Brooks Koepka feels the losing streak is back. But 1 goal remains

Brooks Koepka returned to the PGA Tour with a quiet T56 at the Farmers Insurance Open, but there was more to that underground performance. If you looked beyond the joy of his triumphant return, you would see it.

That week at Torrey Pines, Koepka lost more than seven shots off the green while finishing well in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, Approach and Around the Greens. He made a putter switch after missing out on the WM Phoenix Open, and his game has taken a turn into form since then, with Koepka going T9-T13-T18 with the Florida Swing. Ranked third in Strokes Gained: Approach last week at Valspar and ranked first in that category on the PGA Tour for the season, gaining 1.089 strokes per approach.

Koepka said he found out he had a problem with his driver before this week’s Texas Children’s Houston Open that may have cost him “six or seven shots” last week. (He finished seven shots behind Matt Fitzpatrick.)

That’s subtle I could have won the reference is reminiscent of Brooks Koepka who once said he believed majors were 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 Koepka, the one who crushed the majors with hard, boring golf. That Koepka is starting to show with the Masters on the horizon because the game that won him five majors, the one that hasn’t been since winning the 2023 PGA Championship, Koepka feels is finally back.

“I feel like it’s ready,” Koepka said Wednesday when asked if his game was in shape at Augusta National. “Everything is trending in a good way. Hitting the ball feels really good. Pete [Cowen’s] You did an amazing job getting everything where it needed to be. Yes, placement was a big deal. I feel like it’s a lot different because I was putting so badly, I felt like I had to hit the hole almost from the fairway or from the tee box.

“Where now I can sit down and play golf the way I used to play in ’17, ’19, back when I was playing really well where I could be patient and wait my turn. … I used to just say – I was feeling lonely, I’d just get to the middle of the green and occasionally push and pull one kind of ball right to the flag. I always thought – I’d say I’m eating.”

The arrow has been trending toward Koepka since he returned to the PGA Tour from LIV Golf at the end of January, but there’s one thing missing as he looks to step up to Augusta National in two weeks: Koepka hasn’t been in the cauldron this weekend yet during the rebirth of the PGA Tour.

He believes that his game is back to the level that allowed him to pass the big courts with ease, but he won’t know that 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 that I’m not in contention with nine holes left,” said Koepka. “That’s the last missing piece that I feel like I have to accomplish here before Augusta. I just need to get the juices going to have a chance to win a golf tournament. It’s been a long time. I didn’t win last year. I just need to be able to put myself back and get those feelings again. And especially here, competing with unbelievable players on a tough golf course I have to do before August.”

A few weeks ago at the Players Championship, Koepka admitted that TPC Sawgrass serves as a barometer of where your game is at the start of the big season. It’s a tough test on a course where criminals lurk around every turn. Solve it, and head to the Masters feeling confident about your prospects. But fail the PGA Tour’s elite test, and you have very little time to find answers before driving down Magnolia Lane.

“This is a course where I feel like you need to know where your game is,” Koepka said at TPC Sawgrass. “Every time you get to the players, you get a good idea that, hey, you have a couple of weeks before Augusta; if you have to make any changes, that’s where it has to happen. This, in my eyes, is the real heat of the golf season. And it’s a lot of fun, it’s fun, and it just needs to be on top.”

He finished tied for 13th, picked up nearly seven shots on his approach, ranked fourth in the field and could have been the real highlight of the weekend had it not been for a three-hole bogey in Friday’s second round. Koepka followed that up with another solid week at Valspar when an overly spinny driver clearly went astray, and now he’s coming into his final Masters performance feeling like the swinging, over-the-top Koepka of old.

With four rounds remaining on the redesigned course and the final Masters prep box Koepka hopes to check.

“I like the way I play,” Koepka said. “I want to put myself in contention here for the first time before Augusta. My game is going towards form. I can see it. I don’t know if maybe you are smart about the results, maybe it doesn’t look like that, but I can see it overall, everything is starting to come together.”

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