Brooks Koepka to miss cut at Palmetto Championship at Congaree
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Remains upbeat about tee-to-green play and improved health of right knee
Brooks Koepka makes birdie on No. 3 in Round 2 at Palmetto Championship
RIDGELAND, S.C. – Brooks Koepka shot a second-round 73 and at 3 over will almost certainly miss the cut at the Palmetto Championship at Congaree.
Still, he was hardly despondent. After missing significant time this season with a right knee injury that required surgery, he said he was happy to get the “reps” in going into the U.S. Open.
“I'm playing really good,” he said. “I like the way I'm striking the ball. I like the way I'm putting the ball too. Just seemed to be a little bit of speed control.”
His playing partners, Congaree ambassadors Keith Mitchell (74, 3 over) and Lucas Glover (73, 7 over), also will most likely fail to advance to the weekend rounds.
For the second day, Koepka was in negative numbers in Strokes Gained: Putting. He was 129th in that stat with the afternoon wave still out on the course, and faulted his failure to figure out the speed of the greens.
As for the rest of it, Koepka, who won the Waste Management Phoenix Open shortly before his knee operation earlier this season, played well enough. He hit nine of 14 fairways for the second straight day but hit just 10 greens in regulation. He was six of eight scrambling.
More importantly, the two-time U.S. Open champion said the knee is feeling fine.
“It's good,” he said. “It's in a really good spot. I like where it's at. I've done enough rehab, strength's coming around. I mean, I can almost squat down to read a putt like normal. Didn't do it too much this week just because I don't want to screw it up for next week.”
Cameron Morfit began covering the PGA TOUR with Sports Illustrated in 1997, and after a long stretch at Golf Magazine and golf.com joined PGATOUR.COM as a Staff Writer in 2016. Follow Cameron Morfit on Twitter.