Golf

Sport24.co.za | Third-ranked Koepka tries to find form at Honda Classic



Miami – Four-time major winner Brooks Koepka says he is fit and regaining peak form after a left knee injury as he prepares for Thursday’s start of the US PGA Honda Classic.

World No 3 Koepka, hoping to regain full strength in time for the Masters in April, has struggled in his comeback from a partially torn patella tendon in his left knee that required stem cell therapy last August.

He missed the cut last October at Las Vegas and withdrew while defending a title in South Korea after tweaking his knee, forcing him out of the Presidents Cup.

Koepka shared 34th last month at Abu Dhabi in his 2020 debut and shared 43rd two weeks ago at Riviera in his first US event of the year, setting the stage for this week’s showdown at PGA National.

“I’ve just played bad,” Koepka said. “Knee is great. I wouldn’t be playing if I couldn’t play or if there was pain or if I didn’t feel like I could come out here and compete at my best.

“Everything is better than we expected it to be at this point in time. It’s stable. It feels good… It has progressed great… We’ve got it right where we want it, and it’s just now about building even more strength around it and really understanding a different approach on workouts.”

The 29-year-old American will chase his third consecutive PGA Championship title in May at Harding Park in San Francisco and seek his third US Open crown in four years in June at Winged Foot just outside New York.

Koepka is hoping to turn around his fortunes this year with consistency and success at the Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, layout.

“It seems like I make a few birdies and then follow it up with a bogey, and any momentum has been killed, which is not usually how I’m used to playing golf,” Koepka said. “Hopefully it’ll start to turn around here. I feel good. I’m excited to play.”

Koepka will take next week off before a run of three consecutive events, the Players Championship, Valspar Championship and WGC Match Play before another week off ahead of the Masters.

“It’ll be three weeks in a row for me, which will be nice to kind of have something to build on,” he said. “It has been one week on, one week off, where it’s not tough to build a rhythm, but it’s just a lot easier when you’ve got three weeks in a row to really find your game.

“I’ve done really well when I’ve played multiple weeks in a row. Every major I’ve won, I’ve played the week before. My second week out in a row is usually my best week, second and third week. It’ll be nice to get going in that little stretch.”

Koepka will be following talent rather than money when it comes to the proposed Premier Golf League, saying “I’m just going to play where the best players play.

“For me, money doesn’t matter. It’s not something that’s important. I just want to be happy. Money is not going to make me happy. I just want to play against the best.”





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