Brooks Koepka Sounds Like A Man Possessed A Week Ahead Of The Masters

Brooks Koepka held a two-shot lead with 18 holes to play in the 2023 Masters. Instead of winning his first green jacket and what would have been his fifth major title in his last 21 appearances, he fired a final round 75 to finish in a tie for second and four shots back of winner Jon Rahm.

Instead of letting that sour taste linger, Koepka went out and won his third PGA Championship a month later, which stands as just the latest of the countless number of examples that he is a big game hunter.

Since 2014, Koepka has played in 35 major championships. Across those 35 starts he has won five times, picked up 13 Top 10s, seven Top 5s, and missed just three cuts. 

(Photo by Darren Carroll/PGA of America via Getty Images)

Major season is Brooks Koepka season, and with the 2024 Masters just one week away, his sole focus is on avenging his nightmarish Sunday a year ago and getting his hands on a green jacket this time around.

Koepka is set to take on a strong test at Doral in the LIV Golf Miami event this weekend, but made it clear that nothing about this week is about results, and everything is about fine-tuning things for Augusta National next week.

"I've already done my prep, man. Just trying to figure out and make any last-second tweaks I can," Koepka told the press in Miami.

"Usually March 1st is kind of my go for Augusta, and then I crank things up. This whole week is just to see what I've done the past two, three weeks, whatever, how many weeks we've had off and see where everything is at," Koepka continued. "Make sure you're not so focused on the results, just on the process of doing what I wanted to do out there and making sure that certain things are fine and just kind of checking things off. That's all it is. It's not a result thing."

Koepka has always been of the mindset that, when you break down the numbers, winning major championships may not be as difficult as some may make it out to be. 

(USA Today/Imagn)

The Masters always has the smallest field compared to the other three major championships. This year's tournament field currently has 88 players.

When you eliminate the 50-and-older group of past champions in the field, the handful of amateurs, first-timers, and other wayward longshots, the number of players you're actually legitimately competing against to win a green jacket is a small number. 

Koepka looks at majors as a numbers game more so than a competition, really, and this year's Masters is no different.

"I always thought I was going to win. Like I said, I can run down those numbers. Statistically, it's your best chance to win a major," Koepka explained.

Six other words from Koepka stood out during his presser in Miami as well when he said "this is kind of my time" when asked about a LIV player finding the winner's circle next week in Augusta.