KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. — Brooks Koepka and Justin Thomas were just off the 12th green during the PGA Championship Thursday and waiting on Rory McIlroy when Thomas appeared to chat up his Jupiter, Fla., neighbor.
Koepka had just come out of an awkward squat to get a better look at his putt and Thomas gestured toward Koepka’s right knee. Koepka started pointing and flexing, obviously giving Thomas a rundown of his limitations.
And while all that might be relevant if this were any other week, this is not just another week on Tour.
Let Koepka put it into perspective.
“It's a major,” he said. “I'm going to show up. I'm ready to play. I've been itching to do this since Augusta. I mean, I feel so much better now. I don't need to be a hundred percent to be able to play good.”
Koepka is not close to 100%. But that doesn’t matter. He was able to overcome a “stupid” decision on his first hole of the day (No. 10) that led to a double bogey to work his way up the leaderboard. He finished with a 3-under 69, two shots behind leader Corey Conners.
Keegan Bradley, Aaron Wise also at 69
Jupiter residents Keegan Bradley and Aaron Wise also were among the group that shot 69.
“This course is nerve-racking and difficult,” Bradley said.
But we all know something stirs deep inside Koepka at a major, no matter how difficult the course. The 31-year-old has eight PGA Tour wins, half are majors and two of those are PGA Championships. He had no shot of winning his first green jacket in April but it was the Masters and if meant playing three weeks following surgery to reattach a ligament in his knee, so be it.
For the record, Koepka missed the cut for the first time in 24 majors starts.
So of all the tournaments to keep focus after hitting a 3-wood into a bunker on his first shot and requiring two whacks at it to get out before making a double-bogey, this is it.
The stage required Koepka to quickly refocus.
“The first rule is, if you're in trouble, get the hell out,” Koepka said. “I couldn't reach the green. It was a bad lie. Didn't know what I was doing. Just tried to hit a pull sand wedge up by the green instead of just chopping it out. So mental mistake there. Deserved every bit of that double bogey.”
Koepka allows himself “maybe” one mistake a day, and said that was it, on his first hole.
Now, he was in major mode.
“I love it when it's difficult,” he said about the long, windy Ocean Course. “I think that's why I do so well in the majors. I just know mentally I can grind it out. Like when it's windy like this, it's not so much putting, it's more about ball striking, and I felt like I struck it really well today.”
At least someone was grinding it out in this featured group with a combined 41 Tour wins, including nine majors and two Players Championships. While Koepka was shooting a 33 on his back nine, McIlroy was struggling to a 39 and Thomas was turning a round of 1-under to 3-over in a span on four holes.
Both finished with a 75.
Thomas also had a double bogey, on No. 18 (his ninth hole), but unlike Koepka he could not overcome that setback, carding bogeys on two of his next six holes.
Pain and suffering on 17th hole
As the group was teeing off at the par 3 17th, which was 214 yards into a wind that was gusting up to about 25 mph, one fan said: “We want to see pain and suffering, that’s why we picked a spot on the 17th green.”
If they were walking with the group, they certainly would have seen lots of it from two of the three.
McIlroy put his tee shot on No. 17 into a bunker left of the green and Thomas’ ball was deep in the native grass. Koepka’s landed 16-feet from the hole.
Although McIlroy saved his par, the worst part of his day had yet to come. Thomas bogeyed, starting his toughest stretch.
As for Koepka, he made par on 17 and his best was yet to come.
“It wasn't ideal, the start,” Koepka said. “It was nice to get it back to even before I turned back into the wind. At the same time, you can't do that stuff if you want to win. You've just got to be more focused. I don't know if that's just the decision I made on 10th. I don't know if that's a lack of not playing or what. I don't know, it was just stupid. I was able to recover, I guess.”
PGA Championship Leaderboard
— Corey Conners 67
— Keegan Bradley 69
— Cam Davis 69
— Sam Horsfield 69
— Viktor Hovland 69
— Brooks Koepka 69
— Aaron Wise 69
Notables
— Phil Mickelson 70
— Gary Woodland 70
— Rickie Fowler 71
Second Round
Ocean Course, Kiawah Island, S.C.
TV: ESPN, 1-7 p.m.
