U.S. Open notes: ‘Big Game Brooks’ Koepka blocks out chaos as he chases another title
LOS ANGELES — Three men have captured 10 or more major championships in golf.
Brooks Koepka, a five-time major winner after last month’s PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y., aims to finish his career alongside Walter Hagen, Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus in golf lore.
“Double digits, that’s what I’m trying to get to,” Koepka said Tuesday prior to a practice round at Los Angeles Country Club ahead of the 123rd U.S. Open. “I don’t think it’s out of the question for me. I think the way I’ve prepared, the way I’ve kind of suited my game for these things is going to help me.”
On major championship courses, “chaos” has generally been Koepka’s friend. Where nerves can fray, heartbeats spike and hands tremble, the 33-year-old Floridian seems settled in to take a stroll and, well, hit some incredible golf shots when he has to. Along with his five majors, “Big Game Brooks” has four runner-up finishes. Dating to 2015, when Koepka first became eligible for all of them, he has finished in the top 10 in 18 of his last 30 majors.
“Everything starts to slow down and I am able to focus on whatever I need to focus on while everybody else is dealing with distractions, worried about other things,” the two-time U.S. Open champion explained regarding his major mindset.
During the second of his back-to-back U.S. Open wins (2018 at Shinnecock Hills), “everybody was … complaining,” he remembered. “They were all so focused on the golf course they kind of forgot about what was going on – that they were there to play a major championship instead of, OK, the greens are pretty fast. But if you leave yourself with an uphill putt, it’s not too bad.”
At the height of the firestorm that changed professional golf the past couple of years, Koepka shrugged his way throughout the fracture (and purported mend) of the pro game between the PGA Tour and the Saudi-backed LIV Golf while recovering from knee injuries before returning to form.
He remains focused on his own game following the news that the rivals reached an agreement in principle to settle their industry-shaking differences.
“I haven’t paid too much attention to it, honestly,” Koepka said. “I’ve been trying to prep for this week. There’s four weeks a year I really care about and this is one of them, and I want to play well.”
OPTIONS AND MORE OPTIONS
Spanning 7,423 yards, the LACC north course’s par-70 layout features an assortment of risk-reward holes that could determine the tournament champion.
Look no further than the 330-yard, par-4 sixth. Starting with a blind tee shot to the green blocked by a tree they must carry, players will choose between attacking the pin from a blind tee shot or laying up with as little as a mid-iron to leave a wedge for their approach.
The longer the layup, the better angle players have into the shallowest green on the course.
Going for it presents its own issues. Downhill tee shots must carry almost 300 yards to the sliver of green perched above unpredictable barranca lies. The room to the right of the green should leave a reasonable opportunity to get up and down for birdie.
“You could see anything from a seven to possibly a two,” Koepka said. “It’ll be a fun hole to just stand on and watch.”
The reigning Masters champion, 28-year-old Jon Rahm, who bested Koepka in Augusta, Ga., by four strokes after a six-shot swing on Sunday, said No. 6 reminds him of the famed short par-4 10th at nearby Riviera Country Club.
“I absolutely will hit driver or 3-wood into that green,” said Rahm, the 2021 U.S. Open champion at Torrey Pines in San Diego. “It all depends. It can be circumstantial. It depends on the wind and pin location, as well.”
Short on data to support his point, Rahm felt laying back would produce a lower scoring average than going for it every round.
NOT SO ROUGH?
Spectators on the course and people watching the broadcast should notice that the rough off LACC’s wide fairways is not the ankle-deep “thick, juicy rough” they might be accustomed to seeing at U.S. Opens.
“Typically we’re playing in the northeast and get that really dense kind of wet rough,” British Open champion Cameron Smith noted. Instead, the field will face a crapshoot from Bermuda rough and “get kind of lucky or unlucky.”
“There’s patches out there where they’re actually quite thin and you can get away with kind of a bad shot and other patches where if you’re in there it’s no good at all,” said the 29-year-old Australian, who joined the LIV tour last year. “I think that’s a little bit different.”
TRY, TRY AGAIN … THEN TRY SOME MORE
Competitors from 25 countries will tee it up for Thursday’s opening round. None of them have come further – or took longer – to reach a U.S. Open than South Florida-based Olin Browne Jr.
Making his 17th attempt to qualify for the U.S. Open, Browne Jr. finally broke through, shooting 11 under after 36 holes on golf’s longest day at Brookside Golf & Country Club in Columbus, Ohio.
A golfer at Pepperdine, the 34-year-old professional has bounced around tours and mini-tours since graduating college in 2010.
Named after his father (three-time PGA Tour winner and a 12-time U.S. Open competitor Olin Browne, who finished tied for fifth at the 1997 U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2), Browne Jr. has leaned on his dad’s advice as he prepared for LACC and the rigors of a U.S. Open setup.
“I think I’ve been to almost all of his U.S. Opens,” Browne, Jr., said, “so it’s nice to be on this side of the ropes and have him on the outside for once.”