Brooks Koepka has a couple of new team members ahead of his final start of the year on the PGA Tour.
The five-time major winner has started working on his putting with a familiar name: Brad Faxon, the 8-time winner and NBC announcer, who has helped dozens of Tour players on the greens. Faxon has been Rory McIlroy’s putting coach since 2018.
Koepka also has a new full swing coach in Darren May. May, who also works with Keegan Bradley, is based at Grove XXIII in Jupiter, Fla., where Koepka is a member.
“Darren’s watched me from afar over the last few years and he’s got a really good understanding of the golf swing and how the body works,” Koepka told Golfweek. “When I was frustrated and trying to figure things out, his was the only name that popped
into my head. It’s only been a short time, but it’s been very good.”
The pair began working together after Koepka’s last competitive outing, which was the Alfred Dunhill Links on the DP World Tour in October. That week in St. Andrews saw his best finish of the year, a tie for 6th place. Koepka began seeing Faxon in August, shortly after failing to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs. Pete Cowen, who worked with Koepka on his full swing after the former world No. 1 split from Claude Harmon III in late 2024, remains his short game instructor.
Koepka will play next week at the RSM Classic in Sea Island, Georgia. It will be his first start on the PGA Tour since the Wyndham Championship in August.
He has struggled for form since returning to the PGA Tour in January after four seasons with LIV Golf. In 15 starts, he had just one top-10 finish, a tie for 9th at the Cognizant Classic in March. He had five other top-20 finishes, but for most of the year he’s been vocally unhappy with his putting.
“Absolutely horrendous,” was how he described his performance on the greens at the PGA Championship in May.
“Zero confidence. Can’t putt,” he said after missing the playoffs.
He ranked 131st on Tour in Strokes Gained Putting for the season.
Koepka switched from the blade-style putter he’d used throughout his career to a mallet putter at the WM Phoenix Open in February. He returned to using the blade after this first session with Faxon, shortly before he traveled to Europe for three tournaments. “We had an idea of the process we wanted to do to free me up. It wasn’t about the result those three weeks but freeing myself up,” he said. “And it has. It’s really been freeing to clear a lot of thoughts out of my head.”
“Brooks and I have spent some time together and I’ll leave it at that,” Faxon said when contacted by Golfweek.
Koepka is scheduled to play the Farmers Insurance Skins Game on Nov. 27 and will make his debut in the PNC Championship alongside his father, Bob, in Orlando from Dec. 17-20.
Eamon Lynch is a columnist for Golfweek and a frequent contributor to the Golf Channel.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Brooks Koepka now working with putting guru Brad Faxon, new swing coach
