He says most of the celebration will take place “behind closed doors”, but Brooks Koepka will enjoy that victory.
He knows that at some point his right knee will no longer cooperate.
Before Koepke, 32, knocked out Peter Ohlin in the third round of Playoff III on Sunday at the Leaf Golf Championship in Jeddah, he hadn’t raised a trophy anywhere since winning the 2021 Phoenix Open. joined Coming on the exclusively Saudi-backed circuit in late June, Koepka did not score in the top 10, as he drew for eighth place last week in Thailand, Koepka’s first back-to-back match since February, the all while he was still pulling. He has had many knee and hip injuries.
“I didn’t know if my career was over for half a second,” said Kopke. “I said [instructor] Claudio [Harmon III] (who returned to work with him a few months ago) I didn’t know if I was going to play. It’s nice to be able to come back and win ”.
Koepke’s knee problems began in August 2019 when he underwent stem cell therapy to repair a partially torn left patellar tendon, but he ruptured the tendon again after slipping into the CJ Cup in September of that month and having lost three months. In 2020 he overcompensated his knee to the point of exacerbating the cleft in his left thigh.
The following year, shortly after his victory in Phoenix, Koepke sustained a broken “dislocated and fractured” right knee. Although he underwent surgery, he returned to playing Masters less than two months later. Even earlier this year, Kupka wasn’t quite the same.
“The past two years have not been fun,” Koepka said. “It’s been a long way.”
Koepke recently said he feels healthier than ever, but offered some reflections on his long-term health on Sunday.
“It was before LIV, when I inflated my knees and oriented my legs like this, almost behind and to the sides,” Kupka said. “Credit to Dr. [Neal] Al-Atrash threw his name there. I mean, I will eventually have to have a knee replacement in a few years, but I wasn’t sure if I could move the same way and if I wanted to play if I could move the way I wanted.
“I’m lucky [to] To be where I am now. “
Koepka, the four-time main champion and former world number one, has dropped to 33rd place in the official world golf ranking. Since LIV has yet to score points in the world rankings, it is not in line for the big jump after Sunday’s victory.
Instead, he is looking forward to the end of the LIV season, especially the team match, in two weeks’ time at Trump Doral.
“Honestly, for me, the important thing today is to beat the team,” said Koepke, who shares a team with Ohlin, Jason Kokok and his brother Chase Koepke. “I told my brother that I would buy him a Lambo if we won the team, so now I have to go and buy one.”
“Lime green”, Chase Chem.
Ohlin then added: “The team, yes, we are in the lead for Miami, and that’s what we want to do.”
“This is the important thing,” Koepka concluded.
Koepka’s priorities have definitely changed a bit, right?
But regardless of what Koepke hopes to achieve in the future, if the knee replacement schedule is thorough, the window is short.
