U.S. Open at Torrey Pines – Syndication Server

U.S. Open: No surprise Brooks Koepka gets into contention at Torrey Pines

Major maestro Brooks Koepka came to play at Torrey Pines. Is anyone surprised?

[mm-video type=video id=01f8dpykab7eb0zhdkqd playlist_id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01f8dpykab7eb0zhdkqd/01f8dpykab7eb0zhdkqd-c2d00ea3e30732f856d806de682cd8b3.jpg]

Once the marine layer burned off along the coast of Southern California Thursday morning, it quickly became clear who one and all will need to deal with this week in the U.S. Open.

Major maestro Brooks Koepka.

Following a 90-minute delay to the start of the 121^st playing of the national championship on the seaside South Course at Torrey Pines in San Diego, Koepka didn’t take long to hit the front page of the leaderboard and stay there.

The four-time major champion and winner of the U.S. Open in 2017 at Erin Hills and 2018 at Shinnecock, who also finished runner-up in 2019 at Pebble Beach, made birdie on four of his first 11 holes to take sole possession of the early lead in calm conditions.

As winds freshened and the course hardened, Koepka dealt with a few missteps, hitting into a hazard on the cliffside par-3 third hole and missing the green on the par-4 seventh. But he saved bogey on each hole, added another tough up-and-down for par on the par-3 eighth and finished with a 2-under-par 69.

It was Koepka’s sixth consecutive round in the 60s in the U.S. Open.

[vertical-gallery id=778110640]

“You can’t win it today, but you can definitely lose it,” Koepka said. “It was nice to get off to a good start, putted well, drove it well on the back nine, my front, but missed a couple fairways there. I missed them on the correct side, which is what you’ve got to do, depending on where the pin location is and get lucky enough where you’ve got a decent lie and get it there.

“Pretty pleased. Not the best, but I’ll definitely take it.”

Russell Henley matched his career-low round in a U.S. Open to grab the clubhouse lead with a 67.

“I feel like the last year I’ve been playing golf that I feel like I’m a top-50 player in the world,” Henley said. “I’ve had a ton of top 10s. I’ve been in contention. I’ve been really consistent. The last couple tournaments I’ve played haven’t been quite as good, but the last year has been really consistent and really good. I feel like I’m just kind of still playing well.

“That doesn’t mean I’m going to definitely do that the next three days, but I definitely felt comfortable out there. I feel confident with my game. I don’t feel like it’s a huge surprise just because I do feel like I’ve played some good golf in some bigger events in the last year, but in terms of putting four rounds together at a U.S. Open, I’ve struggled with that. So, I’m just going to keep trying.”

Francesco Molinari, who won the 2018 Open Championship, has only played in four tournament in four months but got home with a 68. He was joined there by Rafa Cabrera Bello. World No. 6 and San Diego native Xander Schauffele, who has been no worse than a tie for sixth in his last four U.S. Opens, shot 69.

World No. 4 and 2020 PGA champion Collin Morikawa shot 75, world No. 2 Justin Thomas 73. Phil Mickelson, who won the PGA last month and is a U.S. Open victory shy of the career Grand Slam, shot 75.

As for Koepka, there were only a few reminders of his public and social media tussles with Bryson DeChambeau that have grabbed headlines for weeks now, as a few hecklers called him “Bryson” during the round. While he clearly heard the taunts, Koepka ignored them, put his head down and went back to work.

And delivered plenty of reminders of why he plays so well in major championships – four wins, three seconds and four other top-10s in his last 16 starts in the game’s four biggest events.

Power, precision and pure confidence as he walks the grounds likes he owns the place, whether it’s Torrey Pines, Shinnecock, Bellerive where he won the 2018 PGA or Bethpage Black where he won the 2019 PGA. Through 11 holes he was rarely in trouble and then mitigated damage when he needed to coming in.

