Cool Hand Koepka

May 20-23
Ocean Course, Kiawah Island, SC
Round 2, Round 3, Round 4

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

 

KIAWAH ISLAND, SC. The late actor Paul Newman made famous the title character in the 1967 movie “Cool Hand Luke.” The character Newman played was resolute in his ways — undeterred by outside pressures and unwilling to conform to the expectations of others. In sum — he marched to the beat of his own drum. During the 1st round at the 103rd PGA Championship Brooks Koepka reprised the role in a big-time way.

Beginning his round on the 10th hole the four-time major winner promptly started the round with a double-bogey and instead of showing any signs of panic held himself together. Eventually the 31-year-old righted his golf ship with a round of three-under-par 69 and stands just two shots back of first round leader Canadian Corey Conners.

 

Cool hand Koepka front and center.

Koepka’s round included six birdies against the aforementioned double-bogey and one other bogey on the par-4 15th.

Coming into this week’s 2nd major championship in 2021, Koepka’s performances have been a roller-coaster of sorts. He won the Waste Management event earlier in February for this 8th PGA Tour title. Brooks followed up with T2 several weeks later at the WGC-Workday Championship at The Concession. But then he went through a series of injury issues — having knee surgery in late March he opted to play in Augusta for the Masters and failed to make the cut. Playing prior to this week’s PGA Championship, Koepka returned to the Tour in little over a month’s time at the AT&T Byron Nelson and also missed the cut.

For many players the thought of consecutive missed cuts and little real competitive results prior to a major championship would likely set in motion a series of pressure-oriented decision inevitably ratcheting up the meter of concern.

Not so — cool hand Koepka knows himself far too well.

Koepka played his opening round with Justin Thomas, ranked number two in the world and Rory McIlroy who ended his winless streak on the PGA Tour when winning the Wells Fargo event just a few weeks back. Both men played haphazardly — settling for rounds of 75 respectively. Given McIlroy’s win at the ’12 PGA Championship — also at The Ocean Course — he was installed as the pre-tournament favorite and like Koepka is the winner of four major titles – the last coming in 2014.

Since claiming his first major championship when winning the 2017 U.S. Open — Koepka has played 13 majors since that victory — finishing in the top ten a total of nine times. In sum — when big events happen — it is Koepka who has shown a clear appetite to engage in the competition.

 

 

In years past, golfer Raymond Floyd was known for his “stare” — the wherewithal to block out all distractions and demonstrate a golfing ability to rise above others when playing his best. Koepka does so similarly — eliminating the distractions and enveloping himself in a shot-by-shot dissection with his caddie since 2013 — Ricky Elliott. 

Elliott, who hails from Northern Ireland, highlighted the mental edge Koepka has shown when playing. Following Koepka’s second US Open victory in 2018 at Shinnecock Hills in an interview he gave to ESPN he said of Koepka, “He’s just a real strong mental guy, he’s unflappable. When he hits a bad shot, he never gives me any grief. He gets on with it. I mean, to this day, if we hit one over the back [of the green], he’d probably just turn around to me and go, “Well, I hit that quite a bit hard.”

 

Reputations in golf are cemented through the four major championships. Koepka has faced such situations and with three rounds to play there’s much golf that remains. A younger generation of players has emerged and their names are also in contention with this week’s event. They include defending PGA Champion Colin Morikawa (-2), Victor Hovland (-3) and Will Zalatoris (-1). 

Will Koepka be able to sustain the physical rigors for the final three days? He indicated in a post-round news conference that playing in pain is something he’s been doing for some time and doesn’t see that interfering with his efforts in claiming a 3rd PGA Championship title. That’s clearly bad news for everyone else as the man who previously was ranked the best player in the game is looking to re-establish himself as the golfer most able to succeed when the biggest golf events are contested. Cool hand Koepka is well aware of his presence — and so is the opposition.

 

 

Notes —

 

*The hardest holes in the 1st round came with the likes of the par-4 15th, the par-3 17th and par-4 18th. Players faced a difficult headwind when arriving at the par-3 14th. The 18th was the hardest hole with over a 4.50 average and the 17th followed closely behind. Wind patterns are expected to remain the same for the next two rounds but Sunday’s final round is expected to see a shift with the wind pattern coming out of the southwest — meaning the final five holes will play downwind and likely forcing players to make adjustments from how the holes are playing now.

*50-year-old Phil Mickelson got off to an impressive start — firing a two-under-par 70. Should Phil emerge victorious and claim his 2nd PGA Championship title — he would become the oldest winner of a major championship surpassing the record set by Julius Boros who was 48 when winning the 1968 PGA Championship.

 

*Rickie Fowler’s recent play has not been noteworthy but the PGA of America provided him with a special exemption into this year’s event and he made the most of it thus far with an opening round of 71. Fowler has never claimed a major win and his last PGA Tour triumph came in February 2019 at the Waste Management event.

*A total of 30 players scored under-par for the opening round. During the 2012 PGA Championship held here — 43 players scored at least one-under-par for the 1st round.

*World ranked number one player Dustin Johnson continued his recent poor play with a round of 76. Johnson was part of the afternoon wave of players and again was held back by a balky putter. It did not help matters that Johnson’s driving — normally a key strength was also inconsistent. For Dustin to be playing this weekend — his Friday round has to be a major improvement.

