The New York Times - USA (2020-08-07)

B10 FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 2020 SCORES ANALYSIS COMMENTARY

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SAN FRANCISCO — When Brooks
Koepka teed off in the quiet calm of
Thursday morning, he figured he was
not just a contender, but a favorite to win
the P.G.A. Championship.
All golfers ponder their chances
against the field. Koepka is the one will-
ing to do the math out loud.
“The way the golf course sets up elimi-
nates pretty much half the guys,” Koepka
said on Tuesday, with bluntness that has
come to define his personality and cham-
pionship play.
“And then from there, half of those
guys probably won’t play well. Then
from there, I feel like, mentally, I can beat
them, the other half. So you’ve probably
got 10 guys. That’s the way I see it.”
On Thursday, with the shiny Wanama-
ker Trophy that he has won the past two
years perched on a table nearby as a re-
minder of the stakes, he sent his first
drive at T.P.C. Harding Park nearly 300
yards. By the time he returned to the
clubhouse hours later, his hopes of be-
coming the first player in nearly 100
years to win the P.G.A. Championship in
three straight years were firmly intact.
Koepka shot a four-under 66, one
stroke off the lead among the first half of
the field. His always brimming confi-
dence verged on spilling over.
“I’m excited for the next three days,”
he said. His laid-back sentences never
end with exclamation points. “I can defi-
nitely play a lot better, and just need to
tidy a few things up, and we’ll be there
come Sunday on the back nine.”
It would be no surprise. Not only is
Koepka the best major-tournament play-
er of the past few years, he is a brash
counterpoint to golf’s gentry, as honest
as a polygraph test, as composed as the
stoic Monterey cypress trees that line
the Harding Park fairways.
He has no interest in making golf
friends — he told Golfweek that he is “not
close with any of the guys out here” —
perhaps because he is brazen in his sin-

gular pursuit: To win more majors.

Koepka, 30, said he has plenty of

friends at home in Florida, and he usu-

ally plays practice rounds alone on the

tour. It is him against the field, and he al-

ways likes his chances.

Four of his seven career victories

came at majors, a rare ratio in an era of

revolving weekly tour winners. He won

the 2017 and 2018 United States Opens,

then finished second in 2019. He won the

2018 and 2019 P.G.A. Championships,

and is trying to become the first to win

three in a row since Walter Hagen won

from 1924 to 1927. In his last five starts at

golf’s four majors, he has finished no

worse than fourth.

Some widely known contemporaries

still long for their first major champi-

onships — players like Rickie Fowler, Jon

Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau. Others

found major success, but have not won in

several years — players like Rory McIl-

roy, Justin Spieth and Dustin Johnson.

Most of them get more attention than

Koepka, perhaps because they better

conform to the game’s traditional civility.

Koepka does not soften his edges to

make others more comfortable. Instead,

he tweaks some of those that considered

rivals — by everyone but Koepka.

Last year, when reporters suggested

that Rory McIlroy was a rival, Koepka

pointed out, accurately, that McIlroy had

not won any majors since 2014, before

Koepka was a full-time member of the

tour. had been on the tour.

Early this year, DeChambeau teased

Koepka’s physique, saying he did not

have any abs. Koepka posted a photo-

graph of his four major trophies on Twit-

ter and said DeChambeau was right. “I

am 2 short of a 6 pack,” he wrote.

Koepka admits to a lesser focus during

regular PGA Tour events. That much has

been evident since golf restarted; nurs-

ing a partially torn patella tendon in his

left knee, he has finished in the top 10

only twice. But he finished in a tie for sec-

ond in the last tournament before the

P.G.A. Championship, a sign that his fa-

vorite time of year had arrived.

“I enjoy when it gets tough,” he said on

Tuesday. “I enjoy when things get com-

plicated. There’s always disaster lurk-

ing. It’s something I enjoy, where every

shot really means something.”

With one more major victory, Koepka

would join the likes of Phil Mickelson,

Seve Ballesteros and Byron Nelson, as a

five-timer. Koepka wants to blow past

that class. Over the winter, he set a new

career goal: 10 major titles.

Only three men have reached double

digits: Jack Nicklaus (18), Tiger Woods

(15) and Hagen (11).

The next 11 months may be telling. If

all goes as scheduled, there will be seven

major championships.

Despite his bold talk, Koepka has the

pedigree of an underdog. He was not a

junior star like many of his peers. Lightly

recruited for college, he went to Florida

State (and was a four-time all-Ameri-

can), but spent a couple of seasons grind-

ing on a secondary tour in Europe before

earning his PGA Tour card.

The P.G.A. Championship, which

bunched golf’s biggest names into sev-

eral threesomes for Thursday and Fri-

day, somehow did not pair Koepka with

DeChambeau. Having built himself like a

linebacker this year and now golf’s long-

est driver, DeChambeau teed off in the

afternoon with Fowler and Adam Scott.

By then, Koepka, Zach Johnson, Justin

Rose, Xander Schauffele and Martin

Kaymer were among those already fin-

ished at four-under, one stroke behind

the leader, Jason Day, who shot 65.

Koepka was paired with Gary Wood-

land, who beat Koepka by three strokes

at the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.