Koepka, who won the Waste Management Phoenix Open earlier this year, has dealt with hip and neck problems and his surgically repaired right knee for much of the wrap-around season (he could not play in the 2020 U.S. Open last September). He missed the cut in last week’s Palmetto Championship at Congaree in the Lowcountry of South Carolina but said his right knee felt as good as it has in a long time and he benefitted from the reps of playing under the gun against the best players in the world.

The world No. 10 also benefits every time he shows up at a major championship, his focus suddenly sharpening and his play usually improving.

“I’ve just got a good game plan, focused, I know what I’m doing, and I don’t try to do anything I can’t,” he said. “It’s just all about discipline in a U.S. Open. That’s, I guess, the gist of it. It’s pretty simple. It’s a lot simpler than what guys make it.

“I think a lot of guys make it more difficult than it needs to be. Just got to understand where the flag is, what you’re doing and where to miss it. Look, you’re going to make mistakes out here. You can’t make double bogeys. If you can limit those to just bogeys, you’re going to be all right.”

First-round play will likely spill into Friday. Among those who have just started play were world No. 1 Dustin Johnson, world No. 3 Jon Rahm, defending champion DeChambeau, Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama, four-time major winner Rory McIlroy, three-time major champion Jordan Spieth, two-time major victor Bubba Watson and major champions Sergio Garcia and Adam Scott.

[lawrence-related id=778111166,778111055,778111014]

Wicked, brutal and nasty: Players react to the wild rough at the U.S. Open on the South Course at Torrey Pines

It’s going to be, well, rough at the U.S. Open on the South Course at Torrey Pines in San Diego this week.

Wicked, brutal and nasty.

The three witches from Eastwick? The ill-advised calling card of a law firm? The head-banging identity of a heavy metal band?

Nah, those are just a few of the words that immediately came from the mouths of players when asked to describe the rough rimming the South Course at Torrey Pines in San Diego, home to the 121st edition of the U.S. Open.

Yes, those and similar words are annually used when players are asked to give their accounts of the high grass at the national championship, but that doesn’t make it any less interesting to listen to how the competitors will deal with it.

The rough, after all, is where many scorecards go to die.

“It’s wicked. Spotters are going to have to really be on their game because around the greens you can hit some shots five feet off the edge of the green and really have to look hard to find your ball,” 2015 U.S. Open champion Jordan Spieth said. “It seems like there’s some graduated rough on some holes, and even that first cut (on the fairway) on 12 and like 14 are the two that come to mind, even the first cut is mowed into you.

“So, there’s not a whole lot you can do. You’re not really advancing more than a 7-iron for a lot of those lies, just trying to tumble it down the fairway.”

But back to the greenside rough for a moment. As Spieth said, the rough around the greens will swallow golf balls whole. Well, add feet. A clip shown on Golf Channel showed Viktor Hovland working out of some rough near a green and the grass reached to his shins.

Patrick Reed, the 2018 Masters champion who won the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in January, is one of the best in the game around the greens. But he’ll have his hands full this week.

“It’s nasty,” he said. “On hole 9, I threw two balls down, and they landed just about the same spot. One hopped into the rough, and one of them kind of got in the kikuyu and sat up because it’s so thick, where I felt like I could almost hit driver off it. The other one was maybe three feet from it and sank to the bottom.

“I could advance the one that sank to the bottom maybe six inches in front of me. I’ve seen some guys go underneath some golf balls this week already.

“Now it’s just going to keep growing, keep getting longer and longer. So, it’s going to be a true test around the green, but it’s going to be a fun test.”

[listicle id=778110249]

Fun? OK, if you say so, Mr. Reed. The South Course will play as one of the longest in championship history, to around 7,600 yards to a par of 71. The rough will make it play even longer as most players will favor accuracy over length and try and keep the ball in play with shorter clubs off the tee.

And the rough will have many players, if not all, doing a bit of praying.

