Brooks Koepka trending nicely entering Travelers Championship

HILTON HEAD, S.C. – We’ve grown accustomed to seeing Brooks Koepka in the mix on Father’s Day with consecutive wins and a solo second at the last three U.S. Opens, respectively.

Thanks to the coronavirus, though, America’s national championship won’t be played until September. But the RBC Heritage, first canceled and then resurrected, took those holiday dates, and Koepka put together his best tournament of the season, closing with a 65 on Sunday for a seventh-place finish.

Prior to this Father’s Day, though, Koepka, who had a painful stem cell injection to repair a partially torn patella tendon his left knee after last year’s TOUR Championship, hadn’t finished higher than a tie for 32nd at the Charles Schwab Challenge. He ranked 204th in the FedExCup, as a result.

The top-10 finish at Harbour Town, though, vaulted Koepka 56 spots to No. 148. The top 125 at the end of the Wyndham Championship in mid-August advance to the FedExCup Playoffs where the winner of the $15 million bonus will be decided.

Koepka has made it to the TOUR Championship four of the past five seasons and has yet to miss the Playoffs. In fact, his last top-10 finish prior to Sunday came at East Lake in August when he tied for third.

“Obviously, six months off, three with the lockdown and then three on my knee, so, yeah, it feels like it's been a really long time since I've even felt some juices flowing,” Koepka said. “It just felt nice to be in contention again. I feel like I played OK. I putted terrible today.”

The RBC Heritage marked the second straight tournament in which Koepka had posted four rounds in the 60s. He played his final 14 holes in 7 under, including two eagles, one of which came when he drove the green at the par-4 ninth.

“It wasn't too bad,” Koepka acknowledged. “I hit shots exactly kind of how I wanted to coming down the stretch, which was nice. Obviously, it's been an incredibly long time for me to be in contention. It just felt good to be back in the swing of things.”

Koepka said he was trying to get to 21 under before ending up three short, and he called the 65 he shot as disappointing a score as he could have had. Webb Simpson won what turned into a shootout with a tournament-record score of 22 under.

“It just felt nice to feel something again,” Koepka said.

Koepka credited a session with the renowned Butch Harmon, the father of his swing coach Claude Harmon, prior to THE PLAYERS Championship with helping get things back on track. A meeting of his inner circle also bore fruit.

“I told them what I wanted to do is get back to what got us there,” said the four-time major champion. “I think sometimes, when you get to the top, you change things a little bit. I laugh at it now because I always say, when I do that, I'm not going to do anything, and I think I tried to play too perfect instead of just being me, just go out and play golf.”

The three-month break also enabled Koepka to spend more time with his physical therapist, Derek Samuel, who is based in San Diego. He says his body feels better than it has in years.

“A lot of work I've done with Derek, with him, just manipulating the knee, the kneecap, it's been a long road,” Koepka said. “It just feels like I haven't been healthy for a very long time. My body feels great. I feel like I can really move through the golf ball. The knee feels great.

“Finally able to do things I wasn't able to do for a very, very long time. So, I'm excited, playing good, and I just need to keep it up.”

Koepka is entered in this week’s Travelers Championship.