What Brooks Koepka did on day one at the US Open which reminded Brandel Chamblee of Dustin Johnson in 2016

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The sight of Brooks Koepka inside the top 10 after day one at the US Open will have a number of players feeling slightly concerned with the LIV Golf star very much a specialist on the biggest stages.

Brooks Koepka was seemingly barely spoken about as a contender leading into the US Open at Oakmont. Despite winning five major titles during his career, Koepka appeared to be in no sort of form.

He missed the cut at The Masters and the PGA Championship. Meanwhile, his most recent top 10 on LIV Golf came back in Singapore.

But he has thrown the form book out of the window on the first day at the US Open.

Brandel Chamblee reacts to Brooks Koepka’s opening round at the US Open

Koepka posted a two under par round of 68 at Oakmont to leave himself in a tie for third, two shots back of first round leader J.J. Spaun. Interestingly, Jon Rahm is the only other major champion inside the top 10.

It had actually been a fairly quiet round for Koepka for much of the day. He was level par through 16 holes, with one eagle and two bogeys. However, birdies on 17 and 18 saw the round end in style.

Both birdies were set up by outstanding drives. And speaking on Golf Channel, Brandel Chamblee suggested that those tee shots made him particularly optimistic for the 35-year-old’s chances over the rest of the week.

“When you talk about Brooks, you’re talking about a guy who openly said he didn’t care all that much about regular tournaments. All he cared about was major championships – and he won five of them in quick order. So you look at what he did last year, his best finish in a major championship last year was 26th. He made the cut in all of them, but he was near the bottom in pretty much every one of them. 78 in the third round of The Open Championship last year. This year in major championships, he shot 75, 76 at the PGA, he shot 74, 75 at The Masters, missed the cut. And so, yeah he needed to dig himself out of this hole. All the time he spent in the bunker yesterday clearly helped him, no doubt,” he said.

“But what sets Brooks up to play well in major championships is big-time shots. The eagle at the fourth hole, a couple of bogeys had him even par coming to the 17th hole. And well, Paul [McGinley] called it a heck of a shot, and it was indeed, and this is the type of golf that we’re used to seeing from Brooks Koepka, him just getting up and playing with all kinds of freedom. Watching him over the last couple of years, I’ve seen him really struggle trying to hit those bleeder fades and pulling them, hitting some hooks and nothing will frustrate a fader more than the double cross. That one finished off the back of the green but he hit a nice pitch from there and made birdie.

“And then coming home at the 18th hole, this is very consistent with the guys who’ve won here. Look at the freedom that he’s swinging with there, I don’t know that I’ve seen him get it up to 182 miles per hour over the last couple of years. But this reminds me of a Dustin Johnson or an Angel Cabrera or an Ernie Els kind of tee shot here. And from there, he hit a beautiful iron shot and made it.”

The most impressive statistic as Brooks Koepka puts himself in contention at Oakmont

Obviously, the two drives were particularly impressive, but it was another part of Koepka’s game which really stood out in the statistics.

The two-time US Open champion gained nearly three shots on the field around the greens, with only three players performing better.

Koepka’s recent results make it difficult to know how much can be read into his display so far. But everyone will definitely sit up and take notice if he remains in the top 10 at the halfway mark.