AVIDGOLFER

Brooks Koepka’s Excellent Far Flung Journey To Major Winner

Rick Arnett /

Well, it wasn’t the most scintillating of U.S. Opens–especially if you desire carnage. Erin Hills GC was designed with prevailing winds and dry conditions but rain and calm breezes removed much of its fangs until Sunday.

Brooks Koepka made some clutch par-saving putts early on the back nine before distancing from Brian Harman and Hideki Matsuyama with three straight birdies to win by 4.

“This week I honestly don’t think I ever got nervous, I just stayed in the moment,” Koepka said.

“He’s always pretty flat line, I think that’s why people compare him to DJ and it’s why they get along so well. They are similar people, nothing fazes them and they’re pretty chilled out,” said Koepka’s swing coach, Claude Harmon III.

“If you would have told me I’d shoot 12 under at the U.S. Open and not win I’d have taken the bet for sure,” said Brian Harman.

Koepka also posted some terrific stats along with the first to ever collect $2 million in prize money at one tournament in pro golf.

–He tied Rory McIlroy’s U.S .Open mark of 16-under at Congressional in 2010.

–He’s now the 7th straight first-time winner of a major–meaning the field is increasingly deeper with talent as young fearless guns arrive.

–Was the first player in a U.S. Open (since stats began in 1981) to post 80% fairways hit and Greens in Reg.


He is represented by Hambric Sports’ Blake Smith (noted instructor Randy’s son).

His far-flung journey to parts unknown to gain Tour status is quite a story and gives many slogging around the world hope to stick to their goals.

“To get to travel the world at 22, 21 years old, and do what you do for a living is pretty neat,” Koepka said. “I’ll go anywhere. … I think it helped me grow up a little bit and really figure out that, hey, play golf, get it done, and then you can really take this somewhere. And I built a lot of confidence off of that.”

Upon getting out of Florida State, he was without a card on any tour, so went onto the Challenge Tour, which is Europe’s version of the Web.com Tour. Country stops included Kenya,Kazakhstan, India, Spain, Scotland, Turkey and Japan.

Asked about the low point, he said it came one night in Scotland when he called his agent and said he wanted to come home.

“I was kind of, I don’t want to say homesick, it was just, tired of golf. Tired of traveling. I just wanted to be home,” he said.

Jonathan Wall has a nice write up on how Koepka’s irons (he doesn’t have an equipment deal after Nike pulled out of the market) were put in his bag. It’ll be interesting how his manager Blake Smith handles the oodles of endorsement deals of his newly crowned major champ.

Prior to last year, Koepka was a member of Titleist’s Tour staff before departing at the start of the 2016 season to join Nike Golf. However, the multi-year equipment deal was short-lived following the Swoosh’s announcement last August that it was exiting the hard-goods industry to concentrate strictly on golf apparel.

No longer under contract with the company for gear — he’s still under contract for apparel — Koepka opted to forego signing with another manufacturer and build his own bag setup. He made changes during the FedExCup Playoffs, re-inserting the Scotty Cameron Newport 2 SLT T10 putter that was in the bag for his first PGA TOUR title at the 2015 Waste Management Phoenix Open.

“Those irons were designed for Brooks, from the shaping down to the colors we used,” Cook said. “We wanted to give it our best shot and knew the best way to get his attention was to create a set for him.”

While he didn’t play the iron initially after signing with Nike, Koepka decided to give them a try when the company pulled out of the equipment industry. Cook reached out to Koepka and his manager to sell them on the clubs and the fact that they were designed for the now newly minted major winner. Not long after the call, Mizuno sent Koepka a set that was built at standard length and a half-degree upright. 

“We only sent him those irons,” Cook said. “He’s not a huge gear nerd. He just wanted to test them and see how they performed. Knowing that we made those with him in mind, I figured they had a good chance against whatever else he was testing.”

Finally, I was rooting for Koepka for this reason…

Brooks Koepka U.S. Open