PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 18, 2021

Brooks Koepka

The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Good morning and welcome back to the 2021 PGA Championship here at the Ocean Course in Kiawah Island, South Carolina. We are very pleased to be joined by two-time PGA champion Brooks Koepka.

Brooks, welcome back to your ninth career PGA Championship. Maybe not the typical PGA Championship, but what about the Ocean Course excites you and what maybe facet of it gives you a little bit of pause?

BROOKS KOEPKA: I like it. I think there's a lot of options off the tee, where maybe driver isn't exactly the play. But if you can fit it up there and not kind of put it in the rough, it's a big advantage.

You're going to miss quite a few greens, especially if this wind is blowing. You could leave yourself some difficult chips around the greens, so you've got to be real tidy around there.

But I like this golf course, think it sets up really well for me, and I'm excited.

Q. Just to get an understanding of your health and how you feel, is there anything you feel you can't necessarily do on the golf course?

BROOKS KOEPKA: No, I feel like I can hit every shot. It's not like Augusta where I'm trying to figure out what's the best line to walk instead of figuring out -- now I can actually hit golf shots and understand what's going on.

For a while it was just I neglected putting just to see if I could hit shots, because if I can't hit shots I can't play. No point in that. No, I got everything under control and know what I'm doing. Last week was a good test just to see where I'm at for two days.

I thought if I got four, it would be nice, but two days of rest didn't hurt me.

Q. Can you talk about last week, what exactly you probably needed to work on, if anything, from your injury and coming back out here?

BROOKS KOEPKA: Last week was just kind of a make sure everything is -- I can walk the golf course without pain. So I checked that one off. I can swing no problem, different lies, different situations, and it was fine. So I was very pleased with that.

Like I said, I just neglected putting just because my focus was on making sure that I could swing the golf club, but I went to Kentucky for two days and got that sorted, so I like where I'm at.

Q. Did you need to shut it down for a little while after Augusta to sort of -- I don't know if recover is the right word, but did you feel like you needed to reset for a few days or a week or whatever the time frame was?

BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, I didn't pick up a club until a week before, last week, so I was out in LA doing a bunch of rehab, did some rehab at my house with my physio, Mark. He came down for about a week and then went to -- maybe week and a half -- and then went to LA just to continue to rehab for about another week and a half.

Yeah, I was busy doing that. That was kind of my first priority. Otherwise I wouldn't be out here.

Q. Obviously it would have been hard to not play at Augusta, but looking back, did it set you back at all by doing that?

BROOKS KOEPKA: No, it didn't set me back. I was fine.

Just for my own satisfaction, I wanted to play. I was determined to do it. That was the goal all along. I was able to do it. Obviously I didn't play the way I wanted to. It's not fun when you can't do the thing you know you're capable of, but just to be out there, it was mentally satisfying just to -- nobody knows what I went through for those four weeks, three and a half, whatever, four weeks. Every time I was doing something, I just envisioned myself playing at Augusta.

Like I said, what was it, like a week and a half in trying to ride a bike backwards and you can't go around the cycle. It takes a lot -- I guess a lot of heart just to do it, but that was the goal.

Q. Just wondering after Augusta and coming back, you said the week before last, did you find anything in your golf swing from a compensation standpoint for the knee?

BROOKS KOEPKA: No, I mean, there's -- when I came back, when I started hitting balls, I found that all the way through about 7-iron I was fine, and then anything above 7-iron occasionally I just wouldn't -- I'd go to push off my right leg and there was just nothing there.

Happened a couple times last week, but it's only with driver and it's not -- it's getting less and less every day I play on it. I'm doing rehab, and now it seems that driver is the only club where it might do it. And instead of being one out of every 10 times, now it's like one out of every 20.

Every day it's getting better and better, and we'll see where it's at.

Q. Un-health related, but could I get your thoughts on the 17th hole?

BROOKS KOEPKA: I haven't played it yet.

Q. What was the doctor's timeline for you to be healthy?

BROOKS KOEPKA: Like 100 percent? Yeah, we're talking probably another six months.

