Brooks Koepka says he will play in this week's U.S. Open even though weakness in his left hand has made it hard to grip a golf club and already forced him out of the Canadian Open before the final round.
The decision matters now because the 36-year-old is headed into a major championship at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, New York, where he won the U.S. Open in 2018. He told Eamon Lynch, “I’m gonna go this week,” and said after planning to go to Shinnecock Hills on Tuesday that what he does depends on how he feels.
Koepka said the problem began Friday night, when the pinky and ring fingers on his left hand went weak, then flared again when he started warming up on Saturday. He withdrew from the Canadian Open last week, the latest interruption in a season that has been uneven even by his standards, though he still has managed a tie for ninth at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches and top-20 finishes in six of his 12 tournaments this year.
The unresolved part is what is actually behind the hand weakness. Koepka’s medical team believes it could be a flare-up of the Ulnar Nerve or Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, and scans of the C5 and C6 vertebrae in Canada on Sunday and in New York on Monday came back all clear. That removes one concern and leaves the grip issue itself as the thing to watch once he tees off at 7:30 a.m. ET on Thursday with Chris Gotterup and Cam Young.
Koepka has played through pressure before, and Shinnecock Hills gives him a familiar stage. He is a five-time major winner, a three-time PGA Championship winner and a two-time U.S. Open victor, but this week will be judged less by his résumé than by whether his left hand lets him finish what he started.
