Four-time major championship Brooks Koepka addresses the media prior to the 2020 Honda Classic about his knee injury recovery and looking forward to the 2020 Masters.
PGA Tour: Brooks Koepka speaks with the media prior to making sixth start at the Honda Classic
DOUG MILNE: We’d like to welcome world No. 3 Brooks Koepka. Brooks, thanks for joining us for a few minutes prior to the start of your sixth start at the Honda Classic this week, coming off a tie for second last year. With that said, just some thoughts on being back here and what’s kind of a local game for you.
BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, it’s nice to be back. Obviously any time you can play in front of my family and friends that don’t get to come out really any other week, it’s always nice for them to get to see me, and it’s obviously a little different sleeping in your own bed. It’s fun, though. I enjoy it. I like the golf course. The golf course has always been pretty good. It’s tough; I like that. It seems to be in good shape. Hopefully this rain doesn’t make it too soft, but we’ll see.
DOUG MILNE: I know one of the questions people want to know is how you’re feeling. You’re making just your second start in the calendar season. Just how the knee is doing and how you’re feeling.
BROOKS KOEPKA: Knee is great. I wouldn’t be playing if I couldn’t play or if there was pain or if I didn’t feel like I could come out here and compete at my best. I’ve just played bad, simple as.
Obviously with a little bit of time off, I don’t want to say rust was the culprit of that. I felt like I was doing a lot of really good things. I was very close, striking it well, putting it well, and sometimes it’s just a matter of scoring. You can go through runs where you feel like you play great and you just don’t score very good, and that’s kind of where I feel like — out at LA I didn’t hit it very good. But everything — I mean, everything seems fine. It’s just a matter of going out there and actually making birdies. I just haven’t — it seems like I make a few birdies and then follow it up with a bogey, and it’s just kind of any momentum has been killed, which is not usually how I’m used to playing golf.
Hopefully it’ll start to turn around here. I feel good. I’m excited to play.
DOUG MILNE: Looking down the road, obviously a big stretch coming up. Just kind of what your schedule is looking like coming up.
BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, obviously I’m trying to play my way into it a little bit, a week off, week off, just to kind of test everything and see where it’s at. Obviously after here, next week will be off and then THE PLAYERS and then go to Tampa right after, and then after that I believe is Match Play. It’ll be three weeks in a row for me, which will be nice to kind of have something to build on, where it’s been one week on, one week off here, where it’s not tough to build a rhythm, but it’s just been — it’s just a lot easier when you’ve got three weeks in a row to really find your game and really build off the last week. I mean, I’ve done really well when I’ve played multiple weeks in a row. Every major I’ve won, I’ve played the week before. My second week out in a row is usually my best week, second and third week. It’ll be nice to get going in that little stretch.
Q. In terms of the knee, any lingering concerns? You mentioned the three weeks in a row. Is that sort of a test to see kind of how it would hold up, I guess?
BROOKS KOEPKA: No, no, I mean, everything is fine. Everything is just how — it’s better than we expected it to be at this point in time. Like I’ve said, it’s stable. It feels good. There’s no — I can actually do a one-legged squat now, where I couldn’t even do a quarter squat two and a half months ago. It’s progressed great. Derek Samuel in San Diego has done an unbelievable job working with me, and we’ve got it right where we want it, and it’s just now about building even more strength around it and really understanding a different approach on workouts.
Q. Talk about the downtime. I know you had that unfortunate experience of having downtime before with your other injury. What was that like for you going through that? Is it just the concentration is getting better so you’re not missing the golf as much?
BROOKS KOEPKA: My days were so filled that I didn’t really have time to miss it until I started to get a little antsy right around the beginning of December is when I was like, all right, I really just want to hit balls, and didn’t get cleared, I think, until December 20th was the first day I hit balls. It’s just one of those things where you just sit around on the couch. After rehab I’d be home at 11:00, 10:00 in the morning, did rehab at 7:00 a.m., and then out here, and then I went out to San Diego and basically spent all my time in San Diego. I was out in La Jolla with Derek, where my trainer is at, and we grinded every day on the thing. There wasn’t much — there’s nothing I can do. You try to stay busy, try to walk on it. Doing more activity was actually good for it because there’s other problems that kind of come in. My foot was bugging me a little bit, and you’ve got to get out and move it, and that’s sometimes the best rehab than sitting down and — like if I still sit down for a while, I can still feel it a little bit, if I sit down for like an hour or two, but you’ve just got to keep moving and everything is fine.
