could consist of taking some time off, some type of surgical procedure or both.

If he’s not injured, what’s the problem? The stats would say that his driver is what’s hurting him the most. Prior to this week, Koepka was only hitting about 54% of fairways off the tee. That was leading to him only hitting 64.9 percent of greens in regulation. And that, of course, makes it much tougher to make birdies and to shoot low scores.

Whatever the case may be, Koepka only has a short amount of time to figure it out, with major championship season fast approaching.