Brooks Koepka’s iron game has been outstanding ever since long awaited return on the PGA Tour at the Farmers Insurance Open in January. Koepka has been so consistent with his approaches that he is leading the tournament in that category of strokes gained, taking 1,089 strokes against his opponents. “Hitting the ball feels really, really good,” Koepka said Wednesday from The Texas for Kids Houston Open. “Everything is trending in a good direction.”
Well, not quite everything, because the consistency Koepka has displayed from the fairway hasn’t translated to the tee, where he ranks 151st in driving accuracy (51.61%).
After signing for a third-round 71 at Valspar last week, Koepka described his drive as “terrible.” On the par-4 10th hole, he pulled his tee shot into a tree, punched it and made bogey. On the par-4 16th, the same thing — except for the time it led to a double. “It really cost me,” Koepka said of his shaky drive. “Just put it in the worst possible place.”
Asked to explain his struggles, Koepka said: “I don’t know exactly what it is, I’ve tried different things that I know I’m used to doing mechanically wrong, alignment, ball position, different things like that, and I don’t know, I just can’t quite figure it out.”
On Sunday, Koepka shot another 71 and finished at four under for the week, seven back winner Matt Fitzpatrick.
However, sometime between the end of Valspar and Koepka’s Wednesday press conference in Houston, Koepka and his team He did get something: his Titleist GT3 driver’s head was, as Koepka put it, “a little mashed.”
The heads of the drivers are usually tired in the best players in the world. of extreme speed in which they swing their clubs along with the ultra-thin faces of the drivers means that at some point something will give. Sometimes aging materializes in visible signs – eg. a scratch on the face – other times it’s more subtle. Koepka’s injury appeared to fall into the latter camp, but when he tested the club on a TrackMan unit in Houston on Tuesday, the numbers, he said, showed there was a problem.
“It was a bit of a blur,” he said. “I don’t know if there was a little crack in it or something was wrong with it. We’ve got it fixed now. That easily cost me six, seven shots last week.”
If Koepka’s claim is true, he would have been very much in the mix last week. That’s the goal this week in Houston, where Koepka will start Thursday at 1:53 p.m. local time with Jake Knapp and Michael Thorbjornsen.
“I like the way I’m playing,” Koepka said. “I just want to compete here for the first time before Augusta.”
