Why Brooks Koepka is Always Worth Listening To

When pro golfers are interviewed post-round, the questions and answers are usually pretty anodyne.

"Yeah, I drove it great and holed a few putts."

"My game has been trending for a few weeks now." What does that even mean.

"I have felt a score like this has been coming."

"I didn’t hole enough putts and I missed too many fairways."

It is not the sort of stuff that has you on the edge of your seat, is it? So when a top pro opens up it always makes a refreshing change.

And that is why I am a big fan of Brooks Koepka. He calls a spade a shovel and he has a habit of speaking with searing honesty.

If you saw the first series of Full Swing you will know that he opened his heart. He was struggling with injury at the time and his game had gone south. He was in utter despair.

As his then-girlfriend spoke to him about wedding plans, Koepka admitted that all he could think about was whether he would ever find his best form again.

And, of course, he did. 

He defected to LIV Golf, rebuilt his fitness after career-saving knee surgery, nearly won the 2023 Masters and then claimed the PGA Championship. He spoke afterwards with huge emotion about how much it meant to him, just as he did when he topped the sport’s world rankings.

He has been at it again in Singapore at LIV’s latest tournament, where he made it abundantly clear that his focus is on defending his title.

Winning a LIV event is worth $4m. It is a huge amount of money for most mere mortals. Not for Koepka. And it is clear that as much as he enjoys winning, all that matters to him is what he achieves in the majors. He has now won four LIV tournaments, worth $16m. It gives him financial security - of course it does. But it is abundantly obvious that this is not how he measures his career.

He hasn’t had a great 2024 but that could all change in one week - and he still has three majors in his sights this year.

So how did he react after an opening round of 66 in Singapore when asked how he felt?

He said: "To be honest with you, not a whole lot. I just look at it like it’s a process. I am not trying to peak this week, not trying to peak next week, it’s the week after.

"My confidence is there. It’s just the results haven’t been there. But that’s the whole goal is to peak for major season, and that’s what we do." He didn’t say it but you just know that Koepka understands that the courses he and his LIV colleagues compete on are NOT the most challenging.

In saying that, LIV has probably been a perfect fit for Koepka. He knows that he has to look after his knee. He always probably knows that a full PGA Tour schedule would not be the ideal way top achieve that. A reduced schedule playing in 54-hole tournaments on comparatively easy courses means he is able to rest while also working on his fitness.

You can take it from me that many of the golfers who made the move to LIV did so purely for the sake of their bank accounts.

Love him or loathe him - and plenty of people are not Koepka fans - I tip my cap to a golfer who continues to play in order to peak for the season’s four majors. Many pundits will believe that Scottie Scheffler simply has to turn up to win another major - Koepka will have other ideas. And I will be utterly astonished if he is not in the mix come the final round.