Since his emphatic win at Oak Hill two years ago, Brooks Koepka has failed to post a top-10 at a major championship.
That trend will likely continue at this week’s PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, where Koepka posted a 4-over 75 during Thursday’s opening round.
Koepka, who has five major victories to his name, began his first round with a bogey on the 10th hole, a harbinger of things to come.
He made a mess around the green, failing to get up-and-down for par from beside the putting surface. The former Florida State Seminole missed the fairway to the right off the tee, which left himself in a precarious position to begin with.
Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
He then steadied himself with a birdie at the drivable par-4 14th and ended his opening nine with a bogey on the challenging the par-4 18th, which is historically one of the more difficult holes at Quail Hollow. He shot a 1-over 37 over his first nine holes, but the bulk of his struggles were just around the corner.
Koepka pulled his drive into the left fairway bunker on the par-4 1st and ultimately left himself with a 27-footer for par. But he three-putted from there, recording his first double-bogey of the day. Two more bogies would follow on the next two holes, as his five on the par-4 3rd hole actually turned out to be quite impressive.
He flared his tee-shot well right of the fairway, which required him to hit a provisional. Yet, Koepka’s ball somehow stayed in play and he managed to save a bogey from beside the fence that borders the Quail Hollow property.
He did manage to make a pair of par-breakers on the par-5 7th and par-4 8th, the latter of which measured only 342 yards on Thursday. But Koepka did drop another shot on the 530-yard 9th hole, another behemoth of the hole that has given plenty of players fits so far.
Overall, Koepka dropped a total of 2.50 strokes to the field total, according to DataGolf.
Of course, last month, Koepka missed the cut at The Masters. That marked his first missed cut in a major in almost three years: he failed to make the weekend at The 150th Open at St. Andrews in July 2022.
Yet, Koepka, one of the stars on LIV Golf, has two-top 10s to his name on the Saudi-backed circuit so far this season. He tied for seventh in Adelaide in February and then posted a solo second in Singapore — finishing five strokes behind Joaquin Niemann — in March.
Since then, though, Koepka has looked nothing like the player who won his fifth major title in Rochester in 2023.
LIV Golf Struggles are Real
Another LIV Golf star who struggled at Quail Hollow on Thursday is Phil Mickelson. The 54-year-old signed for an 8-over 79, a poor score that included a triple-bogey eight on the par-5 7th. Mickelson’s tee shot found the creek that runs down the right side of the entire hole.
Like Koepka, Mickelson has plenty of work to do to get back into the mix and earn a Saturday tee time. But similar to Koepka, since the spring of 2023, when he tied for second at The Masters, Mickelson has struggled in the majors. He has missed five cuts and has finished no better than T-43, which came at The 2024 Masters Tournament.
More Golf: Rory McIlroy Pours More Cold Water on PGA Championship Quail Hollow Setup
