Brooks Koepka on the putting woes marring his PGA Tour return: 'It can't get any worse'
Orlando Ramirez
SAN DIEGO — In a round that he'd put plenty of circles and squares on his scorecard, Brooks Koepka had a strong chance to head for the locker room feeling decent about his Saturday in the 2026 Farmers Insurance Open. After starting on the 10th hole of Torrey Pines' South course, he was only 55 feet from the cup after two shots at his closing hole, the par-5 ninth. He was pitching for eagle.
That Koepka walked away with a bogey 6 said a lot about how much he struggled with his putter. He had only 39 inches left to make birdie but ended up three-putting from there to finish with a one-over-par 73 that put him in a tie for 61st place, 19 shots behind leader Justin Rose.
There was another flat stick disaster and a double bogey at the par-3 11th, with Koepka three-putting by missing an initial four-foot putt that rolled 10 feet past the hole. He then misfired on that.
For those who made it to the weekend at Torrey Pines, Koepka ranks second-to-last for the tournament in strokes gained/putting, losing 6.19 to the field. On Saturday alone, he lost nearly 5½ shots on the greens.
The five-time major winner was asked after the round if he had hope for fixing his putting issues at next week’s WM Phoenix Open. “It can’t get worse, right?” he said.
“Game feels good. I think putting is probably last in the field, but never really putted well here. Don't know the answer to it right now. I'll probably try to figure that out when I'm done with you guys. But I'm very happy with everything. Seems to be lining up, so I'm very pleased.”
Among the possible reasons that Koepka’s West Coast Swing appearances were infrequent before he left for LIV Golf 3½ years ago is that he is a Floridian who grew up on Bermuda grass that is far different than the spongy Poa annua in the West that tracks up easier while growing tiny buds as the day goes on.
“I've never felt comfortable on Poa,” Koepka said. “You just miss a few and you've got zero confidence. … Today, I felt every three-, four-footer was slightly downhill, and I felt like it kind of went a little bit of both ways. I tried to firm 'em all and take the break out to still be aggressive like I normally am. But I wasn't even hitting the hole.”
Koepka refused to blame the conditions of the putting surfaces.
“These greens are actually really, really good,” he said. “It has nothing to do with the greens; it's all me.”