Brooks Koepka surges into share of RBC Canadian Open lead with opening round 64

Brooks Koepka has never worried much about his ball-striking ability.

It’s always been elite. His putting, however, tends to let him down at times, just as it has often this year. It’s frustrated him mightily.

Following a 6-under 64 Thursday at the RBC Canadian Open to grab a share of the first-round lead, the five-time major champion and nine-time PGA TOUR winner was relieved to finally see the results of his diligent practice pay off.

He made nearly 108 feet of putts and ended the round fifth in Strokes Gained: Putting, gaining 3.491 strokes on the field. Koepka entered this week 136th in SG: Putting and has gained strokes on the greens in only two of his last six starts.

“It was just a culmination of kind of freeing the mind,” Koepka, 36, said. “If you just change one thing, move the ball position back a little bit with the putter and kind of help me free up the mechanical side of it and not really think of anything other than just have it slightly a bit back of where it's been.”

This is Koepka’s 12th event back on the PGA TOUR since accepting the terms of the Returning Member Program. He’s missed three cuts and his only top-10 finish came via a ninth-place tie at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches. But three of his last four finishes have all been solid, including a 12th-place tie at the Masters and a 14th-place tie in his last start, THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson where Wyndham Clark ran away on Sunday to win after shooting 60.

For a large portion of the opening round Thursday at the RBC Canadian Open, Koepka looked ordinary. He was even par after eight holes with only one birdie and one bogey. Then he caught fire and made seven birdies in his last 10 holes to shoot 5-under 30 on the back nine and tie Sahith Theegala, Emiliano Grillo, Eric Cole, Matthew Anderson and Sam Burns at the top of the leaderboard.

Four of the seven birdies came from outside 10 feet, but none were longer than 20 feet, an indicator again of his approach-game prowess. On the 141-yard, par-3 14th hole Koepka hit a wedge shot that checked up 19 feet, 3 inches short. He made it to start a stretch where he birdied four of the last five holes, including the last two straight.

“Ball striking has been good all year,” Koepka said. “Felt like it was OK today. Better than OK, it was solid, but nothing spectacular. I just need that putter to heat up. I feel like I’ve been knocking on the door playing good enough to win, playing good enough to have a chance on Sunday, it’s just been the putter that’s holding me back. Hopefully three more days of this.”