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RBC HERITAGE

June 21, 2020

Brooks Koepka

Hilton Head, South Carolina

Q. Brooks, after you make eagle at 9 and birdies at 10 and 11, were you thinking, all right, it's on now. Race to the finish.
BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, I thought if I birdied out the whole back nine, yeah. This golf course, for whatever reason, it doesn't matter if you feel like you're making the round, you're really not. Everybody is tearing it up. It's kind of frustrating because you feel like you make a couple birdies in the row and don't feel like you go anywhere.

Yeah, I was trying to get to 21. That was the goal, but I didn't putt very well today. It was as disappointing of a 65 I guess I could have.

Q. You gave yourself those chances coming down the stretch. An evaluation of your play overall for the complete week here at the RBC Heritage?
BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, I thought it was okay. It wasn't too bad. I hit shots exactly kind of how I wanted to coming down the stretch, which was nice. Obviously, it's been an incredibly long time for me to be in contention. Yeah, it just felt good to be back in the swing of things. August or -- I guess whenever the FedExCup playoffs were was the last time I was in contention, so coming up on a year here.

Q. Brooks, obviously, best finish, I think, since the TOUR Championship, actually. How long does that seem ago? Obviously, you've been through a lot since then. What's been the process to get to here now?
BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, I mean, obviously, six months off, three with the lockdown and then three on my knee. So, yeah, it feels like it's been a really long time since I've even felt some juices flowing. It just felt nice to be in contention again. I feel like I played okay. I putted terrible today.

It's odd. I feel like, every time I get in contention, I feel like anything inside of eight feet or a putt I've got to make, I make. Today I just thought with a little bit of the rain, the greens were a little bit slower today. You get a little bit later in the afternoon, and just struggled hitting them. On 15, just didn't hit that putt, and then early on still didn't hit them. I kind of struggled with speed all week.

Q. I think it was early in the week at the THE PLAYERS that you did go out to see Butch, right?
BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah.

Q. Did that have anything to do with anything, the turnaround at all? I know then you spent time with Claude after that, but still?
BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, it did help. Any time you can go see Butch, it's going to help. I had to go back -- a lot of it was just trying to play so perfect and make sure -- I couldn't understand why I was hitting it 15 feet. Sometimes you've just got to get on with it and make the putt. I just needed to reassess.

And I actually sat everybody on my team down -- my trainer, my caddie, Pete Cowen, my agent, Claude, my physio -- we had about eight of us there and just sat down. I told them what I wanted to do is get back to what got us there. I think sometimes, when you get to the top, you change things a little bit. I laugh at it now because I always say, when I do that, I'm not going to do anything, and I think I tried to play too perfect instead of just being me, just go out and play golf.

So it's nice to be back to doing -- kind of take the handcuffs off.

Q. Just wondering -- this was supposed to be U.S. Open week. It's been a good week for you in the past couple of years. Did that cross your mind this week at all? Hey, I've played really well this time of year, previous years.
BROOKS KOEPKA: Should play well every week.

Q. What do you think your most fascinating shot was today?
BROOKS KOEPKA: Just because where I ended up, the tee shot off 9. I'm surprised it ended up there. I got a nice little hop left, kind of killed it on that upslope. It looks like it hit the back of the sprinkler -- not the sprinkler head, but just kind of the slope on it to kill it just enough to hit it three feet. So I'll take that.

Q. When you talk about the break, you felt like you were playing well at the THE PLAYERS, was it more of a physical time during those three months that you could get closer to 100 percent than you've been in a long time?
BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, this is the best my body's felt in years. A lot of work I've done with Derek, with him, just manipulating the knee, the kneecap. It's been a long road. It just feels like I haven't been healthy for a very long time. My body feels great. I feel like I can really move through the golf ball. The knee feels great. Finally able to do things I wasn't able to do for a very, very long time.

So I'm excited, playing good, and I just need to keep it up.

Q. You talk about getting the juices on Sunday, not having that feeling in a while. Was that on 9 or maybe the two birdies after the delay? When did you really start feeling it?
BROOKS KOEPKA: After I made a couple pars. It was like one of those things where I felt like I had to -- I felt like I almost had to birdie the whole back nine just to even out the chance. I mean, to get to 21, I thought would be about right. After two pars, it kind of comes down to, all right, now I've got to birdie the rest of them just to be in contention.

It just felt nice to feel something again. August was the last time I probably ever felt anything. So just feels good to be back somewhat. I mean, I'm not going to win it, but somewhat of a chase, I guess.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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