Q. When do you start going into Masters prep mode? And then also a follow-up, how did last year’s Masters experience kind of affect you going into your prep in this one?
BROOKS KOEPKA: My prep will start basically whenever I get up there. I’m just trying to play right now. I’m just trying to play good golf and find some rhythm, and I feel like if I find rhythm, I’ll be just fine. As far as last year, last year I’ve said it, I think the more I’ve played that golf course, the more I’ve realized that you don’t need to be as conservative as I think a lot of people will tell you, a lot of guys that have been around there for years and years. You look at it, there might be a slope that’s right to left on a green, and they’ll tell you to play off of it, and it’ll feed right down to the cup, but at the same time, if you just aim at the flag, it’s flat down there. You just hit it right there, and if you push it, it’ll actually hit that slope and come back instead of aiming for it. Where I think sometimes you try to play for, I guess, the crowd pleaser, where it catches the slope, feeds in, and everybody is oohing and aahing, but you can be quite aggressive there, and I think that’s kind of the approach we’ve taken the last couple times we’ve played it, and it’s gotten a lot better. I like the way that we’re attacking the golf course, how we feel on it, and where our misses are.
Q. Was there confidence built last year in learning some things?
BROOKS KOEPKA: No, I don’t know if there’s confidence. It’s more of just an understanding of how to play it. I wouldn’t relate that to confidence. I felt pretty confident. I think everybody in this room knows that every player that goes to play Augusta is going to be confident. They’re there to win, otherwise they wouldn’t show up.
Q. This is kind of a two-parter. No. 16 is the Aon Risk-Reward challenge hole. Last year you had two birdies, two pars that kind of sent you on your way to winning the challenge and the million dollars. With the weather that’s forecast, will that significantly change how you play that hole? And the second part, since you’ve won it, are more players coming up to you or thinking about, hey, I need to get in on this?
BROOKS KOEPKA: Well, I’ll answer your second part. Everybody is in on it. Everybody has got a chance for it. You’ve just got to play good those holes. It’s just a correlation of how well you play that week, too. You play good enough, you’re going to birdie enough holes, and you should win the thing.
Last year I thought I played really well, and obviously it’s going to relate to things like that. You see it in the FedExCup. You’ll see it in the Wyndham Rewards. You just play good, it all takes care of itself.
But as far as 16, it’s pretty much the same thing. You’re trying to hit it about 250, 255 off the tee, hit some bullets. It could be a 3-iron, 4-iron, depending on what this rain does, whether it soaks it. You’re still hitting iron off the tee. Some guys will hit hybrid to get down there, but it’s all pin location, whether — I think any time it’s on the right-hand side of that green, it’s a little easier, or just for me, the way I shape the ball. When it gets on that back left tier, it’s obviously very tough to make a birdie. But the hole itself won’t change.
Q. Speaking of the Masters, Tiger Woods was on a conference call with reporters yesterday, and he spent a fair amount of time talking about one of his memories of last year is how fellow players were happy for him and the way he was treated and the congratulations he received. I’m just curious, next month, is all that goodwill over? Is he just another guy to beat? When you go back there, are there any memories of the previous years, or is it all about just getting past it and winning?
BROOKS KOEPKA: For me, I don’t really go off past experiences too much because then you start — I’ve hit a bad shot on every hole I’ve played out here on TOUR, so I don’t think of that. There’s plenty of good shots I’ve hit on every hole at the same time.
You can’t really think of what’s been good, what’s been bad, but at the same time, when we all get out here, we’re all competitors. There comes a time where, like last year at Augusta, when you’re done, you can kind of go, okay, listen, I gave it my all; I’m pleased with how I played. I hit shots exactly how I wanted to, and sometimes it just doesn’t work out. Then you just shake the guy’s hand and say congrats, that’s awesome, exactly what happened with Tiger last year. I did it with Gary, too, last year. I played great at both those tournaments, and just came up short. Sometimes that happens. That’s golf. You can play your best, but some guys just come out and just flat-out beat you, and you have to accept that. That’s what I think makes this game so beautiful. You can play your best and just get outplayed. And then sometimes you don’t — I felt like there have been times where I haven’t — I felt like I’ve played better in other tournaments and haven’t won, and I haven’t played that great and I’ve won.
There’s just certain times where it works out in your favor and sometimes when it doesn’t, but at the same time you’ve just got to understand that, hey, this guy played unbelievable and shake their hand and accept it.