Woodland shot a three-under 67 on

Thursday, and served as a daylong re-

minder of all that separated Koepka from

his last chance at a historic three-peat.

“It would mean extra because I wasn’t

able to do it at the U.S. Open,” Koepka

said after his round. “I think that drove

me nuts a little bit.”

He also played with Shane Lowry, a

friend and frequent golf partner in Flor-

ida during the gaps in the rejiggered

schedule this year. The two chummily

bantered as they played on Thursday.

“He drove it long and straight, and he

has that little fade back,” Lowry said.

“He’ll be hard to beat this week, I’d say.”

Playing the back nine first, Koepka

birdied four of Harding Park’s final six

holes, the course’s exacting final exam of

rough, trees and water. It was his key

stretch, a promising omen. Koepka was

not that impressed.

“No, you can always play them a little

lower,” he said. “Birdie every one of

them.”

Koepka has not always been cool un-

der pressure. As a teenager, he said, he

was a perfectionist in an imperfect game,

undone by his temper. In college, he was

subjected to a five-second rule. He had

five seconds to react to a bad shot, and

then move on.

It calmed him and transformed him.

Now, even as tournament pressures

build, Koepka usually looks as comfort-

able as a superhero in a climactic scene.

“I don’t think — my mind goes blank,”

he said earlier this week. “I kind of, I

guess, black out a little bit sometimes

while we’re out there. I don’t think of any

swing thoughts. Don’t think of anything.”

He only thinks he should be holding

the trophy — again — when it is all over.

TOM PENNINGTON/GETTY IMAGES

With the St. Louis Cardinals sidelined
by a raft of positive coronavirus tests —
and the Miami Marlins playing with a re-
constructed roster after their own out-
break caused the league to reshuffle
schedules in late July — Major League
Baseball has again tightened its health
protocols in an effort to safely navigate
the rest of its shortened season.
In a six-page memo sent to teams and
players on Wednesday, M.L.B. added
new areas in which players must wear
masks, restricted the places players
could visit outside the ballpark, and said
players who did not abide by the rules
would be subjected to discipline.
“We recognize that these changes

place additional burdens and restric-

tions on players and staff,” said the

memo, which was obtained by The New

York Times. “But if we desire to play,

they are necessary to limit infections

and, if someone does test positive, to

keep the virus from spreading.”

All players and staff members must

wear coverings over their mouths and

noses at all times in stadiums, the memo

said, except for players on the field. Play-

ers and staffers must also wear masks at

all times in hotels — “except when alone

in their rooms,” the memo added — and

in all public places while traveling. Surgi-

cal masks or N95/KN95 respirators are

required on planes or buses.

“We’ve basically been wearing masks

all the time anyway,” Pittsburgh Pirates

pitcher Steven Brault said Thursday.

“This will just add a little bit more, but it’s

really not going to change much. You’re

still not wearing it out on the field. As

long as it doesn’t have any effect on per-

formance, which it obviously won’t, then

it doesn’t really matter.

“It’s a simple thing: Put a mask on. It’s

not that hard.”

Teams must provide outdoor, covered

spaces for social distancing during rain

delays, the memo said, and at least four

buses for traveling to and from the hotel

and ballpark, with nobody sitting in ad-

joining seats and an unoccupied row left

between any passengers. Masks can be

removed to eat or drink, of course, but

the memo prohibits conversation while

eating and drinking, and mandates that

only one person per row be eating or

drinking at the same time.

The league will also try to restrict play-

ers’ activities away from the ballpark, re-

quiring them to get permission from

their team’s compliance officer if they

want to leave the hotel for any reason. At

home, the memo said, players and staff

“are prohibited from visiting bars,

lounges, malls, or other places in which

larger groups of people gather.”

The memo said that the league’s con-

tracted security officers would be at the

team hotels for 16 hours each day, and

monitor both clubhouses, in addition to

their role as monitors of the video rooms.

It added that those who “repeatedly or

flagrantly” violated the protocols would

— after a warning — risk their ability to

further participate in this season.

“I’m OK with the rules — whatever

helps us play the game,” Marlins reliever

Brandon Kintzler said on Thursday. “If

you want to play, this is unfortunately

how you’ve got to do it. If you don’t want

to play, then don’t go by the rules and just

go home. This is just the way the world is

right now, this is how the sports world is,

and I’m sure the N.F.L. is going to deal

with something very similar.”

“We just dealt with baseball taken

away from us for over a week,” he added,

“and we understand how serious the sit-

uation is.”

After Outbreaks, M.L.B. Expands Mask Rules and Forbids Visits to Bars and Malls

By TYLER KEPNER

With a four-under 66, a brash player

begins his bid for a third consecutive

victory at the P.G.A. Championship.

By JOHN BRANCH

Brooks Koepka practicing on Wednesday for the P.G.A.

Championship, above, and lining up his putt on the 18th

green on Thursday. He birdied four of the final six holes,

including the 18th, at T.P.C. Harding Park in San Francisco.

SEAN M. HAFFEY/GETTY IMAGES

‘The way the

golf course sets

up eliminates

pretty much half

the guys.’

BROOKS KOEPKA,

who entered the

clubhouse tied for

second, one stroke

behind Jason Day

Koepka’s Here to Win

Majors, Not Friends