Brooks Koepka will feature a new look when he makes his first start of the 2021-22 PGA Tour season this week. Make that a new way of looking at putts.
After struggling with reading the greens recently, the four-time major champ shared with reporters at the Shriners Children’s Open that he made a significant change to his putting routine ahead of the Ryder Cup.
“So I’ve kind of gone to my putting coach, Jeff Pierce, we worked a little bit on AimPoint, I started to use that, Ryder Cup was the first time I used it and I thought that was a big thing,” Koepka told reporters ahead of this week’s Shriners Children’s Open. “It’s just using it kind of more as a not the answer, more of the double check or having an idea where to, this is the region where it’s, this putt should be breaking, then get behind it, bend down, look at it, do my normal thing, okay, they both work, just a double check system. Plus it takes a little bit off of having to bend down all the time on the knees so it’s a double added bonus.”
Koepka went 2-2 at Whistling Straits, including a win in his Sunday singles match. He came away happy with his putting after utilizing the AimPoint method of green reading. Well, up to a point, that is.
“Yeah, I don’t probably use the AimPoint as the AimPoint people would like it, it’s just like a rough guess,” Koepka said. “I just, is it a 1, 2, 3, 4, what ever it might be, I don’t try to get too specific with it and just kind of have a ballpark region. So to go with it.”
Following a couple disappointing seasons that have included knee and wrist injuries, the 31-year-old Koepka said he’s willing to try new things as he tries to maximize what he hopes is just the start of the prime of his career.
“I’ve fallen off, to be completely honest, I’ve fallen off of going to world No. 1, injuries, all this stuff, and I haven’t been where I expect myself to be, so I think that’s been the disappointing part,” said Koepka, who is currently No. 9 in the Official World Golf Ranking. “So it was a, kind of kicking myself and trying to figure out how to get better and that was just one of the ways. So I like where this information is coming, because it’s definitely helping and I think having maybe an open mind to certain things is key out here.”
Koepka won his four major championships in a two-year span from 2017 to 2019. Since winning the 2019 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, however, he’s one just once at this year’s Waste Management Open. Koepka will play with Sam Burns and Abraham Ancer the first two rounds at TPC Summerlin.