{"id":517283,"date":"2026-04-07T08:28:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T08:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/517283\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T08:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T08:28:13","slug":"how-yorkshiremans-tough-love-is-driving-brooks-koepkas-revival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/517283\/","title":{"rendered":"How Yorkshireman\u2019s tough love is driving Brooks Koepka\u2019s revival"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sitting on the side of a bunker in the practice area at last year\u2019s US Open, Pete Cowen chose his moment wisely to deliver \u201ca few home truths\u201d to Brooks Koepka. The American has always radiated a rugged, standoffish aura. His five major championships were won in cold blood rather than with the heart-palpitating theatrics of Rory McIlroy\u2019s. <\/p>\n

When Scottie Scheffler left the course in tears after the pair\u2019s 9&7 defeat by Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg at the 2023 Ryder Cup, Koepka battened down the hatches and hid his embarrassment. But after a year without a victory on LIV Golf and back-to-back missed cuts at the majors, Cowen detected a fatal flaw in the golfing DNA of the man he\u2019s coached since 2013: Koepka was feeling sorry for himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always said that I haven\u2019t given golfers great lessons to win majors. I\u2019ve given them reality checks,\u201d Cowen says. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just [reminding him] look how lucky you are to be playing this game for a living and making as much money as you are and doing what makes you happy. And there\u2019s only one thing apart from his family that makes Brooks happy, and that\u2019s playing good golf.<\/p>\n

\"BrooksCowen does not entirely agree with Koepka\u2019s decision to end his LIV contract early Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s not waste the talent. It was as simple as that really, because somebody as talented as he is is going to be very competitive in every tournament he plays if his attitude is [right].\u201d<\/p>\n

A similar pep talk propelled Koepka to victory in the 2017 US Open at Erin Hills, after which he sent Cowen a signed flag with the message: \u201cThanks for the bollocking.\u201d It might have worked again, had it not been for Koepka\u2019s \u201cterrible\u201d putting at Oakmont Country Club, where he ultimately finished tied-12th, but it was the starting point of the 35-year-old\u2019s latest rebirth. <\/p>\n

\"BrooksKoepka after his 2017 US Open win, one of his five major triumphsGetty<\/p>\n

Koepka ripped up his lucrative LIV contract a year early at the end of last season and paid a $5million (\u00a33.7 million) charitable fine to rejoin the PGA Tour. The negotiations were so clandestine that Cowen did not find out about the move before anyone else, nor did he entirely agree with it \u2014 \u201cIf you sign a contract, I think you should honour it,\u201d he says \u2014 and another stern talking to followed in Florida a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Right, no excuses now. You\u2019ve done what you wanted, so let\u2019s just go and play good golf,\u2019\u200a\u201d he says. \u201cHe\u2019s definitely happier. He\u2019s hitting the ball well. I know he\u2019s trending. If not at the Masters, I would expect him to be competing very highly in all the majors. The Masters might be a little soon, but the freshness could help him. There\u2019s no\u00a0doubt he\u2019ll definitely be up for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Koepka\u2019s form on the PGA Tour \u2014 T56, MC, T9, T13, T18, MC \u2014 has been inconsistent, but that has always been the great curiosity of his career. He still has fewer PGA Tour wins (four) than major titles, and the notion of not being able to properly motivate himself for lesser events was never a healthy marriage with the blaring music and bon vivant spirit of LIV. <\/p>\n

\"abrdnCowen has worked with other top names, including Rory McIlroy, but remains closest to Koepka, whom he has coached since 2013 Andrew Redington\/Getty Imagesy<\/p>\n

His putting has remained an Achilles\u2019 heel \u2014 Koepka is 142nd out of 169 players for strokes gained on the greens \u2014 but he has recently switched to a mallet, and two runner-up finishes at Augusta, in 2019 and 2023, are ample evidence that he can navigate his way around the treacherous slopes. That is one area Cowen will not help him with.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was just fearless [before]; never left a putt short and knocked in the three-footer coming back, but it does take a toll when you start missing. It becomes a mental thing. I always say putting can\u2019t be that difficult. It\u2019s 12 inches back and 12 inches through,\u201d the Yorkshireman says dryly. \u201cAnd then you\u2019ve got a 220-yard two-iron over water to three feet and it\u2019s the same value? That doesn\u2019t resonate with me at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amid all the upheaval in Koepka\u2019s career over the past few years \u2014 he joined LIV for $100million in 2022 after a series of injuries had left him fearing his career was over \u2014 Cowen has remained a constant presence. He technically started off as Koepka\u2019s short-game coach after a typically dry interaction at Wentworth, but that title always underplayed his influence. \u201cRicky [Elliott, Koepka\u2019s caddie] brought him over to me and said, \u2018His short game is pretty poor. Can you help him out?\u2019\u200a\u201d Cowen says of their first meeting. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe went down to the bunker. I asked him to play a high soft shot, one bounce, check and release towards the hole. He hit the shot. It got quite close but it was a duff and run. I said, \u2018No, that\u2019s not what I wanted.\u2019 He had another go and it was the same sort of shot. He said, \u2018Well, if you\u2019re so good, show me.\u2019 I took the club, one bounce, check and release and it went in the hole. He started laughing and said it was a fluke. I said, \u2018Give me another ball then.\u2019 One bounce, check and release, and it went in the hole again. He said, \u2018Right, I better start listening to you,\u2019 and he\u2019s been listening to me ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n

Claude Harmon worked as Koepka\u2019s full-swing coach for two successful spells, but Cowen\u2019s forthright approach always had a way of cutting through, especially in the lower moments. \u201cI said to him, \u2018You give this appearance that you\u2019re John Wayne, but you\u2019re as soft as everybody in the middle,\u2019\u200a\u201d Cowen says. \u201cWith Brooks, all it is, is he wants someone who will tell him the truth. He doesn\u2019t want ego-strokers.\u201d <\/p>\n

And so when Cowen claims it is a matter of when, not if, it carries a little more credence. \u201cI know where his attitude is. I\u2019m absolutely convinced he\u2019ll be back there,\u201d he says. \u201cGet within three shots of the lead with nine holes to go, we jockey for position, then we\u2019ve got a chance. That was the plan when he won all those majors. Why change it?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sitting on the side of a bunker in the practice area at last year\u2019s US Open, Pete Cowen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-517283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}