“Overall if you look at the rough, it’s sort of spotty,” world No. 6 Xander Schauffele said. “You can get either get a really, really bad lie or not that bad of a lie, almost a flier, which is kind of tricky to judge as well.

“I’m no agronomist, but there’s probably anywhere from three to six different kinds of grass on property, and depending on where you miss it, you can either get really lucky or really unlucky.”

The rough is so penal that 2019 U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland is hoping to hit sand if he misses fairways.

“It’s brutal,” he said. “They’ve mowed it a little bit since Sunday because you were losing balls around the greens. But it’s tough. We don’t usually see rough like that.

That makes driving the golf ball in the fairway even that much more important.

“I think you’ll be a little more aggressive into the greens. Driving the golf ball in the fairway is huge this week. I’m going to try to miss in the fairway bunkers because you can at least advance it.”

Last year at Winged Foot in New York, Bryson DeChambeau blasted his way to the U.S. Open title, choosing to let the big dog eat despite the wicked, brutal and nasty rough. His way of thinking was that you’re going to miss fairways anyway so why not be as close to the greens as you can be. With his power and shorter clubs into the greens, DeChambeau laid waste to those who insist accuracy rules in a U.S. Open as he missed nearly half his fairways in regulation and still won by six shots and was the only player to finish under par.

“I’d say the rough is a little different, so it’s not going to be as easy to get through, I think, with the wedge out here at Torrey Pines compared to Winged Foot,” DeChambeau said. “But having said that, I think it’s going to be the same sort of strategy. If I can keep hitting it to the front of the greens, two-putting when I get into trouble, I’m going to give myself a great chance this week.

“When I hit it in the fairway, I have to take advantage of those holes, have to take advantage of the par-5s out here. If I can do those two things, I feel like I’ll have a great chance at contending.

“I really don’t know if bunkers or rough is better, but for sure just getting it as close as I can to the green is going to be a strategy of mine.”

John Wood, longtime looper for Matt Kuchar and Hunter Mahan, will be toting a mic this week instead of a golf bag as an NBC analyst. He wonders what is in store for rough in the future at the U.S. Open.

“It’s a quandary right now. If Bryson were to do something similar to what he did last year, I think there’s going to be a lot of head scratching going on,” Wood said. “Typically, a U.S. Open was a Tom Kite or Curtis Strange – get the ball in the fairway, get it to the middle of the green, get your par and move on.

“It’s changed a lot the last few years. Long hitters have a huge advantage.”
And if DeChambeau or another banger bombs his way to victory, Woods thinks the U.S. Golf Association will have a “big, long talk about what to do in the future,” when setting up courses. Thicker, longer rough? Less rough?

Whatever happens, the rough will be a talking point every year.

[vertical-gallery id=778110640]

Monday qualifiers and mini-tour events to the U.S. Open — Cameron Young is ready for the big stage

Young will be at Torrey Pines this week, playing in his second U.S. Open.

PURCHASE, N.Y. — Cameron Young was back home last week just long enough to get congratulatory hugs from mom and dad, meet the new puppy and win another USGA medal.

The last 10 months have been a blur.

Young was left playing in purgatory when the pandemic shut down the Mackenzie Tour in Canada a year ago. To gain competitive experience, the 24-year-old from Scarborough drove the back roads to Monday qualifiers and mini-tour events.

It’s not a glamorous existence.

A sizzling 8-under 64 on a Monday in Nebraska last July got Young into the Pinnacle Bank Championship. Over the next month, a string of top-15 and top-10 finishes earned the five-time winner at Wake Forest temporary Korn Ferry Tour status. Another breakthrough came last month when Young captured the Advent Health Championship in Kansas City. He carded rounds of 64-69-68-68, finishing 19-under par and winning by two strokes.

The next week, it happened again.

He won the Evans Scholars Invitational outside Chicago by five shots with an 18-under total of 266. Young was tied for the lead or on top of the leaderboard solo in all eight rounds.

