Brooks Koepka may be one of 17 players to shoot under par at The Open, but he knows his challenge isn’t over at Royal Troon. He’s one of the lucky ones, as many golfers struggle in these conditions.
Kopeka had five birdies and four bogeys for a 1-under 70 on Thursday, five strokes behind Englishman Daniel Brown, who shot a 6-under 65.
“I didn’t think I hit any very good shots,” Koepka said.
“I putted pretty good today so I felt good, but I wasn’t too excited about hitting the ball.”
That said, the LIV Golf captains made no excuses: the entire field had to deal with tough weather and tough conditions.
“It’s the reality of it. Everybody has to play,” Koepka said.
“It’s not like anything I’ve ever played before. I just have to go out there and play. We’ve got a lot of good players and if they play well, [only] Control the ball. In links golf, if you’re creative, you can find different ways to get the ball closer to the hole.”
Koepka started the first three holes at 2 over par. Four consecutive birdies Rapidly climb the leaderboard.
“I took a lot of bad swings on the first three holes,” he explained.
“And I found something there. When I’m on a roll, I’m on a roll. It was good to see that putt roll in for birdie.” [on the 4th]. and the 3 iron [on 5]Believe it or not, I mis-hit it a little bit and the ball went pretty close to the hole. That’s links golf. You get a nice bounce. It turned out OK.”
He almost Ace the par-3 fifth holeDespite the miss, Koepka said it was his best shot of the day.
The fifth hole was the second-hardest on the course in the first round, so his birdie there gave him an extra stroke, and this will be his first time playing at Royal Troon, having not teed it up in the 2016 British Open.
Koepka acknowledged that worsening weather could make the back nine even more difficult, but he’s not worried about the conditions.
“It doesn’t matter. You still have to go out there and play, so play,” Koepka said.
The nine-time PGA Tour winner will tee off at 4:14 a.m. ET on Friday alongside Hideki Matsuyama and Wyndham Clark in pursuit of his sixth major championship.
Savannah Lee Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation Playing Through. Follow us for more golf articles. Follow You can follow us on all major social platforms. You can also follow us on Twitter Follow Her Instagram account is @golf_girl_sl.
