Koepka says knee is fully healthy

Seven-time PGA TOUR winner and 2017-18 PGA TOUR Player of the Year Brooks Koepka says he is now fully fit and ready to attack the Florida Swing, starting with The Honda Classic this week.

Koepka had a partially torn patella tendon in his left knee through the latter part of last season where he won three times, including the PGA Championship. He then had a painful stem cell therapy procedure following the FedExCup Playoffs in August.

The Jupiter resident returned for the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas in October, believing the injury had healed sufficiently. After missing the cut in Vegas, Koepka played THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES in South Korea but was forced to withdraw with a reoccurrence of the injury.

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Further treatment forced his withdrawal from The Presidents Cup in December, but the 29-year-old reappeared on the European Tour’s Middle East Swing in late January / early February before making his first PGA TOUR start of 2020 at The Genesis Invitational (Feb. 13-16). He failed to seriously contend in any of those three starts, leaving some to speculate he may still not be 100 percent fit.

“Knee is great. I wouldn't be playing if I couldn't play or if there was pain or if I didn't feel like I could come out here and compete at my best. I've just played bad” Koepka said from PGA National.

“Everything is better than we expected it to be at this point in time. Like I've said, it's stable. It feels good. I can actually do a one-legged squat now, where I couldn't even do a quarter squat two and a half months ago. It's progressed great. Derek Samuel in San Diego has done an unbelievable job working with me, and we've got it right where we want it, and it's just now about building even more strength around it and really understanding a different approach on workouts.”

While rust could be a convenient excuse for his results, Koepka refused to lean on it. Instead it was just simply being unable to consolidate birdies with good play afterwards. Having been cautious with his return up until this point, Koepka will ramp things up in coming weeks.

Following The Honda Classic, he will take one week off before hitting THE PLAYERS Championship, the Valspar Championship and the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play in consecutive weeks.

“It'll be three weeks in a row for me, which will be nice to kind of have something to build on. It's been one week on, one week off, where it's not tough to build a rhythm, but it's just a lot easier when you've got three weeks in a row to really find your game and really build off the last week,” he said.

“I've done really well when I've played multiple weeks in a row. Every major I've won, I've played the week before. My second week out in a row is usually my best week, second and third week. It'll be nice to get going in that little stretch.

“(So far this year) it seems like I make a few birdies and then follow it up with a bogey, and any momentum has been killed, which is not usually how I'm used to playing golf. Hopefully it'll start to turn around here. I feel good. I'm excited to play.”