“There’s been a lot of good stuff happening,” he said last Monday. “Obviously, this is a lot more fun than playing mini-tour events in Texas. I’m really thankful to have come as far as I have and to still be pushing forward in the right direction.”

Along the way, Young made a minor swing correction, picked up a full-time caddie and switched back to a short putter.

He also got married on March 6 to Kelsey Dalition.

And it’s probably worth mentioning that Young will be at Torrey Pines this week, playing in his second U.S. Open. He got into the championship last week, claiming medalist honors at final qualifying here at Old Oaks and Century Country Clubs.

He was the medalist here in 2019, as well, then missed the cut by seven at Pebble Beach.

“The golf course will be hard,” Young said. “That’s pretty standard. I’m better prepared for how hard it will be and what it’s like to be inside the ropes of a U.S. Open and seeing people you’ve watched for years on TV. I think last time that part was hard. I think we were just experiencing the U.S. Open as opposed to playing in it, so that will be a lot of different.”

Cameron Young holds the trophy after winning the Evans Scholars Invitation at the Glen Club on May 30, 2021, in Glenview, Illinois. (Getty Images)

The grind

Young has always been very focused.

The only thing he loves more than competing is golf. Early setbacks like failing to advance past the first stage of Korn Ferry Tour qualifying in 2019 were gut punches.

“When he’s on the golf course, he’s awfully focused,” said his father and only teacher, Sleepy Hollow Country Club head professional David Young. “Getting married helped. There’s another part of his life now that’s not attached to how well he plays every day. It’s been a joy to him and we’ve seen that in his personality. But on the golf course, he’s pretty well-focused and works really hard. It doesn’t look like he’s having much fun, but the results are fun.”

Even after he locked in a place to play with good results last summer, Cameron was intent on making a few changes.

“The changes weren’t major, but the swing felt a lot different,” David said. “Now it doesn’t feel awkward so he’s more focused on making shots and less on what he has to do to make a swing, which I think has been a big help. … He definitely has some goals. Some are pretty big and kind of longshots and others are pretty attainable, a bunch of them more now than a month ago.”

Watching so many putts go in lately has also added confidence.

“The golf swing is a constant battle. It’s never going to be perfect,” Cameron said. “Like anything, it kind of comes and goes. The putter change has been great for me. It’s made those ups and downs with the long game less dramatic. There is more up than down now if that makes sense. The good is better and the bad is better, too, just because I’m more confident on and around the greens. It’s been a pretty big boost to my morale, not being as stressed about the putter.”

Adding a college buddy to the bag has reduced the number of issues Young needs to worry about, too.

Scott McKean played club hockey at Wake Forest, but he’s also an accomplished golfer who grew up caddying and competed in the Philadelphia area. He occasionally still attempts to Monday qualify at Korn Ferry Tour events.

“It’s great,” Young said of the relationship.” We spend more time together than probably either of us would really like even though we’re really good friends. We have a good time. It makes it easier when you’re hanging out with somebody you enjoy for weeks and months at a time.”

Marriage has also provided an escape.

He began dating Kelsey after graduating from Wake Forest, but they have known each other most of their lives.

“We’ve known her family since we lived in Garrison. I played hockey for her dad and with her brother,” Young said. “They’re not a golf family at all so Kelsey is kind of still learning the ropes. It’s actually great for me, because the last thing I want to do when I get home is answer questions like, ‘Why’d you pull a 9-iron on 16?’ That would make my head explode, so that’s been a blessing.”

After getting roughly 36 hours to honeymoon, they settled in Jupiter, Fla.

“I’ve been home for maybe two weeks since March and she’s come on the road for probably a week total,” said Young, noting Kelsey and her family will be joining his parents at Torrey Pines.

Former Wake Forest star Cameron Young tees off during action from Purchase, N.Y., on Monday. (photo by David Dusek/Golfweek)

Frustration becomes validation

The latest trip home was unplanned.

