The equipment change Brooks Koepka made before shooting 66 at the Cognizant Classic
· Yahoo Sports
Brooks Koepka bounced back from a poor opening round at the Cognizant Classic emphatically.
After starting the tournament three over par with an opening round 74, he battled back to make the cut with a score of 66 on Friday.
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Koepka refound his form on the greens after enduring long-term struggles with his putting, which forced him to change his putter for the first time in over a decade. He couldn’t hole anything on Thursday, but was the third-best putter in the field during his second round.
He looked like a different player on Friday, and part of that can be credit to an equipment change he made that flew under the radar.
Photo by Raj Mehta/Getty ImagesBrooks Koepka changed golf balls at the Cognizant Classic
Koepka started the Cognizant Classic using a Srixon Z Star Diamond, a golf ball he has used since 2021. But on Friday, he switched to a Titleist Pro V1x, widely regarded as the best ball in golf.
Clearly, the change worked, as he went five under par on his first nine holes, immediately connecting with the new ball. His scorecard was stained only by a bogey on the penultimate hole of his round.
This isn’t the first time he has made this change. Koepka made the same move at the 2022 US Open at Winged Foot, but it didn’t produce the same result. He finished T55 at that U.S. Open, finishing +12 for the week despite using the ball for all four rounds.
But after his showing on Friday using the Pro V1X, expect him to keep it in his bag for the remainder of this event.
What Brooks Koepka did to fix his putting stroke at the Cognizant Classic
Koepka’s putting struggles are well-documented at this point, but he appeared to have corrected his putting stroke during his second round. Afterwards, he explained the changes that he has made.
The five-time major winner said, “We changed my mechanics so I’m going with the feel of what feels good. Like I said, I was just cheating it yesterday, so at setup my hands were too far back, so that was the only thing.
“Once I got them forward, I felt like I really saw the line a lot better and could see where, visually, it’s got to take off on the right line. They weren’t matching yesterday.
He continued, “You can always change something in the round and try to do something. It just wasn’t – it’s very hard to see from the naked eye.
“You’d have to really get up — that’s why when I got done here I ran over to the putting green and sent some video and we kind of talked it out and noticed that, but that was really the only thing, but the stroke was fine.”
We’ll see if Koepka really is back on the right track on the greens during the rest of this tournament, but signs are good so far.