Five-time Major champion Brooks Koepka feels liks his game is in great shape with just one missing piece he's hoping to find this week in Houston to ensure he can challenge at The Masters.
Koepka's PGA Tour return made big headlines but he's gone slightly under the radar recently as he reintegrated and worked on his game - especially his putting.
As The Masters fast approaches Koepka says "I love the way I'm playing" and some stats prove why - as he led the entire PGA Tour in Strokes Gained: Approach this season heading into the Texas Childrens Houston Open.
He even warned that he could be close to his all-conquering 2017-19 form when he picked up four of his five Majors and was the dominant force in golf's biggest events.
He's fixed a recent issue with his driver and despite sitting in 127th in putting on the PGA Tour Koepka says a switch of flat stick this season is starting to pay off.
"I feel like I've been playing really well," said Koepka. "Scoring just hasn't quite been there, but ball-striking is really well, putting's starting to come around, feeling really well with that.
"I like the way the game's trending. Sometimes it's not always about the finishes, it's about how I feel, and I feel very good, very confident going into Augusta in a few weeks."
Koepka close to 2017-19 form ahead of Masters
Koepka admitted that his putting had reached breaking point leading to the change to the popular TaylorMade Spider and a cracked driver that cost him crucial shots at the Valspar recently has also been sorted.
"It's been two-plus years of poor putting and poor mechanics. Just reset all that," Koepka added.
"Obviously the putter change, and then a lot of mechanical work. Spent quite a bit of time with Mike just grinding on it and really fine tuning everything.
"The strokes gained for the iron play, the iron play's been great. Driver wasn't great, but I think that driver head was a little mashed. We checked it out on TrackMan yesterday and it was a bit spinny, so I don't know if it had a little crack in it or something was going wrong with it.
"We've got that sorted now. That cost me easily six, seven shots last week.
"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."
As the stats table below shows, Koepka's overall putting stats are poor, but he's had to recover from a horror show at Torrey Pines and signs have been decent recently, while that cracked driver at the Valspar accounts for a dip there.
And overall the approach play is superb - something which always needs to be on point at Augusta.
Event (finish) |
Off the tee |
Approach |
Around the greens |
Putting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Valspar (T18) |
-0.485 (50th) |
5.526 (3rd) |
-1.830 (62) |
-1.830 (26) |
The Players (T13) |
1.435 (T34) |
6.741 (4th) |
0.632 (35) |
-1.155 (53) |
Cognizant (T9) |
1.930 (21st) |
2.935 (20th) |
-0.567 (48th) |
2.736 (15th) |
Phoenix (MC) |
-0.173 |
0.367 |
0.331 |
-3.352 |
Farmers (T56) |
0.126 (42nd) |
2.938 (20th) |
2.996 (3rd) |
-7.230 (74th) |
Season so far overall |
0.167 (67th) |
1.089 (1st) |
0.092 (65th) |
-0.412 (127th) |
With three straight top-20 finishes Koepka insists his game "is rounding into form" and the only thing lacking in his prep for Augusta is to contend down the stretch on a Sunday again.
"I love the way I'm playing," said Koepka. "Just want to put myself in contention here for the first time before Augusta.
"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.
"But the game feels good. Everything's trending in a nice direction."
Koepka has missed the cut three out of the last five Masters, but did finish second behind Jon Rahm in 2023 when he admitted he threw it away when leading.
What we do know about Koepka is that he's the ultimate competitor, and if he gets his game anywhere near to his glory Major-winning days then he'll be one to watch at Augusta National.
