‘Still ****!’: Koepka gives bluntest assessment yet

Once upon a time Brooks Koepka was considered as dull as you like. Even a major breakthrough failed to stir his stumps as a collection of monotone responses were trotted out to convey his inner feelings.

These days the replies can still be monotonous but they could never be described as dull. Ask a simple question and you’ll get a similar answer.

What’s your opinion on the new proposed Premier League?

“I said it like 10 times, I said I’m going to play where the best players play, simple as.”

What are you trying to figure out?

“How to play golf.”

On Saturday Koepka shot a career-worst 81, on Sunday he went 10 shots better and was asked for a quick assessment of his game?

“Still s***. Still s***. Putting better.”

Ignoring the good news about his work on the green he was told that maybe he should probably tone down his language he continued.

“Well fine me.”

Before a bit more on his putting.

“I found something with my putting. The touch is back. But still close on the swing, sometimes it’s there and sometimes it’s not.”

On the face of it there were five birdies on Sunday but his week was summed up by bookending his day with a pair of double bogeys which might explain the blunt responses shortly after.

• Related: Arnold Palmer Invitational report
• Related: Watch Rory make you feel better about your game
• Related: What’s the best thing you can get as a winner?
• Related: Koepka’s schedule for 2020

If there is a problem with the knee – he played through a partially torn patella tendon last season before having a stem cell therapy procedure in August – then Koepka won’t die wondering how it’s going to affect him under the gun.

Bay Hill is the second of a five-week stretch which will see him head to Sawgrass where he will play his first two rounds alongside Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm, on to the Valspar ahead of the Match Play.

Koepka, traditionally a very ordinary player at the start of the season, will be attempting to play his way into form going into the Masters.

“To tell you the truth, I would never play more than three weeks in a row. But obviously sometimes things happen and the only way I see getting through this is playing. That’s my way of trying to grind and work it out and figure it out. I don’t know what it is about these first three months of the year but I struggle quite a bit.”

Whoever you are these blips will come and go and the set-up and conditions of Bay Hill, somewhere Koepka wasn’t planning to play, was just about the last place that will help with finding a bit of form.

The nicest story of the four-time major winner this week came on Saturday, moments after signing for an 81, but that didn’t stop making his playing partner Kyoung-Hoon Lee’s day.

The South Korean, who was involved in a car accident on Wednesday and then got the call-up from first reserve due to Francesco Molinari’s bad back, not only got the better of Koepka by nine shots but also asked for a selfie outside the scoring office with him and his wife.

To his credit the American cheerfully obliged.