Jordan Spieth is still trying to find Jordan Spieth

While making his bed one day earlier this year, Brooks Koepka started crying in pain. Although he looks like the toughest guy in the room, the physical agony from his injured left wrist – which, after stem-cell treatment and platelet-rich plasma injections, had sidelined him for nearly four months – had reduced him to tears. Soon, he found a local chiropractor near his home in South Florida. The diagnosis? Koepka, with his soft cast removed, had dislocated his wrist while moving too quickly to pull up his bedsheets. “So he popped it back in,â€� Koepka said, “then we’re off and running.â€� And he never stopped. He returned to the PGA TOUR eight days later, spent the summer winning two majors, then finished inside the top 10 after the FedExCup Playoffs before slowing down long enough on Tuesday to claim the PGA TOUR Player of the Year award. “The lowest of lows and the highest of highs,â€� the 28-year-old Koepka said about the most unusual season. “It was pretty dramatic. Look, at the beginning of the season, I was just hoping to be back out playing again. To sit here after winning two majors and Player of the Year, I don’t think I even thought this was going to happen. “This is incredible. It’s an honor. It’s mind-boggling.â€� But it’s certainly no surprise. He has the game (one of the TOUR’s biggest bombers), he has the adaptability (his back-to-back U.S. Open wins were on different setups) and he has the mental mistake (hey, he’s chill) to emerge as one of the TOUR’s 20-something stars, right up there with JT, Jordan, Rory and the rest. “Calm. Collected. Confident,â€� was how Jack Nicklaus described Koepka. Perhaps the only thing he’s lacking is recognition — although being Player of the Year may finally eliminate that issue. Koepka once told Golf Digest that he’s “really good at blending inâ€� and by his own admission, he hangs out in the background as much as possible. “Most people don’t know the real me, my life off the golf course,â€� he said Tuesday. “I can go to plenty of restaurants and not have anybody come up and say anything, where a lot of guys can’t. Look at Dustin (Johnson) or Jordan or guys like that. They can’t do that. I’m still blending in.â€� Then with a laugh, he adds, “I mean, I get confused for Tony Finau most every week.â€� Koepka has turned this lack of attention into motivation. It allows him to play with a chip on his shoulder – much like Michael Jordan would take perceived slights and raise the level of his play against his NBA opponents. “I think you always have to play with a little chip on your shoulder if you want to get the best out of you,â€� Koepka said. “I love competition. I find a way, whatever it is, to try to play my best and get myself up for every event. “I think a lot of the chips that everyone’s been talking about is because I was left off notables as the defending champion of the U.S. Open, just things like that. To be at the PGA, I shoot a decent first-round score and the guy who never won a major shot two higher than I did, and he’s being interviewed. I’m like man, we’re in 10th, 12th place after the first day and I’m like, all right, I won a major this year, two-time major winner – you know what I mean? It seems kind of odd. But whatever…â€� On Tuesday, at least, there was no one slighting Koepka after his peers, his fellow competitors, voted him as Player of the Year. No golfer, from their perspective, had a better season. As a result, Koepka will receive the Jack Nicklaus Trophy. It’s not the first award in Koepka’s home that showcases an image of the Golden Bear. Born in West Palm Beach, Florida, and growing up in nearby Lake Worth, Koepka would occasionally see Nicklaus, a longtime resident of the area. Twice, Koepka won junior events at the Bear’s Club. The trophy was a plaque that included Nicklaus trading cards from the high points of his legendary career. “I still have those trophies,â€� Koepka said. “… It’s a very big plaque, as you can imagine, with all his major victories and everything. It’s pretty cool. “Mr. Nicklaus was always exactly what you’d expect he would be, very gracious and very kind. It’s nice to add something else of his to my trophy collection.â€� Provided that chip remains on Koepka’s shoulder, you get the feeling there will be more to come. In His Own Words A chronological list of quotes from Brooks Koepka that reflect the ebb and flow of his 2017-18 season: “Game feels good and excited to start the season.â€� (Oct. 26) “I have some wrist issues. I want to figure that out. I can’t grip anything strong with my left hand.â€� (Dec. 6, via AP) “It felt like someone was jabbing a knife in my hand. The problem is we don’t have any answers.â€� (Jan. 7, via Golf Channel) “I am frustrated that I will now not be able to play my intended schedule. But I am confident in my doctors and in the treatment they have prescribed, and I look forward to teeing it up at the Masters.â€� (Jan. 19 statement) “They said I would be about 80 percent but I can’t play 80 percent. I either have to go full bore or not at all.”(March 20 on decision to not play Masters, via USA Today) “It feels like I’ve been out for six months. … It was torn a lot worse than they originally thought.â€� (April 20, via AP) “There’s nobody more excited to be here than me, I can tell you that. To get back out, it felt like it took forever.â€� (May 13 at THE PLAYERS Championship) “I feel like my game is coming around. … I am finally finding a rhythm and feel like I’m getting really close.â€� (May 26) “I feel like it healed nicely. I like where my game’s trending right now.â€� (June 7) “To have my name on there twice is pretty incredible, and to go back-to-back is even more extraordinary. It feels so special.â€� (June 17 after winning second straight U.S. Open) “I’ll be honest. I’m dead right now.â€� (June 21 at Travelers) “Right now I’m focused on just winning. That’s the only thing I’ve got in my mind. Second place just isn’t good enough. I finished second a lot and just tired of it.â€� (July 17 on eve of Open Championship) “Didn’t play very good. Didn’t strike it good. Never really felt comfortable.â€� (July 22 after finishing T-39 at the Open) “Missing four months, the schedule got completely flipped around for me. I’m having to play a lot right now to play some events because I missed so much time.â€� (July 25 on eve of RBC Canadian Open) “It was as good as I’ve hit it in my pro career. I don’t think I’ve ever driven it as well as I did. .. I feel confident going into next week.