Q. I think a lot of people when they look back at that heading into the Masters this year will be wanting to talk about what happened on the 12th hole for several players —
BROOKS KOEPKA: What happened?
Q. A lot of things happened in a short period of time. Is that your prominent memory of that tournament, or is it something else?
BROOKS KOEPKA: I’ve said it before, I actually didn’t hit a bad shot on 12. I really didn’t. I think if you go back and look at the tape, I backed off it because the wind direction came — I’ll start it off by saying this: If you’ve ever played Augusta and you’ve stood on the 12th tee, or even if you haven’t, look at the pin on 11, look at what it feels like on the tee, look at 12’s pin, and then try to look at the trees on 13 and they’re all going in different directions. So you tell me which way the wind is going. It’s very difficult. You kind of have to go with what your gut says and what it’s doing at that exact moment.
Not to throw a shade on Henrik, but he hit it in the back trees like 30 yards long. Let’s be realistic, Henrik is not going to hit a shot that’s 30 yards long anywhere. Off a tee? No, it’s just wind. If it gets above those trees, it can do anything, and that’s what I did. You see guys do it all the time. It’s just a matter of does it stay under the trees and go with the wind that’s going through funneling in, or does it get above the trees and do what it’s been doing all day. I actually hit a good shot and it just kind of just spun just a hair too much. But I hit a great shot. I’m aiming right where I should be, right at the center of the green just like everybody else, but at the same time, it’s very difficult.
I don’t think anybody is ever going to understand that, the wind on that hole, and if you do and you hit the green, a lot of times you’ll see guys let a deep breath out because it’s very — I don’t know what else to say. It’s just a difficult hole.
You look at it, four out of six guys I think hit it in on the last day, and I don’t think all four of us are that off on our distance.
Q. I’m guessing that you either saw or heard Rory’s stance last week on the proposal of a different Tour, of a new Tour, and I was curious if you’ve formulated any sort of firm opinion one way or another on what you might be thinking if the opportunity ever happened?
BROOKS KOEPKA: I’m just going to play where the best players play, simple as. I want to play against the best. I think everybody wants to play against the best. Whatever comes of it comes of it, and it is what it is. I just want to play good this week and focus at the Honda Classic. I’m not interested in anything else other than to play good this week and come out with a W.
Q. What did you think of what Rory essentially said, that he’s out? Did that sway your opinion at all or anything along those lines?
BROOKS KOEPKA: My opinion is my opinion. Nobody else is going to sway it. Nobody else is going to — it doesn’t matter. I mean, I respect what Rory said. Everybody has got their own thoughts. Everybody has got a different opinion. It is what it is. I’m pretty sure Rory wants to play against the best players in the world, too. Wherever that is, everybody is going to be playing.
Q. Just kind of an odd segue here, but going back to what you were saying about the Masters, if I were to ask you what the best shot you’ve ever hit was, what would be maybe the five-second answer?
BROOKS KOEPKA: Over at Augusta?
Q. No, just ever, period. What would come to mind?
BROOKS KOEPKA: Probably the 4-iron I hit at Bellerive on the par-3, 16. Just pressure, situational, contact, flight, everything, spin. That was the best shot I’ve hit.
Q. You saw where you recently played a round of golf with Donald Trump. Can you just talk about that experience, how that came about?
BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah. He’s asked me to play golf maybe three or four times, and it just hasn’t worked out. His schedule is kind of busy, so it’s kind of changed a little bit. I had to cancel on him I think once or twice, too, just some things I had going. It was fun. I actually had a blast. We had a good time. I guess my brother and my dad played — not my whole family, but just those two, and we had a blast. We laughed it up. It was fun. It was great to get out there. I hadn’t played that golf course in years, and it’s always funny time I’ve been lucky enough to be around quite a few Presidents and sitting Presidents where it’s been probably one of the top 5 coolest moments of my life, getting to play golf with the President.
And then when Obama came to the Floridian up there, I didn’t get to play with him, but getting to meet him, that was some of the coolest memories — when I’m on my death bed, that’ll probably be one of the coolest things I’ve ever done, getting to meet those guys. It’s so cool. It really is.
I think it’s interesting when you look back and where as a 13 year old kid, you’re going, oh, it’s so cool, because they used to come down here quite a bit, being like, oh, cool, that’s the President and getting to meet both of those guys as they’re sitting Presidents is very unique and very special, and it’s something I won’t forget.
Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
February 26, 2020
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