Brooks Koepka thinks the big game is back. But 1 goal remains

Brooks Koepka returned to the PGA Tour with a smooth T56 at the Farmers Insurance Openbut there was more to that performance beneath the surface. If you looked past the fanfare of his triumphant return, you could see it.

That week at Torrey Pines, Koepka missed over seven shots on the green while finishing positive in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, Approach and Around the Greens. He made a shot switch after missing the cut at the WM Phoenix Open, and his game has started to return to form since then, with Koepka going T9-T13-T18 through the Florida Swing. He placed third in the field in Strokes Gained: Approach last week at Valspar and is ranked first in that category on the PGA Tour on the seasonearning 1,089 approach shots per round.

Koepka said he diagnosed a problem with his driver before this week’s Texas Children’s Houston Open that likely “cost him six or seven shots” last week. (He completed seven hits behind eventual winner Matt Fitzpatrick.)

The delicate one I could have won the reference is reminiscent of Brooks Koepka who once said he believed majors are easier to win than regular PGA Tour events. (He won that week.)

Koepka arrives at Memorial Park Golf Course this week with the look and feel of the old Koepkathe one that crushed the majors with demanding and boring golf. That Koepka is starting to show with the Masters on the horizon, because the game that won him five championships, the one that’s been missing since winning the 2023 PGA Championship, well, Koepka thinks it’s finally back.

“I feel like it’s ready,” Koepka said Wednesday when asked if his game was up to Augusta National. “Everything is trending in a nice direction. The ball-striking feels really, really good. Pete (Cowen) did a phenomenal job of just getting everything where it needs to be. Yeah, putting was a big thing. I feel like it’s been a lot different because I was putting it so terribly, I felt like I had to birdie the hole or almost fairway.

“Where now I can sit back and play golf like I did in ’17, ’19, kind of on that run when I was playing really well, where I can be very patient and bide my time.

The arrow has been trending for Koepka since returning to the PGA Tour from LIV Golf in late January, but there’s one thing missing as he looks to peak at Augusta National in two weeks: Koepka has yet to be in the barrel over the weekend in his PGA Tour renaissance.

He believes his game is back to the level that saw him smother major championship fields with ease, but he won’t know that for sure until he tests it under pressure. That’s the goal this week in Houston, as Koepka begins to fully shift his focus to the Masters and his hunt for the No. 6 major.

“The only thing is, I haven’t really put myself in contention with nine holes to go,” Koepka said. “That’s really the last piece that I’m missing that I feel like I need to accomplish here before Augusta. I just need to get the juices flowing to have a chance to win a golf tournament. It’s been a while. I didn’t win last year. I just need to be able to settle myself and get those feelings back. And especially here, competing against players for what would be a tough one going into the finals. Augusta.”

A few weeks ago at the Players Championship, Koepka admitted that TPC Sawgrass serves as a barometer for where your game is located towards the beginning of the major season. It’s a tough test on a course where carnage lurks at every turn. Solve it and head for the Masters feeling confident in your prospects. But fail the PGA Tour’s main test and you have very little time to find answers before you head down Magnolia Lane.

“That’s kind of where I feel like you had to know where your game was,” Koepka said at TPC Sawgrass. “Every time you come to the Players, you have a good idea that, hey, you’ve got a few more weeks before Augusta; if you have to make a change, this is where it has to happen. This is kind of, in my eyes, the start of the real heat of the golf season. And it’s a lot of fun, it’s exciting, and you just have to be on top of things.”

He finished in a tie for 13th, took nearly seven shots on the approach, which tied for fourth in the field, and would have been a real factor of the weekend if not for a three-hole bogey during Friday’s second round. Koepka followed that up with another strong week at Valspar that was apparently derailed by an overly cranky driver and now reaches his final Masters tune-up, finally sounding like the creepy, great Koepka of old.

Only four rounds left in one course he helped redesign and one last Masters prep box Koepka hopes to check.

“I like the way I’m playing,” Koepka said. “I just want to put myself in contention here for the first time before Augusta. My game is rounding into shape. I can see it. I don’t know if maybe from a results standpoint, maybe it hasn’t looked like it, but I can see it as a whole, it’s really starting to come together.”

That’s something no one hoping to add a green jacket to their closet in two weeks wants to hear.