â€� (Aug. 5 after WGC-Bridgestone Invitational) “When you take four months off, you really appreciate it and you’re eager to get back out there. Anytime you can tee it up, especially only doing three majors, it makes every one a little bit more important. I kind of fell back in love with the game a little bit.â€� (Aug. 7 on eve of PGA Championship) “When I look at what I’ve done in the past two months, it’s incredible. Looking where I was, sitting on my couch watch the Masters, and to think I would do this, I would have laughed at you and told you there was no way, no chance.â€� (Aug. 12 after winning PGA) “There’s a lot on my mind. I can get to world No. 1, win the FedExCup. It’s a big stretch, these next four weeks.â€� (Aug. 23) “I don’t see why it has to end. If I keep doing what I’m doing, I don’t see why it should stop.â€� (Sept. 27) Brooks By The Numbers Hitting the statistical highlights of Koepka’s season: 68.27 — Koepka’s final-round scoring average. Of the 140-plus primary statistical categories used by ShotLink, it’s the only category this season in which Koepka led the TOUR. It’s also the eighth best final-round average since 1980 when data was first collected. 9th — Koepka’s ranking in Scrambling this season, based on his 64.3 percent success rate. Before this season, Koepka had never ranked better than 108th in Scrambling. 33 — Number of times a player has won multiple majors in the same season. Koepka becomes the most recent player on that list. 411 — Length in yards of Koepka’s longest drive this season, on the 16th hole of the final round of the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. That tied for the 20th longest drive of the season. 62.5 — Percentage of Koepka’s tee shots that were over 300 yards. No player had a higher percentage this season (see chart below). A Mixed Bag Equipment Insider Jonathan Wall reviews the tools that fueled Koepka this season: Coming off his first major championship win during the 2016-17 PGA TOUR season, Brooks Koepka limited the equipment changes to the driver during the 2017-18 campaign. After opening the year with TaylorMade’s M4 driver, Koepka swapped the club for the company’s M3 at THE PLAYERS Championship, due to the flight it produced and how easy it was to turn the ball over on command. A former Nike Golf equipment staffer, Koepka continues to play a Vapor Fly Pro 3-iron. Mizuno’s JPX-900 Tour irons were originally created with Koepka in mind when he became an equipment free agent following Nike’s departure from the hard-goods industry in 2016. Koepka’s 35-inch Scotty Cameron T10 Select Newport 2 putter was refinished prior to his return to the course at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. The “T10” represents the 10th anniversary of Scotty Cameron using Teryllium inserts in putters made for TOUR players. Over the years, Koepka has added weight to the putter head, going from a D6 swing weight to closer to D9 with the current version. Driver: TaylorMade M3 (Mitsubishi Diamana D+ 70TX shaft), 9.5 degrees 3-wood: TaylorMade M2 Tour HL (Mitsubishi Diamana D+ 80TX shaft), 16.5 degrees Irons: Nike Vapor Fly Pro (3-iron; Fujikura Pro 95 Tour Spec X shaft), Mizuno JPX-900 Tour (4-PW; True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shafts) Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM7 (52-12F, 56-10S, 60-08M degrees; True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 shafts) Putter: Scotty Cameron T10 Select Newport 2 Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

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LAS VEGAS – Bryson DeChambeau says he will look a lot different when we see him next on the PGA TOUR because he plans to stack on some serious muscle. While stopping short of saying he plans to go completely incredible bulk on us, DeChambeau has made a conscious effort to attack the gym over the remainder of the fall and may not play again until the Hero World Challenge before heading to the Presidents Cup in December. RELATED: Leaderboard | DeChambeau reunites with Shriners patient “I’m going to come back next year and look like a different person. You’re going to see some pretty big changes in my body, which is going to be a good thing. Going to be hitting it a lot further,â€� DeChambeau said after finishing his title defense at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open with an 8-under 63. “Bigger. Way stronger. Just stronger in general. I am going to look probably a lot bigger, but it’s going to be a fun month and a half off. I have never been able to do this, and I’m going to go do things that are going to be a lot of fun.â€� And of course DeChambeau’s method to get jacked is perhaps not the way you might expect. It is not as simple as lifting weights in the five-time PGA TOUR winners world. He instead uses muscle activation techniques with Greg Roskoph, an important member of his team. He will start his program on Monday and will include some intense stints in Denver with Roskoph as well. “We make sure the neurological threshold is just as high as the mechanical threshold,â€� DeChambeau said. “In layman’s terms, pretty much whatever muscle potentially you have, how big and the muscle spindles you have, you can recruit every single one of them to their full potential throughout the whole range and training the whole range of motion.â€� The workouts are done on specific machines and incorporate neurological fitness, making sure he is not hurting himself or damaging himself in the process but finding the tipping points and staying right near them. “I can literally be in massive amount of pain and we can go do a treatment on one of the patterns directly affecting the neurological pain and not have any pain and get back up off the table,â€� DeChambeau explained of the physical therapy sessions he goes through. “It’s not your normal PT work. I’ve done it. I’ve broken ribs before. I got a rib out of place when I was 14 and went to physical therapy for the long time. It was great but didn’t feel like it ever got better until I started increasing my tolerance levels with weight and strength,â€� he continued. “Once I started doing that I felt like I could tolerate anything. You bring it on and I could tolerate it. So it’s pretty cool what he does. It’s revolutionary in the physical therapy world.â€� Revolutionary and DeChambeau are almost interchangeable words these days.

