Sawt Falasteen - 'I'm back' warns Masters leader Koepka

Koepka looked confident and in control as he marched to a five-under par 67 at Augusta National to follow up his opening round 65 and lead the field.

With a large crowd following him up to the 18th hole, where he was warmly applauded after narrowly missing a birdie putt, it certainly felt like the old Koepka was back.

"I feel really good," he said. "I like the way I'm swinging the golf club, putting it, chipping it, driving it, iron play is solid. It feels really similar."

The 32-year-old Floridian won his two US Open and pair of PGA Championship titles in a two-year spell between 2017 and 2019 during which he became the world number one.

A series of injuries and a knee surgery in March 2021 saw Koepka's form slump and he missed the cut at the past two Masters.

Last year, he also missed the cut at the British Open and finished in 55th place at both the PGA Championship and US Open.

His lowest point came after missing the cut at Augusta, when he said he took out his frustration on his car.

"I tried to put (my fist) through the back window, not once but twice. First time didn't go, so figured try it again... apparently (I was) not strong enough... I guess Mercedes makes a pretty good back window.

"There was a lot of frustration last year. Super annoying. But I've come a long way since then. A lot of it, pretty much all health-related."

Koepka he says he began to feel at the turn of the year that he could really challenge again.

"Probably towards the end of last year, I felt it, it was coming. It wasn't exactly all the way there. Probably, I'd say January I knew I was back," he said, citing his progress in the gym and work with coach Claude Harmon.

"I knew everything was right where it needed to be strength-wise, mobility-wise and being able to do things with the golf swing.

"I've got a completely different knee, so the normal is a little bit different. But swing-wise, it still feels the same. I'm able to do everything I need to. And the confidence is there. The confidence was lost just because of my knee and that was it."

- 'Happy with decision' -

The American is one of the players to have left the established PGA Tour last year to play in the breakaway Saudi-backed LIV Golf League.

Koepka was refreshingly frank when asked whether it would have been a tougher decision to have accepted the lucrative offer to switch to LIV had he been at his current level of fitness and form.

"Honestly, yeah, probably, if I'm being completely honest. I think it would have been," he said. "But I'm happy with the decision I made."

That move also means that Koepka, like all the LIV players, is in need of a major win to ensure he can continue to compete regularly in those tournaments in the coming years.

"If you play well enough in all the majors, you should still be in the top 50, but if you win one here, it kind ticks a lot of boxes, doesn't it?" he said.

Koepka's best result at Augusta was a tie for second place behind Tiger Woods in 2019 and he heads into the weekend crystal clear about his aim.

"The whole goal is to win the Grand Slam, right?" he said. "I feel like all the greats have won here and they have all won British Opens as well.

"Look, I guess it's one more box for me to tick to truly feel like I've done what I should have accomplished in this game."

J.AbuShaban--SF-PST