Koepka’s hot streak has him in contention at The Open after the first round

TROON, Scotland – Brooks Koepka played his way onto the first page of The Open leaderboard by overcoming some early bad swings, relying on a putter that hasn’t always been cooperative this season … and getting a little fortunate with his 3-iron.

Koepka’s 1-under 70 left him tied for 11th after the first round at Royal Troon. It’s his best position after the first round of The Open since 2019 when he opened with a 68 at Royal Portrush, leaving him tied for third after the first round. He eventually finished tied for fourth, his best result in nine previous Open starts.

Koepka is the only LIV Golf player in the field to shoot under par in the first round. Joaquin Niemann and Dean Burmester finished with even-par 70s, on a day when practically every player in the field struggled to tame the blustery conditions. (Click here for Rd. 1 notes).

Koepka was happy to finish under par, especially on a day that wasn’t up to his ball-striking standards. It helped that he overcame bogeys on the second and third holes with a stretch of four consecutive birdies on holes 4-7 to turn the tide.

“Just made a bunch of bad swings early [on] the first three holes,” the Smash GC captain said. “Then just kind of found something there, and when you get hot, you get hot.”

The rally started with an 11-foot birdie putt at the par-5 fourth. But the key swing during his birdie sequence came on the next hole, the 217-yard par-3 fifth, when his 3-iron off the tee landed 18 inches away for a tap-in birdie on the second most difficult hole on the course.

“Believe it or not, I actually mis-hit it a little bit, and it just found its way close to the hole,” Koepka said. “That's links golf. You can get a good bounce. It ended up all right. … You don’t make many birdies on that hole.”

With the momentum, Koepka followed with a 28-foot birdie putt at the sixth, then knocked his approach shot from the light rough at the seventh to within 6 feet for another birdie.

From there, Koepka held on for his final 11 holes with a birdie against two bogeys, and is just five shots behind leader Daniel Brown.

Koepka had never seen Royal Troon before this week, having missed the event in 2016. Like any links course, the five-time major winner figures the remainder of the week will be impacted by the weather and wind conditions.

“It's a good golf course,” Koepka said. “Obviously it's links. You know it's going to be blowing. I don't know what the weather says for the rest of the week. I haven't even looked at it. But if it blows like this – I think this is a weird wind direction if I'm right, isn't it? I don't know if it'll switch back, but I know into the wind on those last hole nines would be pretty tough.”