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SHRINERS HOSPITALS FOR CHILDREN OPENOctober 2, 2019Brooks KoepkaLas Vegas, Nevada THE MODERATOR: Welcome to the Shriners Hospital for Children Open. Brooks, welcome back. You're making your season debut here this week. Just get some comment about being back in Vegas. BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, it's always nice to be back here. I like this golf course. It's fun. I've had some good results over the past five years here, and a course I feel comfortable on. You know, I like it here, so it's nice to get back playing again after five weeks off and try to get in that rhythm for the rest of the year. THE MODERATOR: Yeah, and a short off-season for a lot of the golfers, but with three victories last season, how did you use that of off-season to reset and recharge for the new season? BROOKS KOEPKA: Just tried to take care of my body. I wasn't healthy. Had some stuff done on my knee on the Monday after the FedEx, and just been trying to take it easy. Trying to get healthy again. I finally feel 100%, which is nice, and hopefully stay that way for the rest of the season. I'd been battling it there for the last four months of that season. And then just nice to be back playing. THE MODERATOR: And you're making your fifth start here at TPC Summerlin; two Top 10s. Mixed results. What are your comments about the upcoming tournament? BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, obviously some mixed results, but it's a course I like, a course I feel very comfortable on. You know, it's nice. Obviously I've got some family here this week, which makes it quite fun. They don't get to come out too often. Just to be with them, it's a special week for me. My brother is playing. I'll be following him quite closely for sure. Q. Did you get to play with him much before? BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, played with him yesterday. Went around 18 holes, which I wasn't really planning on doing, bur he wanted to see all 18 and get some advice. It was nice to give him a little bit of feedback and a little bit of the knowledge I do have around this place and give him some tips. Hopefully he can build on it this week. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. You played here last time 2016. Life and golf has changed a little bit in the last few years. What would that Brooks Koepka tell this Brooks Koepka and vice versa about where your life has gone? BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, it's changed tremendously. At that time it was just trying to win, trying to compete, where now it's just go out and win. It's great to finish second, but I'm -- one goal, just to win. That's it. Win as many times as I can this year. I enjoy it. I enjoy the competition. That's what I want. I want to be the best. Right now I can set that pace, and, you know, everybody is in the rear view mirror. I just got to figure out how I can consistently stay on top and even grow that lead. Q. One more quick one for you. 19 of the top 50; 9 of the top 30; strongest field here since 2003. Thoughts about the field this week? BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, it's good. I'm glad everybody is playing. I like this event, and obviously for a good cause it's good to see all these players show up. That's what we've had -- well, I've had the last five weeks off, but two-week break and wrap around season -- everybody is trying to jockey for position I guess in the FedExCup. It's good to see guys playing. Obviously a lot of them will be Presidents Cup and things like that and get their season going, but also gets some reps in for that. Q. The Player of the Year voting started up a lot of debate in the golf world. Wondering what your reaction to it was and are you in any way disappointed that it wasn't you? BROOKS KOEPKA: I don't play for awards. I just play to win, win trophies, win tournaments. Yeah, it would've been great, but I think everybody in this room knows -- I mean, LeBron has only won 4 MVPs and I'm pretty sure he's been the best player for more than just four years. Q. How did you spend your time off, and did you do anything fun? How long did you put the clubs down for? You said you had some work done on your knee? BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, I had some stem cell done on my knee. My patella tendon was partially torn, so just rehabbing that. Spent the first probably three, four weeks just rehabbing that and been back hitting balls. I can finally practice again, which is nice, without pain. Last year I didn't practice at all. I mean, I vocalized that, said I hadn't practiced. I finally feel this year I can practice again. I think people forget, too, I also had a wrist injury. I was just coming back off that. I still don't know -- I've only got so many shots left. If I can come back and be healthy, that was the important thing. I finally feel good enough where I can actually practice and feel prepared coming into golf tournaments. Not trying to find it on Tuesday or Wednesday. I'll be practicing this year. Q. (Indiscernible.) BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, yeah. Wrist, I mean, my wrist wasn't 100% and my knee was bugging me from about March on. Just not going to make excuses. It's nice to feel good for once. Q. Just quickly, which knee was it? BROOKS KOEPKA: Left. Q. And you're 100% now you feel? BROOKS KOEPKA: Pretty close. I mean, I can walk without pain, which is nice. If I was going downhill, I mean, I was like limping. I don't know if anybody saw that or not, but just being able to walk the golf course without pain is nice. Didn't bug me too much on the swing, but I could feel it. Was a little hesitant to get on my left side where now I've got no issue. Q. So what percentage were you at to have a year like that then, and a 100% Brooks is going to do what? BROOKS KOEPKA: Practice. I'm going to practice. You know, I've got five, six years left of probably my prime I guess you could say. I want to see how far I can take it. I'm a little extra motivated. Feeling 100% is nice, but extremely motivated to see how far I can push it. Q. Now my actual question. Going back to talking about when you were here and you had the close call, there is, depending on which way you look at it, a really funny or cool gif of your intensity looking over that putt that you thought would maybe get you in a playoff, and then Rod coming through in celebration. Does that sort of thing, does that motivate you? I know it's a small thing, but was it something like that and the little things that stepped you on the path where you eventually went? BROOKS KOEPKA: I don't know. We still laugh about that, me and Rod. I didn't know it existed. Q. Yeah, he made me ask about this. BROOKS KOEPKA: Last year at -- I forget which event it was; might have been BMW. No, I forget where it was. He showed it to me. We were laughing, we were in stitches. It was quite funny. Yeah, I mean, obviously I was extremely disappointed playing what I thought was good golf and getting beat. Sometimes that happens. It happened at the U.S. Open. Played great; just got flat out beat. Sometimes you just got to move on from that. Q. Been 31 years since Las Vegas has had a No. 1 golfer play in this event. That's history for