{"id":493911,"date":"2026-02-27T16:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T16:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/493911\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T16:05:11","slug":"brooks-koepkas-comeback-rolls-on-but-whats-up-with-his-putter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/493911\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooks Koepka\u2019s comeback rolls on. But what\u2019s up with his putter?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It would be foolish to doubt Brooks Koepka, man of five majors, who has repeatedly pocketed slights and used them to fuel some of his greatest achievements on the golf course.<\/p>\n

But it would also be foolish to look at him right now, in this current moment as the world-beater he once was. There is something amiss. To ignore that would be silly. So what\u2019s puzzling Koepka as he plays his third PGA Tour event since detaching himself from LIV Golf<\/a>? Broadcasters talked about it during the broadcast of his season debut. It\u2019s that putter. The old one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Koepka\u2019s performance in his first tournament back<\/a> (at Torrey Pines) showed a man with a decent driver and a very solid irons game. Around the greens, Koepka was adept at getting up, but not so much at getting down. The Scotty Cameron blade-type putter he has used throughout his career was so balky in San Diego that he finished dead last in Strokes Gained: Putting of all the gents who made the cut. For context, he finished 12 strokes behind runner-up Ryo Hisatsune, and 11 shots behind him with just the putter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the golf world was probably inclined to cut him some slack, Koepka wasn\u2019t ready to move forward with the status quo. He showed up in Phoenix a week later rocking something completely different \u2014 a mallet-styled flat-stick \u2014 and openly admitted in his press conference that something had to change. \u201cI\u2019ve been putting pretty poorly for the good side of two years,\u201d Koepka said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on but I\u2019ve got to figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t lying. Koepka at his best was a top-5 putter in the world. During his major-winning peak, he was consistently above the Tour average, a healthy baseline that left room for him to win whenever the putter got extra hot for a week. <\/p>\n

His immediate results with the mallet were not much better. Koepka missed the cut in Phoenix where, once again, his Strokes Gained results were well below that week\u2019s average. But as he stated Wednesday, maybe we shouldn\u2019t have expected quick results. Koepka estimated he hit about \u201c300 putts\u201d with that mallet \u2014 a TaylorMade Spider TourX<\/a> \u2014 before putting it in the bag.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut having two weeks of being able to get work done and make some adjustments, it should be a lot better,\u201d he said Wednesday morning in Florida. Getting a new putter going, in that sense, sounds a bit like wearing in a new pair of shoes. The more time you have to break them in, the better they feel, but at first there\u2019s a learning curve.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know where exactly I was hitting it,\u201d he said, \u201cand obviously when you change putters, speed becomes another thing. I felt like the speed was slightly off.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I understand exactly where to hit it and where it\u2019s going. I feel like my speed control has gotten better, and just with a few changes, just tidying those things up.\u201d<\/p>\n

As we\u2019ve learned in his few tournaments back, Koepka hasn\u2019t wasted words in his explanations. As ever, he\u2019d like his game to do most of the talking. We\u2019ll be especially curious to hear what his putter has to say. We\u2019ll have at least two more rounds to listen this week. Maybe even four.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This week he\u2019ll play near his home in southern Florida. Barring a top-two finish, Koepka won\u2019t qualify for next week\u2019s Arnold Palmer Invitational, which means he\u2019ll have a week off before a loaded schedule resumes. He is currently listed in the field for the Players Championship, the Valspar Championship and the Houston Open.<\/p>\n

Plenty of time to warm up his putter before major championship season begins.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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