An unhappy moment got exponentially worse early last month when Young missed a short bogey putt down the stretch at the Simmons Bank Open in Tennessee and missed the cut by a stroke.

“I checked PGA Tour Links to check on the next week and I was not in the field. I forgot to enter, so that was not fun,” he said. “Scott was actually going to play the Monday qualifier and was like, ‘OK, I’m just going to go.’ He got into the rental car and drove straight to Knoxville, didn’t want to be around me. I wasn’t planning on taking a week off, but I went home and it was probably a good thing. I came back happy with a little rest under my belt and it ended up working out pretty well.”

Young had missed five cuts in six weeks before the first win.

Watching former college teammate Will Zalatoris cash in on the PGA Tour also cemented his belief that good things were on the horizon.

“He is somebody I know really well and I was able to keep up with him, maybe not all the time, but when I was playing well it was another thing that just kind of validates what I was doing,” Young said.

He became the first player to post back-to-back wins on the Korn Ferry Tour since Michael Putnam did it in 2013. The adrenaline isn’t likely to fade any time soon. Young earns a PGA Tour card with a top 25 finish on the points list, which he can lock up with a couple of good weeks. One more win, though, comes with an immediate promotion.

“I think I’ve proved to myself what I’m capable of,” Young said. “I don’t really care about proving what I can do to everyone else. It was important that I figured out I was good enough to win. And to do it again, that was just validation, and the more of that you get, the better.

“I know exactly where I am now in the standings. It’s hard not to. Our goal is to lock up that tour card as fast as possible and the best way to do that is to win again.”

Mike Dougherty covers golf for The Journal News/lohud.com, part of the USA Today Network.

Lynch: What rivalry? Let Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka earn their pairing — on the weekend

The relationship between Koepka and DeChambeau was always destined to be a storyline at this U.S. Open.

The last two great rivalries in men’s professional golf — Greg Norman and Nick Faldo in the ‘90s, Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus 15 years before that — shared two things in common: a handful of thrilling head-to-head showdowns in major championships, and an absence of sophomoric salvos on social media. Theirs were rivalries forged not by fingers on a keyboard but in final rounds that mattered. Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau, on the other hand, don’t have a rivalry. They have a pissing match, in which one is producing a more robust stream than the other can hope to muster.

The relationship between Koepka and DeChambeau was always destined to be a storyline at this U.S. Open. It’s the first event both men have played since DeChambeau had pro-Brooks hecklers booted from the Memorial Tournament and Koepka responded by having his sponsor, Michelob Ultra, reward the loudmouths with free beer.

If you’re keeping count, that’s two lousy precedents being set: that fans can be ejected because overly sensitive players don’t like their benign badgering and that a player incentivized meatheads to taunt that overly sensitive peer during competition. Those are problems for the PGA Tour rather than the USGA. Or at least they were until Tuesday.

Brad Faxon, a well-connected former player and broadcaster, told SiriusXM radio that the USGA had considered pairing Koepka and DeChambeau for the first two rounds of the U.S. Open but that Bryson had “declined.” There is ample informed gossip at Torrey Pines to suggest Faxon’s claim is not baseless, but the wet blankets were quickly deployed.

The USGA denied entertaining the idea of putting them together.

DeChambeau’s agent, Brett Falkoff, released an artfully worded statement: “The USGA did not reach out to Bryson regarding a potential pairing the first two rounds with Brooks Koepka. Bryson is fully focused on defending the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines this week.”

Alert readers will note that Falkoff did not explicitly address whether anyone had reached out to DeChambeau’s management team.

When asked, DeChambeau said, “there was never really anything that went through me.”

[Parse; verb; analyze a sentence into its parts and describe their syntactic roles.]

Koepka said he personally wasn’t asked and that he wouldn’t care anyway. “I don’t care who I’m paired with. It doesn’t matter to me what goes on. It makes no difference to me,” he said. “I’m out there trying to play my own game. What happens inside the ropes, it won’t bother me.”

