Koepka On The Masters: “The Only Thing I Haven’t Done This Season Is Put Myself Into Contention With Nine Holes To Play“.

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Double major winning Brooks Koepka heads to Augusta National the week after next for what will be his twelfth apppearance in The Masters.

The 35-year-old remains fully exempt having captured a third PGA Championship in 2023 and the fifth major of his pro career.

Since returning to the PGA Tour, Koepka has produced a mixed bag of five events – T56th Farmers Insurance Open, MC at WM Phoenix Open, a season best of T9th at Cogzinant Classic, T13th at The Players and sharing 18th a week ago at the Valspar Championship.

Looking at those results, it would seem Koepka’s game is getting better by the week while life seems good off the course, as evident last week at Innisbrook as he had his wife and near three-year old son, Crew in attendance.

Mum Jena and Crew were present last week in the flash area to greet husband and dad after each round, and what a happy sight it was with blond, curly-haird Crew so pleased to see his father, and Koepka warming himself to picking-up Crew, including one day when he held Crew by his ankles and the younster being upside down laughing his curly little head off.

Yes, it was the definition of a very happy family.

Ahead of this week’s Houston Open, the present World No. 162 was asked his thoughts of his ahead of the game, and with the Masters now just around the corner.

“I just think I just need to get the juices flowing of having a chance to win a golf tournament. It’s been a while. Didn’t win last year,“ said Koepka and a last win of now 21 pro career victories being just the 2024 LIV Golf season.

“So yeah, I just need to be able to put myself and get those feelings again. And especially out here, competing against unbelievable players on a difficult golf course would be what I need to do for the final prep for Augusta.

“The way this place is set up this week with the rough length and the way it’s mowed back into you, it feels very similar to Augusta on that aspect.

“Around the greens you’re going to have quite — there’s quite a few undulations around these greens. You can be in some kind of weird spots, but the rough length and the fairway length around the greens is quite similar“.

Of course, it’s more and more about Augusta with every new day and it Koepka to be ask a point blank question if his game is ready for the Golfing Cathedral in the Pines,

“I do feel like it is ready. The only thing is I really haven’t put myself in contention with nine holes to go. That’s really the last missing piece that I feel like I need to accomplish here before Augusta“, he said.

“But the game feels good. Everything’s trending in a nice direction. Ball-striking’s feels really, really good. Pete’s done a phenomenal job just getting everything where it needs to be.

“Yeah, the putting was a huge thing. I feel like it’s been so different because I was putting so terribly, I felt like I had to birdie the hole almost from the fairway or from the tee box, where now I can sit back and kind of play golf how I used to play in ’17, ’19, kind of in that run when I was playing very good where I can be very patient and just kind of wait my time.

“I know I’m going to have five good chances on whatever hole it might be and then just take advantage
from there. I used to just kind of — it felt very boring, just hit the center of the greens and occasionally you push and pull one kind of right on the flag.

“I always think — I said it was like conservatively aggressive. I picked the right line, the right spot to make sure that I was never going to make double. I made a few doubles over the last few weeks, which has been kind of irritating.

“My game is rounding into form. I can see it. I don’t know if maybe results-wise, it probably hasn’t looked that way, but I can see it as a whole, it’s really all starting to come together“.

A check of Koepka’s Masters record and, as mentioned above, he’s contested 10 Masters since his Augusta debut in 2013 was a T2nd in both 2019 and 2023.



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