CALEDON, Ontario (AP) — Brooks Koepka finally saw some putts go in and they fell in bunches at the end Thursday as he made four birdies on the last five holes for a 6-under 64 to share the lead with five other players in the RBC Canadian Open.
Koepka, who opened with a 63 in his previous start at The CJ CUP Byron Nelson, has yet to seriously contend since returning from years on the LIV Golf circuit.
Emiliano Grillo, Sahith Theegala, Eric Cole, Sam
Burns and Matthew Anderson of Canada also opened with a 64 on the Osprey course at TPC Toronto. All but Cole and Anderson, who has missed his last five cuts on the Korn Ferry Tour, are in the U.S. Open next week.
Cole took a big step in getting to Shinnecock Hills. He is No. 63 in the world, and the top 60 after this week are exempt.
Koepka, whose second U.S. Open title was at Shinnecock Hills in 2018, holed a 20-foot birdie putt on the 14th hole to get his big run started. It ended with a 10-foot birdie putt on the 17th and a wedge to 5 feet for birdie on the 18th.
“I don’t think the ball striking was as good as it’s been as of late ... but it was nice to see the putter finally heat up,” Koepka said. “It was just a culmination of kind of freeing the mind.”
It wasn't just bunched at the top. Twelve players were at 65 at the TPC Toronto. Among those at 65 was Tony Finau, who missed out on U.S. Open qualifying at the start of the week, and Adam Svensson of Canada.
Svensson made news for the wrong reasons during U.S. Open qualifying. He was in a playoff that ended with three players going for one spot. Once Max McGreevy made birdie, Svensson picked up his ball marker, unaware there was still a playoff to determine first and second alternate.
He became the second alternate, which is likely to cost him a spot at Shinnecock because seven positions have yet to be filled.
“Nothing but my fault,” Svensson said. “They just 3-for-1. And once he made that, I just picked it up.”
The scoring average was 68.5, and 97 players from the 147-man field broke par.
Burn had a chance at the outright lead when he found the fairway on par-5 18th hole and had an iron into the green. His 18-foot eagle putt missed and he joined the group at 64.
Burns was in a playoff last year when he closed with a 62, but he ended up missing a short putt against Ryan Fox.
“I think it’s nice to have some good memories maybe before the tournament starts, but when you tee it up, you have to be able to execute and hit the shots that the golf course requires,” Burn said.
He took only positives from that round, particularly starting the final round so far back. And it carried over to the following week when Burns led the U.S. Open until having to play in wet conditions late on Sunday which affected some of his shots.
Burns also is coming off a close call at the Memorial last week, so his game is tidy.
Koepka started out his year hopeful of doing well enough to get into signature events. There is one left, and he still hasn't played one.
“I’ve played great this year. Like I said, it’s just the putting that’s held me back, trying to be mechanical,” Koepka said. “But it was nice today to at least turn the brain off and go from there.”
___
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
