Masters Tips: Brooks Koepka

Over the years as Augusta National has lengthened, the Masters has become a tournament for the big hitters. With negligible rough and four scoreable par-5s, the only defence is the course’s idiosyncrasies. No debutant has won since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979 but it is worth keeping an eye on players who show competence on their first start look at the course.

Brooks Koepka finished a respectable T33 on debut last year and has the ideal game for Augusta. He’s a massive hitter (eighth in driving distance last year) but isn’t a one-dimensional player, he also finished 11th for scoring average.

The 25-year-old has enjoyed a solid start to the season with a couple of top-10s and numerous other good finishes, with his only blot coming at the Houston Open. That is forgiveable with his mind perhaps elsewhere.

Koepka showed his liking for the big occasion with finishes of 33-18-10-5 in last year’s majors – if he continues on that trend he should be winning very soon!

What I particularly liked about Koepka’s debut at the Masters was his ability to make birdies. He made 17 in total and although there were plenty of mistakes, for the first three days he played the opening nine is 33-33-32 strokes.

If he can limit the errors and that comes with experience, he could be a lively outsider at 80/1 with Coral paying 1/4 odds for a top-6 finish.