Brooks Koepka fires 64 Saturday at Myrtle Beach Classic: 'I re-found my happiness'

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Brooks Koepka is back.

Sure, golf fans have heard that phrase a lot over the past six months since the five-time major champion returned to the PGA Tour after three years with LIV Golf. But on Saturday, the Brooks Koepka of old returned.

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Koepka fired a blistering 29 on the back nine at Dunes Golf and Beach Club to cap off a 7-under 64 in the third round of the Oneflight Myrtle Beach Classic — an opposite-field tournament running alongside the Truist Championship, a signature event. Koepka vaulted himself nearly 20 spots up the leaderboard and sat in a tie for second at 11 under when he signed his scorecard just before 3 p.m. ET Saturday.

"That's the most excited I've been playing golf in a long, long time, I can tell you that much," Koepka said in a post-round press conference. "It's been a long time since I've had fun playing golf — at least a year. I was very frustrated last year. Just wasn't in a good place. . . it's like anybody, right? If they're happy off the golf course, they're going to play well on the golf course. I think that's a huge, huge piece of it, and I've found that.

"I re-found my happiness, my love for the game. All the pieces are connected. It's just now, I've got to go out and go play."

Koepka opened the third round with even-par 35 on the front nine but he found an extra gear on the inward side. After a birdie at the 10th, he made three birdies in a row on Nos. 12-14 before draining 38-foot putt for eagle at the par-5 15th. He added one more birdie at No. 16 for good measure, and made par on the final two holes to close out his lowest PGA Tour round in five years and his lowest nine-hole score since 2019.

Koepka said he hasn't enjoyed himself that much on the golf course since he won the 2023 PGA Championship.

"I liked the way I ball-struck it today," Koepka said. "I thought it drove it beautifully. Ball-struck it with the irons really, really well. . . I feel like I'm striking it as good as I ever have, driving it as good as I ever have. If I can continue to do that, then I'm going to be very pleased where I'm at for a while."

There is one thing that still does not have Koepka pleased: his putter. The flat stick has been an issue for him all season, and despite the impressive outing Saturday, he feels there's a still a lot of room for improvement on the greens.

"It's been quite a frustrating year with the flat stick," Koepka said. "Kind of been in a consistent pattern of just hitting lips. I don't know if there's a stat of how many times guys hit the lip, but I feel like I would be right up there this year. They're good putts. They just don't go in. They just seem to always find a way to miss the hole, and it's been frustrating, but I'm just kind of waiting my turn, waiting for something good to happen, because I feel like as long as they're good putts, I'm okay with it, to a certain extent."

Waiting his turn has been a common theme for Koepka in 2026. He has arrived at several signature events as an alternate, waiting for someone to withdraw so he could sneak in the field, to no avail. But he isn't fighting it or complaining about it. He understands that he must earn his way back into the upper echelon of PGA Tour competition and he seems to be just fine doing that.

A win at the Oneflight Myrtle Beach Classic would not only qualify him for the two remaining signature events on the 2026 calendar, but it would also give him palpable momentum heading to Aronimink for next week's PGA Championship, an event he's won three times before. But right now, he remains focused on the task at hand.

"I'm not too worried about it," Koepka said. "I think I'm just trying to play one more good round of golf and strike it the way I can. Like I said, the main focus is putting. I'll go right back to that putting green and try to make sure that, I guess, whatever I might have found today hopefully can bleed over and continue into next week and then just build that momentum. Because I think the one thing that's really been lacking, just confidence."

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Brooks Koepka makes Saturday charge with 64 at Myrtle Beach Classic

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