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Koepka Using Canadian Open As U.S. Open Practice

If you sat in on Brooks Koepka’s pre-tournament press conference at this week’s RBC Canadian Open, you will have gotten a good idea of why the four-time major champion only has two other PGA Tour wins outside of the major championships: he treats them as practice sessions.

On a historic run over the last two and a half years in which he has won half of the eight major championships he’s played in, Koepka gave some insight on Wednesday as to why he may not take home as many regular PGA Tour tournament trophies.


“It doesn’t really matter about the result,” Koepka said. “I could care less what happens. I just want to feel good going into next week. It’s the same thing at Byron (Nelson, before the PGA Championship). I thought as long as I can leave feeling confident, striking the ball very well, starting it where I want to, finishing where I want to, and you know, just hit some good putts. It doesn’t matter if they do go in or not. I just want to feel confident leaving.

“I’ve left feeling confident in 30th, 40th place before at Memphis going into the U.S. Open, so the result doesn’t really matter this week. It’s just how I feel I’ve played; am I hitting enough good shots and really find a rhythm.”

Koepka noted that he hadn’t touched a club since his triumph at Bethpage Black last month before Tuesday’s practice session, and he only played nine holes during a practice round at Hamilton Golf & Country Club. Instead, Koepka said he used his time off to recharge mentally and physically.

“I’ve not touched a club. Yesterday was the first time I touched a club since the PGA,” he said. “It was nice to kind of recharge mentally and kind of try to soak it in a little bit. I mean, I’ll be fine. I’ve taken longer breaks before and come out and played well. I’m not too concerned with it.”

If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the last few years, it’s that we should take Koepka at his word because whatever he’s doing and however he’s doing it, when it comes to winning major championships, it’s working.