DORAL, Fla. — Brooks Koepka, for better or worse, forged a “majors or bust” reputation. It’s not always been fair, but it hasn’t exactly been one he’s tried to downplay, either.
The winner of five major championships made it clear that the small stuff never interested him that much.
When he played on the PGA Tour, he had four major championship victories but just four other wins in PGA Tour events. He’s added a fifth major since joining the LIV Golf League and has won more LIV events—five—than any other player.
But it’s those major wins that distinguish him.
And last year wasn’t so good for Koepka at the majors.
After a second-place finish at the 2023 Masters had him kicking himself for the way he approached the final round, Koepka came back a month later to win the PGA Championship.
But last year was a different story. A tie for 45th at the Masters was followed by no top-20 finishes in any of the other major championships.
“I still do the same prep work, still the same thing I’ve done my entire career,” said Koepka, 34, who is playing in the LIV Golf Miami event this weekend at Doral. “I feel like overall as my major career over the last 10 years has been pretty solid, like last year I don't think I played very good just all throughout.
“The whole year wasn’t quite as consistent as I wanted, and I think the bigger the event, the more pressure, the cracks kind of show, and it just wasn’t my year. But trying to fix that. I feel like my game is in a lot better shape right now, and we’ll see where it’s at, obviously, next week.”
Koepka is one of 12 LIV Golf League players in the field this week who will compete at the Masters, including U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, 2023 Masters winner Jon Rahm and 2022 British Open champ Cam Smith.
Koepka is coming off a second-place finish at LIV’s last event in Singapore but obviously he’s got his eye on more majors. At age 34, he expects to still be among the top players in the biggest tournaments.
All of which made last year’s Masters so mystifying. He came in feeling good about his chances and fell flat, a third-round 76 leaving him searching for answers.
He was on the driving range at Augusta National with coach Pete Cowen until near darkness trying to sort it out. And he later punished himself with extra workouts as he felt he let his team down.
It resulted in some solid golf for LIV—he won in Singapore and beat Rahm in a playoff at the Greenbrier—but more frustration in the majors.
“I just always last year felt like there was always a four- or five-hole stretch that really just threw me out of the golf tournament,” he said. “I don’t know whether that was focus, but there was, I think, maybe the middle of the round at Augusta, I think the first day kind of threw me off, but it wasn't anything the PGA—I think during the third round or something like that, second, third round, it was six holes from 10 to 15. Other than that, I would have been right there.
“But yeah, I just couldn't piece together 18 holes last year of solid golf, and that was kind of my issue.”
Dating to 2014, Koepka has 19 top-10 finishes in majors. He won three out of the seven he played in 2017–18—missing the Masters with an injury—and then was top 4 in all four majors in 2019, finishing runner-up at the Masters and U.S. Open, winning the PGA and finishing tied for fourth at the British Open.
He had three more top-six finishes in 2021 before a knee injury started to make his question his golf future. It’s among the reasons he made the move to LIV Golf in 2022, although he rebounded with the second at the Masters and the victory at the PGA in 2023.
Six majors have passed since, however, without contending. Without a top 10.
Koepka hopes to get back on track at the Masters.
“I’d say mine [preparation] starts probably like a month ago,” he said. “Typically a slow starter when it comes to playing actually good tournament golf, but everything seems to be piecing together nicely. I like where I’m at right now. Just focused a lot on ball-striking. Everything inside maybe 200 yards is kind of what I tend to focus on quite a bit, and just touch around the greens, because you’re going to need that at Augusta.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as After a No-Show 2024 in Majors, Brooks Koepka is Ready to Return to Masters.
