Hard to imagine that a guy with four major championships and ranked sixth in the world is getting to that place where his back may be up against the proverbial wall.
If the FedEx Playoffs started today, Brooks Koepka would be sitting at home.
Fortunately for Koepka, he has time but not a lot of time. He’s currently sitting at 156th in the FedEx Cup points race. The top 125 make the first round at the Northern Trust (TPC Boston) on August 20th.
There’s not much time for Koepka, who’s basically had a lousy season so far. In eight events for 2020, he’s had one top 10 and that came at The Heritage. He’s missed two cuts and hasn’t shown his “A” game at all.
Brooks missed the cut last week at a not-that-difficult Muirfield Village setup for the Workday. He had planned on skipping The Memorial, but that was before he missed the 36-hole cut last Friday. On Thursday, he’ll be in the thick of it, right there in the featured threesome with No. 1 Rory McIlroy and “The Man” — Tiger Woods.
Koepka has the reputation as a big-game hunter. He has seven PGA Tour wins, four of them are majors (two PGAs, two U.S. Opens). Take away the majors and he has three non-major titles — WGC-St. Judge, Waste Management and C.J. Cup.
With his PGA title defense just about 20 days away, it’s time for Brooksie to revive the old “A” game.
“I’m pretty far down in the FedExCup and need to make a run,” Koepka last week. “I think it’s pretty simple. I didn’t plan on playing, but things change, and I’d like to be in Atlanta (Tour Championship). That’s what you’ve got to do. I’m going to basically run the table.”
Nine Of World’s Top 10 in Memorial Field:
The top eight players in the Official World Golf Rankings are in the field for The Memorial this week. In fact, nine of the top 10 are playing save Adam Scott (No. 9), who hasn’t played anywhere is might be home in Australia doing whatever he’s done the past few months.
Number 10 Pat Cantlay is the defending champion. Most all of the top 10 are in good shape when it comes to FedEx Cup points with the exception of Brooks Koepka. Of the rest, the lowest point getters are Jon Rahm (24th), Dustin Johnson (23rd), Scott (29th) and Cantlay (28th).
Wednesday Skins Game At The Memorial:
There will be a Wednesday charity skins game, similar to the one two weeks ago in Detroit at the Rocket Mortgage. This time, it will be world’s No. 2 Jon Rahm partnering with Tony Finau to take on Ian Poulter and Graeme McDowell in a nine-hole match play competition.
For the record, Finau decided he’d challenge some of Bryson DeChambeau’s launch monitor numbers. Last week at home, Finau decided to cut loose and got after the driver. He normally plays at about 75 percent during tour events. When Finau went after it, his numbers were mind-numbing. How about a 206 mile-per-hour ball speed, clubhead speed of 144 miles per hour and a carrying yardage of 383 yards?
How about that, Bryson?
The Rahm-Finau vs. Poulter-McDowell match will be televised on The Golf Channel, Wednesday afternoon (July 15) from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
No Pairing for DeChambeau-Koepka:
After Brooks Koepka hammered DeChambeau on social media with a very, very slight reference to steroid use, social media lit up, begging for a Koepka-DeChambeau pairing for The Memorial. Didn’t happen.
Bryson will play on Thursday and Friday with last week’s winner — Collin Morikawa and defending Memorial champion Pat Cantlay.
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