Q. What's your timeline to be 100 percent?

BROOKS KOEPKA: Ahead of that. If I beat that, I'm doing something good. I mean, I can play. You're never 100 percent, that's the thing. For two straight years it's been left knee, right knee, herniated a disc in my neck, played in Tampa or wherever we were, played through that. I dealt with that all the way through Palm Springs.

I can deal with the pain. That's not an issue. It's just a matter of being able to hit shots that I want to hit and do things I want to do, and I'm starting to be able to do that. Even though I'm not 100 percent, I can still hit the shots.

Q. You talked at Phoenix about being past all of this, being healthy again. How hard has it been to have to be back in this rehab mode?

BROOKS KOEPKA: I don't know, it's just part of the process. Just deal with it one day at a time. I'm not really looking at why things happened. Not looking at getting down on myself. It's one of those things where you've just got to move on and try to make every day -- the next day better than the day before.

I've done a good job at it. I don't think too much of if I do this, is it going to be painful. You've just got to go back to what you've naturally done for 20-some years, and if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. If firing off my right side doesn't work sometimes, it doesn't. It probably -- for the next month, it'll probably be the same. I'll still go to fire off a driver and it still won't go.

But if it just keeps getting better and better, if instead of one out of every 20 it's one out of every 100, I'm okay with that.

Q. You talked about the mental satisfaction of competing at Augusta, knowing what you put your body through. How might that pay dividends for you down the road the next time you're in a tough situation?

BROOKS KOEPKA: I don't know. I guess we'll find out when we're there. I went through so much those four weeks where out here it's pretty easy. It's easy. All you've got to do is play golf. It's not very difficult. It's what I've done for 26 years.

It makes everything a lot easier. That's for sure.

Q. Two years ago tomorrow you won your last major, which is not that long a time, but everything you've gone through and this tough two years, does it seem like it's a lot longer?

BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, every day has been a long day. I mean, starting from just the training to the rehab, everything seems to take an hour, hour and a half longer, more attention to detail of what I'm doing off the golf course, make sure I'm doing -- I seem to get hurt in a bunch of freaky instances.

It's just one of those things where you've just got to move past it and take it one day at a time.

Q. Did you do anything specifically mentally to keep your spirits up during the whole process? What do you do to just stay positive?

BROOKS KOEPKA: Just spent seven and a half hours with Heather out in LA, making sure I was doing rehab. That was my only thing. Just every day I was just trying to make sure -- from getting around on the bike backwards to, okay, let's see if we can go forward on the bike. Different things like that.

But the satisfaction -- there's still not satisfaction. I can't run. I'm not where I want to be. But at the same time, it's what I've got to deal with, so just move on.

Q. This isn't anything obviously compared to the walk at Augusta, but are there challenges because of the knee on this particular golf course?

BROOKS KOEPKA: No, I don't think so. It's pretty flat. Like I said, it's a million times better so it makes it so much easier. I don't foresee any issues.

Yeah, I still have days where it sucks, when my knee just doesn't feel good waking up and it's not going to feel good all day, but those are getting less and less.

That would be the only instance where I see it being kind of an issue, if I just woke up one day and it's in a bad spot or just feels terrible. I've had one of those in the last month, so I'll take it.

Q. How much rehab do you do during the day when you're out here?

BROOKS KOEPKA: Like on the road or just --

Q. Yeah, on the road, when you're at a tournament. You said you have to do rehab.

BROOKS KOEPKA: We'll probably do an hour and a half in the gym and then when I get back just the physio table, just on the knee alone is probably another hour. Probably two and a half hours devoted to it every day.

Q. Obviously when you were healthy you didn't have to do that. What are you losing, anything -- more practice time or anything that you're losing?

BROOKS KOEPKA: Just time watching TV or just chilling. So I don't do that anymore.

Look, it's part of it. I'll give up anything I can do to play, to be out here. That's an easy sacrifice to make, whether it's just chilling on the couch, just talking to everybody at the house, or doing whatever. It's an easy sacrifice to make.

THE MODERATOR: Brooks, thank you for finding us, and have a terrific week. Best of luck.