Brooks Koepka opened the RBC Canadian Open with a 6-under 64 on Thursday, enough to share the first-round lead and give his long-struggling putter a sudden jolt. The round was good enough to put him alongside Sahith Theegala, Emiliano Grillo, Eric Cole, Matthew Anderson and Sam Burns at the top of the board.
For Koepka, the round mattered because it came with a specific change he believes loosened up a part of his game that has been dragging him down. He said moving his ball position back slightly with the putter helped free the mechanical side of his stroke, and the numbers backed him up: he made nearly 108 feet of putts, finished fifth in Strokes Gained: Putting and gained 3.491 strokes on the field on the greens.
The improvement landed at a time when he needed it. Koepka entered the week 136th in Strokes Gained: Putting and had gained strokes on the greens in only two of his last six starts, even as his ball striking had stayed strong. He said exactly that after the round, calling his ball striking good all year and adding that he just needed the putter to heat up.
The opening stretch did not hint at the finish. Koepka was even par after eight holes Thursday, with one birdie and one bogey, before the putts started dropping in a hurry. He made seven birdies in his last 10 holes, shot 5-under 30 on the back nine and birdied four of the last five holes, including the final two straight.
That kind of burst is why his first round stood out, not just the score itself. Koepka is in his 12th event back on the PGA TOUR since accepting the terms of the Returning Member Program, and the return has already included three missed cuts plus only one top-10 finish, a tie for ninth at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches. He also tied for 12th at the Masters and tied for 14th at THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson, but none of those results matched the feeling of a round built almost entirely on the greens.
Koepka said he has felt close for a while and described Thursday as solid rather than spectacular. His latest leaderboard push gives him three more rounds to prove the putter change was not a one-day fix, and the rest of the field now has to answer a player who finally looked comfortable where he has spent most of the year searching.