Plenty of golf fans did want this showdown at Torrey Pines, but the USGA did not take the bait. When the tee times were announced Tuesday, Koepka drew Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa. His nemesis, the defending champion, goes with Hideki Matsuyama and Tyler Strafaci, current holders of the Masters and U.S. Amateur titles.

Some golf fans will bemoan that as a missed opportunity. In reality, for the USGA, it’s a dodged bullet.

For its 127-year history, the USGA has been a deliberate and ponderous body, disinclined to be bent to the popular passions of the moment. That’s obviously not always an asset, but in this instance, the decision not to pair Koepka and DeChambeau was the correct one. If the organization even entertained the notion — if — it would represent a wretched lapse in judgment, an incomprehensible willingness to allow its premier championship to become an accessory to a social media stunt.

A Koepka-DeChambeau pairing at Torrey Pines would be awesome for this tournament and for the entire sport, but let it be earned with their play rather than engineered by marketeers. And let it be on the weekend.

The thirst among golf lovers for a meaningful rivalry — preferably one with an edge — is palpable and understandable. Rivalries distinguish eras and give context to just how good the greats are. Tiger Woods was defined by having no rivals. Jack Nicklaus had several, and despite his unequaled record, he came off worse against his two most frequent challengers. Lee Trevino and Tom Watson beat Nicklaus into second place in major championships four times each. They never finished second to Jack.

Men’s golf is now a couple of generations removed from the last rivalry of substance. The game is ill-suited to producing regular head-to-heads. In tennis, Roger Federer has faced Rafa Nadal 40 times and Nadal has played Novak Djokovic 58 times. Yet this generation of golf stars has given us nothing by comparison. But golf fans are not fools: they know rivalries need a true competitive foundation. That’s why the seemingly endless roster of made-for-TV golf matches have been damp squibs. Everyone knows what’s at stake: nada.

Perhaps some folks think a Brooks-Bryson pairing would deliver a spectacle, say a little shoulder nudge on the tee, some coin jingling at an opportune moment. The reality is that it would only reinforce that professional tournament golf — particularly on Thursdays and Fridays — is a solo endeavor in which not much happens for five hours, where contestants need not even acknowledge each other’s existence. Which is why the organization most eager to see this soap opera canceled — the PGA Tour – ought to make it happen. There are surely plenty of tournament directors who would welcome the attention on slow days.

Manufacturing the pairing at Torrey Pines would have cheapened a major championship. Having it happen organically this weekend, would undoubtedly elevate it. DeChambeau said as much: “I think that, as time goes on, I hope on the weekend we can play against each other and compete. I think it would be fun and would be great for the game.”

Golf needs more of an edge, more personality and more personality conflict. Both Koepka and DeChambeau are enormous positives for the sport. But there also needs to be an adult in the room, and this week that means the USGA. Acceding to calls for the pairing would have been a lousy reflection on the organization.

Last year, the USGA unveiled a branding campaign to highlight the democratic nature of the U.S. Open and its famous qualifying process. The tagline was e pluribus unum. From many, one. There’s another Latin motto the organization should endeavor to live by when faced with calls to engage with stunts.

Non ducor duco.

“I am not led, I lead.”

[mm-video type=playlist id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=none image=https://golfweek.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

‘It was Superman stuff:’ A look back at Tiger Woods’ epic win at the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines

Look back at Tiger’s epic win through the eyes of those who witnessed it first hand.

On a spectacular sun-drenched stage above the Pacific Ocean, Tiger Woods delivered the most astonishing performance in a career filled with spectacular acts of genius, power, artistry and relentless determination.

In the 2008 U.S. Open, the national championship that tees up the harshest challenge golfers face each year, Woods conquered the cruel Torrey Pines Golf Club’s South Course in San Diego, beat back a field of the world’s best players and somehow overcame excruciating pain to win his 14th major championship.

