Brooks Koepka has his sights set on defending his title at the 2024 PGA Championship this month. The second Major of the year is just around the corner, starting with its first round on May 16 at the Valhalla Golf Course.
Prior to this, he competed at the Masters, where he tied for 45th position. Brooks Koepka was the runner-up at the Augusta event in 2023 but struggled at this year's edition.
Recently, at the LIV Golf Singapore event's press conference, the five-time Major winner confessed that he had wasted a lot of time ahead of the Masters, which resulted in his poor finish at the event. However, moving ahead, he is focused on the PGA Championship.
Speaking of his preparation, Brooks Koepka stated that he had wasted time from December 2023, weeks after the conclusion of the second season of LIV Golf, until the commencement of the Masters in April 2024. However, what's gone is gone, and now the American golfer is looking ahead to the upcoming Major.
Koepka said (via Ten Golf's YouTube channel):
"Clearly not very good with Augusta. The way that went. So, kind of felt like I wasted all the time from December till then. But just keep grinding it away, keep doing the work, and hopefully, something will turn around." (3:34-3:50)
Brooks Koepka was impressive in 2023. He started the year by finishing second at the Masters but then went on to win the PGA Championship. In 2024, although he was not close to victory at the Masters, he put forward a decent performance.
The 2024 PGA Championship is scheduled from May 16 to 19 at the Valhalla Golf Course, which hosted the 2014 edition of the event. Rory McIlroy won the Major, when it was last held at Valhalla by defeating Phil Mickelson.
Can Brooks Koepka defend his title at the PGA Championship?
Brooks Koepka has been playing fairly well in the LIV Golf 2024 season. So far, he competed in six tournaments and has two top-10 finishes.
His best of the season was recorded at the Mayakoba event, while the worst was at Miami, where he finished in 46th position on the leaderboard. However, LIV Golf events are limited field events with no cutline. They are only 54-hole tournaments, while the PGA Championship will have a cutline and will be held for four days.
Brooks Koepka has only played in one 72-hole format tournament, the Masters last month. However, Koepka still has a decent chance to defend his title at the PGA Championship in 2024. He has won the Major thrice in his career, with the first coming in 2018, and then defended the title in 2019.
Koepka has a strong record of defending his Major titles. Besides the PGA Championship, he has also defended his US Open title. He won the title in 2017 and successfully defended it in 2018.
However, it won't be an easy route for Koepka to win the Major in 2024. On the PGA Tour, Scottie Scheffler has been pretty impressive with his game, winning four tournaments in 2024. He also won the Masters and is a threat to Koepka.
