Brooks Koepka has missed his last two Masters cuts but he believes they are irrelevant when it comes to his course form at Augusta National given the injury problems he has endured over the last three years.
Koepka has struggled badly with his knee over the last two Masters editions, adopting an unorthodox stance when reading putts. However, after winning at LIV Golf Orlando last week, he feels he is one of the form horses coming into the Masters and believes he is a contender for a first green jacket.
“Winning’s pretty good,” said Koepka on Tuesday. “Look, I’ve played five events this year. I think usually I’d play six coming into this. So I’ve played enough golf and I’m ready. It’s the Masters, so you get up for it.
“I don’t really count the last two. One of them was three weeks after surgery, so just figuring out how to walk the place was tough enough. Just still wasn’t a hundred percent last year. So to me, I don’t really count those.
“Look, I’ve had, like you said, some success when I’m playing healthy and playing well. I don’t see why I can’t do that going out this week.
“It’s been a long time since everything’s felt normal. I mean, even Ricky said it yesterday walking down 10. I didn’t have to walk down the side of the slope. I can go straight down, which is nice.
“Being able to just comfortably read a putt, just little things like that. Being able to squat down normal, it’s been a huge, huge difference.”
Koepka skipped out for nine holes with Rory McIlroy having admitted on Sunday that he missed playing competitively with the four-time major winner. But the pair see each other often and the American says there are no hard feelings between the pair following his move to LIV Golf.
“He texted me congrats on Sunday, then I asked him if he wanted to play. We had that scheduled. It wasn’t just a random show up on the tee. I mean, I think everybody forgets that we see each other in off weeks and play with each other and talk with each other. There’s an open line of communication there between me and him. I think we’re both pretty honest in where we’re at.
“I guess you could say that. It’s more just two friends just wanting to play together. I guess you could look at it that way.
“But yeah, I just wanted to play with him, just compare my game. I know he’s been playing well. So it was good for me to see, and I think it’s fun to be able to go play with these guys. We haven’t played with these guys in a long time, so just getting out to go play with them has been nice because it’s been a lot of just seeing everybody.
“It’s been probably, I don’t know, eight months since we’ve seen a lot of guys. We’re still close with these guys, still see them. A lot of them down in Jupiter, so you see them quite a bit. I mean, nothing new. Probably about maybe ten guys I just haven’t seen or communicated with. But everything’s been good, man. We’re still the same people.”
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