{"id":566357,"date":"2026-03-26T21:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T21:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/566357\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T21:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T21:00:08","slug":"brooks-koepka-says-unknown-hindrance-cost-him-easily-6-7-shots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/566357\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooks Koepka says unknown hindrance cost him \u2018easily 6, 7 shots\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brooks Koepka\u2019s iron play has been exceptional since his much-anticipated return<\/a> to the PGA Tour at the Farmers Insurance Open in January. So dialed has Koepka been with his approaches that he is leading the Tour in that strokes gained category, picking up a cool 1.089 shots against his opponents. \u201cBall-striking feels really, really good,\u201d Koepka said Wednesday from the Texas Children\u2019s Houston Open<\/a>. \u201cEverything\u2019s trending in a nice direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, not quite everything, because the consistency Koepka has exhibited from the fairway has not translated to the tee, where from he ranks 151st in driving accuracy (51.61%).<\/p>\n

After signing for a third-round 71 at the Valspar last week, Koepka described his driving as \u201cterrible.\u201d On the par-4 10th hole, he pulled his tee shot into the trees, punched out and made bogey. On the par-4 16th, same thing \u2014\u00a0except that time it led to a double. \u201cIt really cost me,\u201d Koepka said of his shaky driving. \u201cJust put it in the worst place possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked to explain his struggles, Koepka said, \u201cI don\u2019t know exactly what it is, I\u2019ve tried different things that I know that I\u2019m used to doing mechanically wrong, alignment, ball position, different things like that, and I don\u2019t know, just can\u2019t quite figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Koepka shot another 71 and finished at four under for the week, seven back of winner Matt Fitzpatrick<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sometime between the Valspar\u2019s conclusion and Koepka\u2019s Wednesday press conference in Houston, though, Koepka and his team did figure something out: his Titleist\u00a0GT3\u00a0driver\u00a0head was, as Koepka put it, \u201ca little mashed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Driver heads commonly wear out on the world\u2019s best players. The extreme speeds<\/a> at which they swing their clubs paired with drivers\u2019 ultra-thin faces means at some point something\u2019s gonna give. Sometimes the aging materializes in obvious signs \u2014\u00a0i.e., a dent in the face \u2014\u00a0other times it\u2019s more subtle. Koepka\u2019s damage appeared to fall into the latter camp, but when he tested the club on a TrackMan unit in Houston on Tuesday, the numbers, he said, indicated there was a problem. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a bit spinny,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if it had a little crack in it or something was going wrong with it. We\u2019ve got that sorted now. That cost me easily six, seven shots last week.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Koepka\u2019s claim is true, he would have very much been in the mix last week. That\u2019s also the goal this week in Houston, where Koepka is set to go off at 1:53 p.m. local time Thursday with Jake Knapp and Michael Thorbjornsen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the way I\u2019m playing,\u201d Koepka said. \u201cJust want to put myself in contention here for the first time before Augusta.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brooks Koepka\u2019s iron play has been exceptional since his much-anticipated return to the PGA Tour at the Farmers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-566357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}