Koepka keeping his focus on AT&T Byron Nelson

DALLAS – Brooks Koepka is a week away from defending his most recent major championship win, but he insists his primary focus remains squarely on the more immediate task – learning how to play Trinity Forest.

Koepka is making his fifth career start at the AT&T Byron Nelson but his first at Trinity Forest, which became the host venue last season. He watched the tournament on TV that week – “Actually quite a bit of it,” he said – but had not seen the course in person until Tuesday.

“I can’t tell you much too much about it, but it looks good from what I saw,” said Koepka, who is eighth in FedExCup points, the highest-ranked player in the field.

Given that its somewhat linksy-mostly treeless layout makes it different that most courses on the PGA TOUR, Koepka knows he can ill afford to let his mind wander to next week’s PGA Championship, which he won last season at Bellerive and will defend at Bethpage Black.

In other words, this is no prep week.

“I’m here to play this golf course,” Koepka said. “… You just want to play well here. You’re not trying to blow this week off just to make sure you got a shot you might hit two, three times for next week. That doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Koepka’s best finish at the AT&T Byron Nelson was a runner-up in 2016 at TPC Four Seasons when he found the water off the tee in the first playoff hole and lost to Sergio Garcia. Although Koepka had already broken through on TOUR with a win the previous year at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, he was still a year away from winning the first of his three majors.

Now, of course, he’s won three, and had an opportunity last month at the Masters before finishing tied for second behind Tiger Woods. Since then, he partnered with his younger brother Chase to finish T-22 at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans team event; flew to Los Angeles for a Friends of Golf event the next day; then put the clubs away for a week (but remained active on social media; perhaps you’ve heard) before hitting a few balls to a floating barge at a sponsor’s event in New York City on Monday.

“Been a busy week,” Koepka said. “But it doesn’t matter. I could care less. I played this game for long enough, 24 years. My swing won’t leave me overnight.”

Certainly he wants to be competitive this week at the AT&T Byron Nelson. He also wants to find a rhythm that he can sustain at Bethpage Black. It will be the second time he’s defended a major title. The first time went pretty well – he backed up his 2017 U.S. Open win with a successful defense last summer at Shinnecock Hills.

“I like building a little bit of rhythm, finding your game, figuring out how to score, to manage your game,” Koepka said. “We’ve looked at stats and usually my second week out is my best week.”

Maybe his best weeks of the season are about to arrive. Although he’s already won once – last fall’s THE CJ CUP @NINE BRIDGES in Korea – he wasn’t particularly happy with his play in the early part of 2019. He called it a “little lull period.”

Frustrated by his putting, he went back to his old putting coach, Jeff Pierce, to solve some of the issues. Now?

“Feel pretty confident,” he said. “Augusta was the first week we started working together. It feels good. I’m happy. I’m happy where I’m at and hopefully I’ll have a good week this week.”