Playing with stress fractures in the tibia of his left leg and torn ligaments in his left knee, Woods, then 32, captured his third U.S. Open title in a thrilling Monday playoff duel with long-shot Rocco Mediate, whose loquacious, down-to-earth manner provided quite the contrast.

Woods grimaced, limped and at times staggered through five days of golf to join Jack Nicklaus as the only players to win the career Grand Slam three times over.

“It was Superman stuff,” said Dottie Pepper, a two-time major champion and current TV analyst. “One of the greatest achievements in the history of sports.”

Woods’ heroics that week included an inward 5-under-par 30 in the second round, a six-hole blitz to take the lead Saturday and one of the most memorable putts in tournament history on the 72nd hole.

A winner of a record-tying 82 PGA Tour titles, Woods said the 1997 Masters, which he won by a record 12 shots for his first major triumph, was the most memorable tournament he’s played.

The hardest one to win, however, “was, by far, the ’08 U.S. Open.”

USA TODAY Sports talked to 21 people who were at the tournament, are close to Woods or were just deeply moved by Woods’ play. Here is the inside story of one of golf’s iconic achievements. This story originally ran in 2018.

[vertical-gallery id=778090281]

With eye on U.S. Open, unfocused Brooks Koepka misses cut in Palmetto Championship at Congaree

Brooks Koepka won’t play the weekend at Congaree, but doesn’t see any reason to panic with the U.S. Open on the horizon.

RIDGELAND, S.C. – With his mind wandering westward to San Diego and next week’s U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, world No. 8 Brooks Koepka lost a bit of his concentration for the task at hand in the Palmetto Championship at Congaree.

The four-time major winner will head to California early after firing rounds of 72-73 to miss the cut, his six birdies over two days wiped out by seven bogeys and one double bogey. It was Koepka’s sixth missed cut of the season, a career high.

But all was not lost.

“My game’s in good shape,” he said Friday. “I know my score doesn’t reflect it. I like where it’s at. I feel even better than where I was going into the PGA. I’m pretty pleased, pretty happy.

“I like the way I’m striking the ball. I like the way I’m putting the ball, too. I like where I’m at. I’ll take it to next week.”

This week, however, his attention span was short, which isn’t uncommon for Koepka. While he has no problem getting motivated for the majors, he lacks a bit of juice in other events. He has won four majors – including the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills and the 2018 U.S. Open at Shinnecock – and has won four other PGA Tour events in his career.

“I don’t try to miss a cut. I just have a harder time focusing in regular PGA Tour events than I do majors,” he said. “Majors, I know I’m locked in from the moment I hit the first tee shot. Even walking from the first tee shot to the ball, my head is still going on what I need to do. Out here I kind of lose focus for a little bit.

“I’ve got to figure it out. That’s why I struggle, I think, in regular events. It’s the focus and the energy, the excitement level just isn’t there when it would be in a major. It’s different. I thrive off that bigger stage, that big moment where there’s a bunch of fans and a tough golf course. I love it.”

This year has been a bungee jump for Koepka – up, down, up, down. He missed the cut in the Farmers Insurance Open and then won the Waste Management Phoenix Open the following week.

Then he tied for 38^th in the Genesis Invitational before tying for second the following week in the World Golf Championships-Workday Championship.

Then he missed two cuts before tying for second in the PGA Championship.

In addition to his focus, much of the inconsistency can be attributed to his surgically repaired right knee; he’s only played 26 competitive rounds in 2021.

He was glad to get two rounds of reps in at Congaree, glad to be able to hit different shots in competition. And his knee is doing just fine.

“It’s in a really good spot. I like where it’s at,” he said. “I’ve done enough rehab, strength’s coming around. 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. So I don’t see anything wrong going into next week.”

[vertical-gallery id=778088262]

[lawrence-related id=778109634,778108788,778108654]