 

 

Pos.	Player	To Par	R1
1	Corey Conners	-5	67
T2	Keegan Bradley	-3	69
T2	Viktor Hovland	-3	69
T2	Brooks Koepka	-3	69
T2	Aaron Wise	-3	69
T2	Sam Horsfield	-3	69
T2	Cam Davis	-3	69
T8	Cameron Tringale	-2	70
T8	Martin Laird	-2	70
T8	Collin Morikawa	-2	70
T8	Phil Mickelson	-2	70
T8	Branden Grace	-2	70
T8	Gary Woodland	-2	70
T8	Kevin Streelman	-2	70
T8	Sungjae Im	-2	70
T16	Talor Gooch	-1	71
T16	Paul Casey	-1	71
T16	Rickie Fowler	-1	71
T16	Tyrrell Hatton	-1	71
T16	Jason Dufner	-1	71
T16	Louis Oosthuizen	-1	71
T16	Stewart Cink	-1	71
T16	Tom Lewis	-1	71
T16	Jason Kokrak	-1	71
T16	Richy Werenski	-1	71
T16	Joaquin Niemann	-1	71
T16	Padraig Harrington	-1	71
T16	Rasmus Hojgaard	-1	71
T16	Christiaan Bezuidenhout	-1	71
T16	Will Zalatoris	-1	71
T31	Adam Long	E	72
T31	Harry Higgs	E	72
T31	Scottie Scheffler	E	72
T31	Bubba Watson	E	72
T31	Bryson DeChambeau	E	72
T31	Erik van Rooyen	E	72
T31	Jon Rahm	E	72
T31	Justin Rose	E	72
T31	Cameron Smith	E	72
T31	Ben Cook	E	72
T41	Dylan Frittelli	1	73
T41	Matt Jones	1	73
T41	Harold Varner III	1	73
T41	Byeong Hun An	1	73
T41	Garrick Higgo	1	73
T41	Jimmy Walker	1	73
T41	Henrik Stenson	1	73
T41	Lee Westwood	1	73
T41	Xander Schauffele	1	73
T41	Hideki Matsuyama	1	73
T41	Jason Scrivener	1	73
T41	Charley Hoffman	1	73
T41	Matt Wallace	1	73
T41	Brad Marek	1	73
T41	Denny McCarthy	1	73
T41	Matt Fitzpatrick	1	73
T41	Carlos Ortiz	1	73
T41	Andy Sullivan	1	73
T41	Jordan Spieth	1	73
T41	Shane Lowry	1	73
T41	Patrick Cantlay	1	73
T62	Marc Leishman	2	74
T62	Tom Hoge	2	74
T62	Joel Dahmen	2	74
T62	Zach Johnson	2	74
T62	Ryan Palmer	2	74
T62	Lanto Griffin	2	74
T62	Kalle Samooja	2	74
T62	Abraham Ancer	2	74
T62	Rich Beem	2	74
T62	Tony Finau	2	74
T62	Jason Day	2	74
T62	Patrick Reed	2	74
T62	Ian Poulter	2	74
T62	Brendon Todd	2	74
T62	Dean Burmester	2	74
T77	Brendan Steele	3	75
T77	George Coetzee	3	75
T77	Robert MacIntyre	3	75
T77	John Catlin	3	75
T77	Martin Kaymer	3	75
T77	Harris English	3	75
T77	Rory McIlroy	3	75
T77	Justin Thomas	3	75
T77	Chan Kim	3	75
T77	Mark Geddes	3	75
T77	Si Woo Kim	3	75
T77	Alex Beach	3	75
T77	Daniel van Tonder	3	75
T77	Wyndham Clark	3	75
T77	Y.E. Yang	3	75
T77	J.T. Poston	3	75
T77	Brian Harman	3	75
T77	Webb Simpson	3	75
T77	Mackenzie Hughes	3	75
T77	Takumi Kanaya	3	75
T97	Patrick Rada	4	76
T97	Ben Polland	4	76
T97	Rob Labritz	4	76
T97	Thomas Detry	4	76
T97	Charl Schwartzel	4	76
T97	Rikuya Hoshino	4	76
T97	Tommy Fleetwood	4	76
T97	Steve Stricker	4	76
T97	Dustin Johnson	4	76
T97	Thomas Pieters	4	76
T97	Lucas Herbert	4	76
T97	Chris Kirk	4	76
T97	Greg Koch	4	76
T110	Kevin Kisner	5	77
T110	Hudson Swafford	5	77
T110	Brandon Hagy	5	77
T110	Danny Willett	5	77
T110	Alex Noren	5	77
T110	Emiliano Grillo	5	77
T110	Brett Walker	5	77
T110	Brian Gay	5	77
T110	Robert Streb	5	77
T110	Kurt Kitayama	5	77
T110	Sebastian Munoz	5	77
T110	Adam Hadwin	5	77
T110	Jazz Janewattananond	5	77
T110	Billy Horschel	5	77
T110	Chez Reavie	5	77
T110	Sergio Garcia	5	77
T110	Matt Kuchar	5	77
T127	Bernd Wiesberger	6	78
T127	Adam Scott	6	78
T127	Peter Malnati	6	78
T127	Jim Herman	6	78
T127	Sami Valimaki	6	78
T127	Max Homa	6	78
T127	Russell Henley	6	78
T127	Brandon Stone	6	78
T127	Victor Perez	6	78
T127	Maverick McNealy	6	78
T127	K.H. Lee	6	78
T138	Derek Holmes	7	79
T138	Kevin Na	7	79
T138	Danny Balin	7	79
T138	Tim Pearce	7	79
T138	Daniel Berger	7	79
T138	Antoine Rozner	7	79
T144	Larkin Gross	8	80
T144	Pete Ballo	8	80
T146	Joe Summerhays	9	81
T146	Shaun Micheel	9	81
T146	Aaron Rai	9	81
T149	Cameron Champ	10	82
T149	Stuart Smith	10	82
T149	Omar Uresti	10	82
T152	John Daly	13	85
T152	Sonny Skinner	13	85
154	Frank Bensel, Jr.	14	86
155	Tyler Collet	16	88
WD	Sam Burns	E	41