Smylie Kaufman thinks Brooks Koepka could pick up a win on the PGA Tour before The Masters, especially after what he showed at the Cognizant Classic.
Koepka bounced back from an opening-round 74 to finish tied for ninth in Florida, registering his first top-10 since returning to the PGA Tour.
The 33-year-old has been improving since that missed cut at Pebble Beach earlier this season. He also posted a T28 at The Genesis Invitational a few weeks ago and now has his first top 10 of the year.
Kaufman feels it's only a matter of time before Koepka gets back into contention for another trophy.
Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
Brooks Koepka had a slow start to 2024, missing the cut in his opening three events. But in recent weeks, there have been signs of improvement as he's regained some consistency.
Kaufman, speaking after the Cognizant Classic on The Smylie Show, shared why he believes Koepka is closing in on a return to form and could pick up a win before Augusta.
"He made over 100 feet of putts on Friday morning. Finally, I think he made four putts outside of 20 feet on Friday morning. That's kind of the round that he needed, just to see the ball finally go in. Just have a day in which the putter was giving him life," he said.
"When you can't make anything inside of 10 feet, you just feel hopeless out there. It doesn't matter how good you hit it. So when you combine what we've seen through this entire stretch, I feel very confident heading into The Players Championship that Brooks could, I don't know if win is the right word, but I think he is closer to putting it all together than he is to missing multiple cuts coming up. I think he's closer to finding himself around the mix at some of these events coming up".
"With Brooks, it doesn't take much. As soon as he feels healthy, it's coming out the right windows for him. If you have a hot putter, I tell you what, it opens up the rest of your game to feeling like you don't have to play quite as aggressively with your irons. And I bet he felt that earlier in the year, feeling like, 'I've got to aim at these flags. The closer I hit it, the better chance I have of making birdie'. Of course, that makes sense, but it sure would be nice to hit it to the middle of the green sometimes on these holes and not get short-sided and walk away with some bonus birdies".
Kaufman also pointed out Koepka's familiarity with upcoming venues as another reason for optimism.
"I feel great about Brooks. We've got a fun stretch with the Florida swing, and then some events in Texas. He could play four in a row from Players to Valspar, Houston and San Antonio. He's probably going to be taking off an event somewhere in there, maybe at San Antonio, might be the one he might take off. I wouldn't put it past him to win before Augusta. I really think that he could win, I 100 per cent think he could win".
"Houston [most likely], he's the co-designer, right, he's got to know some secrets".
As Kaufman pointed out, Koepka played a role in the redesign of Memorial Park, which hosts the Texas Children's Houston Open.
The course returned to the PGA Tour in October 2020, having last hosted the event back in 1963.
This renovation saw Koepka working as a consultant alongside Tom Doak. Speaking before the event's return, Koepka discussed what it was like to help shape a PGA Tour venue.
"To be honest with you, I had no aspirations of ever being like I want to design golf courses, nothing, but then being asked to do this, it's a really cool idea," he said, as reported by the PGA Tour website.
"I think any time you can play a hand in having some opinion on a course that we're going to play out here, I think it's unique, it doesn't happen very often. And it's been cool just to see it evolve. I know this golf course is quite difficult. It's quite long. You'll see some high numbers, especially if the wind gets up. It kind of resembles a little bit of a US Open. I think some people would say, which I feel like I've done pretty good at."
Koepka finished tied for fifth that week. But he struggled more the next year and missed the cut after finishing three over par through two rounds.
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