the city and the golfing world here. Do you feel that when you go places, that you have a presence and it's important? BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, yeah. Now I do. It's obviously a little bit different. My life has changed dramatically off the golf course and on it. Every time you play there is a lot more people. Now it's to the point where almost every restaurant you go to somebody is asking for a picture. It's different. I'm still learning how to deal with it. It's an adjustment period. You dream of all this stuff happening but you don't know what's really going to come from it until you get there. It's a learning experience, but it's been fun along the way. Q. From a local angle, opening night for the Golden Knights and they're quite a story and it matches with a huge sports weekend here. Are you familiar with them? BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, I was hanging out with the Sharks guys last night. Unfortunately. Yeah, I know a couple guys or one of the guys, Evander Kane, on the Sharks, so was just hanging out with him a little bit. Yeah, I mean, they've been fun to watch over the last few years. What they're doing is very impressive. It's what this city needs. Q. You were very young when it happened, but do you remember or have seen any video of Tiger winning here in 1996? BROOKS KOEPKA: No, never seen video of it. No, I've got no idea. Sorry. Q. You realize when you say you're hanging out with the Sharks players you take your life in your hands in this town. BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah. Q. Are you going to tonight's game, the season opener? BROOKS KOEPKA: I've got to work this week, so, no. No. Q. Were you able to walk after the surgery or did you have to... BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, it wasn't technically surgery; it was stem cell. Got to go in there and inject it. I was watching it on the screen as they were doing it and it was probably one of the most painful things. I was screaming when they did it. I limped out of there. I was limping for probably two, three days after, and then it's just about trying to grow the muscles around it. Try to get strong again, rest it. That's kind of how we went with it, doing a little rehab. The important thing was to not walk with a limp. Those three days you're kind of off your feet. And at the same time, enjoy your off-season. Q. (Indiscernible.) BROOKS KOEPKA: It was a Monday after FedEx, yep. THE MODERATOR: Obviously we're harping on the injury situation. What exactly was the timeline? So we now know Monday after TOUR Championship and then this stem cell thing happened. When did you start getting out and practicing again? BROOKS KOEPKA: Started practicing about a week, week and a half ago. So it's been nice to be back on the course obviously getting some practice in for this event. Playing good. Actually went to Kentucky, worked with my putting coach; worked with Claude back home. My game feels really good right now. I'm prepared for a tournament for once. If you look at my results it's always been the first week out I struggle, and that's because I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing because I haven't been able to practice. Second week out is a lot better and third week is good, but it's nice to hopefully break that trend. THE MODERATOR: You finally feel prepared. When is the last time you can remember feeling this prepared? BROOKS KOEPKA: I don't know. It's been a while. All last year was maybe the second week out and that was it. That's why I would try to string together a couple events in a row, just to feel like I've got some kind of rhythm, some kind of momentum. Finding it in the week -- even if I didn't have a good result, okay, still trying to find it for next week. Saturday and Sunday was still quite important, but it's been a long time. THE MODERATOR: Was the plan always to do this after the season or got to the point where you didn't have a choice? BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, no, I knew I was going to do it for probably a month before FedEx. I knew. We had decided on that day because it was easy getting into Orlando and getting that done real quick and popping home and trying to rehab. THE MODERATOR: Lastly, they probably don't tell you this, but a lot of Korn Ferry Tour graduates talking about you like they idolize you. What are some of these fresh faces out her that impress you the most? BROOKS KOEPKA: I don't know. I haven't seen any of them. I mean, yesterday was more concerned about my brother, trying to give him some knowledge. Yeah, it's crazy to think of. I guess I feel kind of old now; almost 30. These guys are coming out of school and 20, 21, 22. It's crazy. Going to be here for a while. But it's funny to think that they idolize me, I guess. I never really -- you kind of forget sometimes. The way I view myself is I'm just a regular guy, and sometimes -- it's crazy to think that there are guys out here that are actually looking up to me and idolizing me. It's humbling and a very special honor. THE MODERATOR: Surely you know Viktor Hovland, Colin Morikawa, some of these guys that have already won. Anyone stand out of those guys? BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, Collin is very impressive. I like the way he plays. Matt is extremely aggressive. Fun to watch. His golf swing is pretty unique and cool. I like the way he goes about it. Watching these young guys, they're going to be around for a long time. Guys I'll have to compete against for the next ten years. Ten years if I'm still out here maybe. It's fun. It's so different now. These kids come out and they're coming out of college ready to actually play out here. Ten, twelve years ago that wasn't necessarily the case. But it's good to see it, and, I mean, we've got to raise our games just to compete with them. They're coming out and hitting the ball further, they're stronger, short games are better. It's impressive. Q. I've talked to a couple recent players who have said that your attitude and mental game is something to aspire to. Don't worry about the big moments and just get on it with. Is that something a player can adopt or is that something you just have to have? BROOKS KOEPKA: I don't know. That's interesting. I never really -- I think as long as you're learning every time you play you're figuring out - and you put yourself in those big moments - you'll figure it out. A lot of times I feel like -- I mean, I've had I think, what is it, nine second place finishes in the last two and a half years? I've learned from every one of those. It's important to learn when you fail and then when you win it's important to learn what propelled you to win. I think anybody, you feel pressure, you feel whatever you might feel coming down the stretch, but at the end of the day that's where you want to be. What are you nervous for? The whole, everybody teeing it up this week on 1 or 10 hitting their first shot, their goal is to be nervous on 18 over a putt or have to hit a golf shot to win it. If that's your goal, what are you nervous for? THE MODERATOR: Thank you for your time, Brooks. Good luck this week. BROOKS KOEPKA: Thanks. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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