After a scolding from his coach, Koepka flashes major form with a 68

OAKMONT, Pa. – Brooks Koepka was in the bunker during a practice session Monday at Oakmont when his coach Pete Cowen gave him a scolding.

Consider it a wake-up call.

The five-time major winner has battled swing issues this season, but he looked back in form in Thursday’s first round of the U.S. Open, shooting a 2-under 68 that left him tied for third and in prime position to make a run at his third U.S. Open title.

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Afterward, the Smash GC captain talked about the tongue-lashing his longtime coach gave him in hopes of shaking him out of his season-long funk that has included missed cuts in the Masters and PGA Championship – the first time he’s suffered consecutive cuts in majors.

“I wasn’t happy with it, but it was something I think you need to hear, or I needed to hear at the right time,” Koepka said. “It’s not the first time he’s done it. He’s not afraid to.

“I don’t like having ‘yes’ people around me. I just want somebody to tell me the truth, tell me what’s going on, what they see. If I start swaying from being Brooks Koepka, then I want someone to call me out on it, and he did a helluva job on it.”

Besides the missed cuts in the majors, Koepka has made little noise in the first eight tournaments of the 2025 LIV Golf season, outside of a solo second at Singapore. He’s failed to finish with points (top 24) in half of his starts. Although he ranks 14th in the season-long standings, he’s 120 points behind leader Joaquin Niemann.

Suffice to say he hasn’t been a happy camper.

“From the first weekend in April until about last week, you didn’t want to be around me,” Koepka said. “It drove me nuts. It ate at me. I haven’t been happy. It’s been very irritating. I’ve apologized to Rick (Elliott, caddie), Pete, Jeff (Pierce, putting coach), Blake (Smith, manager), my wife, my son, everybody. I wouldn’t have wanted to be around me.”

Those internal feelings were driven by mechanical issues with his swing. He said bad habits led to bad swing positions, and that his perception of where his golf club was during the swing was different than the reality. “Eight inches off, nine inches off,” he said.

Last week at LIV Golf Virginia presented by Maaden, he did not play a practice round on either Tuesday or Wednesday. Instead, he stayed on the range, hitting balls for endless hours in hopes of solving the issue and eliminating his two-way misses.

“I wasn't consistent enough,” Koepka said. “When I felt like I cut one, it was drawing. I felt like I blocked one, it would go straight. I just had no sense of reality of where things were. My perception was so far off.

“I haven't seen it on video today, but I would probably think that my swing looks quite similar to how it did in … years past. It's definitely trending in that direction.”

Rolling in a 42-foot eagle putt early in his round Thursday was nice confirmation that things had improved. Koepka was bogey-free on his first nine holes, then suffered bogeys at two par 4s, the 10th and 14th. But he regained those lost strokes with birdies on his final two holes.

“It's just a matter of executing the feels versus perception for where I've been, I think,” Koepka said. “It's been so far off, it's on opposite sides, but now it's starting to click. Unfortunately, we're about halfway through the season, so that's not ideal, but we're learning.”

Perhaps all it took was a scolding from his coach. Koepka was asked when the last time Cowen had taken to such drastic measures.

“Erin Hills,” he replied.

That was the 2017 U.S. Open. Koepka won his first major that week.