Brooks Koepka will be very pleased with himself right now after earning his first top-10 finish since making his return to the PGA Tour.
Koepka ended up in a tie for ninth at the Cognizant Classic last week, despite a really poor first round of 74 at PGA National.
The 35-year-old came back to the PGA Tour from LIV Golf in January, but he made a slow start after his return.
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A T-56 at Torrey Pines was followed by a missed cut in Phoenix, so his fine performance at the Cognizant was much-needed.
After the tournament, Koepka suggested that he’s fully settled in back on the PGA Tour now, and after his top-10 finish in Palm Beach, he may well now have the confidence to go on and win again.
Next up for Koepka is The Players Championship, which begins next week.
And it seems like he’ll be heading to TPC Sawgrass full of confidence after his showing at the Cognizant Classic from Friday onwards.
Brooks Koepka finally finds confidence with his putting at the Cognizant Classic
Kopeka spoke to reporters after firing a final round 65 at PGA National on Sunday.
He was asked to sum up how he’s feeling about his game right now.
“Yeah, I played really solid the last three days,“ Koepka said.
“Didn’t quite hit it that great yesterday, but just controlling shots I think a lot better. Putter obviously has gotten better. I haven’t looked at the stats, but just that little adjustment Thursday night made a huge difference.
“Finally found some confidence. I think that’s the one thing that’s been lacking. Yeah, it’ll carry over for sure.
“Honestly, it was just the putter. The putter, it felt like — because I wasn’t making any putts, I felt like I had to hit it to tap-in, so it was putting pressure on the iron play, maybe being more aggressive off the tee.
“So it was kind of backfiring that way.“
Brooks Koepka’s breakthrough at the Cognizant Classic
Koepka’s improved putting from Friday to Sunday has actually helped his long game in a roundabout way.
“Just felt like I couldn’t hit it to the — I’ve always said, conservatively aggressive. I try to hit it 15 feet right and sometimes you just settle for par on a tough hole and you roll one in. 9 is a perfect example.
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“But to be able to make a few of those putts, you can kind of build a rhythm and build momentum. It was a huge thing. I think Thursday night was a bit of a breakthrough.“
Now that Koepka feels more confident about his putting, he will put less pressure on his long game.
As Koepka said, he felt like he had to hit every approach to tap-in range to make birdies before the Cognizant Classic.
That spread into his driving as well, because in order to hit his approach shots to within three feet, he obviously needed to be playing from the fairway.
Hopefully we will see a new and improved Brooks Koepka moving forward now.
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