PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 21, 2021

Brooks Koepka

The Ocean Course at Kiawah

Flash Quotes

THE MODERATOR: We are pleased to be joined by Brooks Koepka, who posted a 71 today, 1-under par, 4-under par for the championship.

Q. If you had to grade today's round, what would you give it?

BROOKS KOEPKA: C-plus. I missed that short one on 4, missed a short one there again on 16. I thought I struck it great. I drove it a lot better. But it's tough to putt in this wind, man. Sometimes you're playing the wind, and sometimes you don't. The wind might take it a little bit, but you're also not trying to firm it, either, and have another three-footer coming back. I understand everybody else is probably going to miss a few short ones with this wind, but I ball struck my way around this golf course.

Q. Does that putt at 18 make dinner taste a little better?

BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, I would have been pretty disappointed with even par. I would have felt like I could have played a lot better. But 1-under in these conditions, it's okay.

Q. What were you looking at for your second on 7?

BROOKS KOEPKA: When it was in that bush?

Q. Yeah.

BROOKS KOEPKA: I don't remember what it was, but I just know it was a perfect 8-iron if we just hit it right, kind of let the wind try to take it, and was fortunate enough to get on the green and then holed a long putt. It kind of felt like missing that short one and three-putting the previous hole, it kind of made up for that. You're not really expecting to make eagle out of a bush. You'd have taken birdie happily. But got there and then made another one on 11. Nice to see some of them go in.

Q. Was that a hard shot?

BROOKS KOEPKA: What, out of the bush? I don't know, you tell me. It was in a bush. (Chuckles.)

Q. It must be really hard to grind through the rehab as you've done now multiple times. How did you use the anticipation of moments like this to help motivate you when it was really tough?

BROOKS KOEPKA: This was all easy. Everything I did in rehab was a hell of a lot harder, I can promise you that. I know Dr. ElAttrache, Heather, Mark -- they've all seen thousands of surgeries, maybe hundreds of thousands. They know what I went through. Maybe nobody else really does, but it's a grind.

Q. You've experienced this before, you've been very successful on this stage before, so did that help keep you going?

BROOKS KOEPKA: It's a major, man. It's going to be tough, especially with the wind blowing. It doesn't matter, just go out and go play.

Q. What does your treatment look like tonight?

BROOKS KOEPKA: Probably go home, ice, just get -- Mark will work on me, flush me out, just check the knee and probably ice it some more. I did stuff before we came out to play, so I got all my rehab done earlier.

THE MODERATOR: Brooks, thanks for stopping by. Have a good evening, sir.