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OVERVIEW Rory McIlroy has signaled his intentions for 2019 — he wants back at the top of golf. The 14-time PGA TOUR winner and former FedExCup champion wants nothing less than excellence and with a more condensed schedule on the horizon, he has doubled down on his presence in the USA. Having split his time between the PGA TOUR and European Tour in recent seasons, McIlroy says his focus, at least for the first six months of the year, will be in the U.S. And this means he is set to fire things up at the Sentry Tournament of Champions for the first time after forgoing an invitation six times prior. More Rory for us to feast on can never be a bad thing. As always the key for McIlroy is putting. He has the length and accuracy to match anyone in the world, so when he gets the putter pumping you can be sure he’s in contention. Last season he was 97th in Strokes Gained: Putting – which was actually his best result in the statistic since 2014 (41st). He won the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard when he was ranked first in the metric for the four rounds at Bay Hill. For McIlroy golf is now about increasing his legacy. He won the last of his four majors in 2014, but he has at least two top 10s across the four majors during each of the last four seasons since. McIlroy is always unquestionably one to watch and thankfully it appears we are about to get more of him to do just that. — By Ben Everill Click here to see who else made the Top 30 list. BY THE NUMBERS FEDEXCUP UPDATE Current 2018-19 position: 186th Playoff appearances: 8 TOUR Championship appearances: 5 Best FedExCup result: Won the FedExCup in 2016. SHOTLINK FUN FACT Rory McIlroy led the PGA TOUR in driving distance last season, averaging 319.8 yards on all measured holes. That’s the second-highest average since 1980 (Hank Kuehne averaged 321.4 yards in 2003). INSIDER INSIGHTS PGATOUR.COM’s Insiders offer their expert views on what to expect from Rory McIlroy in 2019. TOUR INSIDER: McIlroy’s decision to concentrate hard on the PGA TOUR early in 2019 is set to pay huge dividends. With a settled travel schedule and a real focus on his FedExCup charge, I expect he will once again add to his win column and make a play towards another stint at the top of the world rankings. If his putter turns up just half the time, he can be near-unbeatable. — By Ben Everill FANTASY INSIDER: Rory McIlroy … Since he appeared in my full-membership ranking that published in late September, and already with higher expectations slotted at No. 4, he’s reversed his decision to forego membership on the European Tour in 2019, so he’s retaining his dual-tour profile. However, it’s not a development that should concern PGA TOUR gamers because he’s not compromising his focus to complete the career grand slam at the Masters – his last major as a 20something – and he’s always maintained a controlled, predictable schedule in the U.S. His baseline is at least one victory among 7-8 top 10s in no more than just 18 starts. — By Rob Bolton EQUIPMENT INSIDER: Like a few others on this list, McIlroy was using a Mitsubishi Tensei CK Orange shaft for a portion of 2018, but he’s since switched back to ol’ faithful, a Mitsubishi Kuro Kage Silver 70X shaft in his TaylorMade M3 driver (8.5 degrees). McIlroy also made equipment news in 2018 by using a TaylorMade TP Black Copper Soto putter with a red Surlyn face insert to win the 2018 Arnold Palmer Invitational. While he used the putter off and on through the 2018 Ryder Cup, he’s since switched back into a TaylorMade putter with a milled face, however. I’d be remiss not to mention his irons, as well; he’s still using the TaylorMade P-730 Rors proto irons (5-9) that shook up the equipment world when he first put them into play in 2017. But could it be time for an iron switch in 2019? — By Andrew Tursky STYLE INSIDER: When you see Rory in 2019, he will be wearing the latest and greatest from Nike. He already gave us a preview of his footwear choice for the new year when he debuted Nike’s React Vapor 2 at the TOUR Championship. McIlroy first experienced the lightweight and responsive React foam in a pair of Nike running shoes and has called it “a game changerâ€� on the course. — By Greg Monteforte

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