Brooks Koepka cedes weekend spotlight to younger brother Chase after missed cut

LAS VEGAS – Brooks Koepka is usually the one doing the ass-kicking in his family, but the world No. 1 will happily pass the torch to brother Chase this weekend in Las Vegas.

Perhaps the biggest surprise over the opening two rounds of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open is that younger brother Chase, the 1,822nd ranked golfer in the world, will play the weekend, while Brooks has been bounced early.

Chase made his first cut in an individual PGA TOUR event after rounds of 66-69 left him 7 under and just five off the lead at the halfway mark. Brooks, the five-time TOUR winner who was runner-up at TPC Summerlin in his last appearance, shot 70-71.

“He's kicked my ass the last two days. Props to him. Hey, I was glued to the leaderboard trying to follow the first couple holes of my front nine, trying to see where he was going to finish,” a pleased Brooks said.

“I was living and dying by it yesterday. I even had the Golf Channel on trying to see if maybe he would get a couple glimpses on there. I was trying to watch. Hopefully this week will be a special week for him.”

Chase had more than a few glimpses. At one point on Friday, he moved to 10 under, just two shots back of the lead. But a sloppy double-bogey late in his round means he will need to have a decent Saturday to push toward the leaders.

Having had a challenging year on the European Tour’s secondary Challenge Tour, where he made just three of 12 cuts and earned just a tick over $6,500, Chase has returned to the U.S. to try to get a start on the Korn Ferry Tour.

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He is due to play the second stage of Q-School next week, but should he find his way inside the top 10 after weekend play at TPC Summerlin, he will also have the option of playing in the Houston Open. Of course, if he can find the magic we see from his brother often and win, he will automatically earn his way onto the PGA TOUR.

“It's obviously a great opportunity for him. It's a big week. You never know what could happen,” Brooks said.

“You come out here and you win and all of a sudden he's got a membership, which would be pretty cool. This golf course gives you a lot of opportunities to make birdies, and if he can make a bunch of them and no mistakes and kind of keep it clean the way he did the first 27, maybe 30 holes, he's going to have a chance on Sunday.”

As for Las Vegas fans who might be disappointed in Brooks missing the cut, they might get to see him after all.

“If he's going to win, I'll be the first person to congratulate him on 18. I think it would be probably one of the coolest things,” Brooks added.

“You know, there's not many chances you get where your brother can actually be a professional golfer, let alone play in the same tournament, and then if he does win, shoot, that would be a highlight of my year.”

As for the state of Brooks’ game, the 2017-18 PGA TOUR Player of the Year said he wasn’t too worried after missing his first cut since the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard in March.

“I've worked on my wedges, trying to control yardages a lot, and they were spot on all week. And I was just a hair off putting… just kind of reverted back to some old things, but that's going to happen,” he said.

“I'm not disappointed. I feel like I was very, very close. This golf course, you can shoot even par very quickly and you can shoot seven under. It's just a matter of inches.”

Chase hopes Saturday brings something closer to seven under.

“It's going be tough, but you got to keep it one shot at a time. I think I'm going to do that by just focusing on what's ahead,” Chase said.

“I felt like I was in control of my emotions and I was just really proud of myself.

“I'm really not going to change anything. I feel like I've done a really good job of looking where I need to hit it on these greens, and if I do a little bit better job this weekend, I can definitely make a run.”

Perhaps the fans wanting a Koepka trophy celebration might still get their way.