D'Angelo | LIV Golf, reuniting with Claude Harmon boosts Brooks Koepka's bank account, game

DORAL — Brooks Koepka's victory two weeks ago in Saudi Arabia was his first professional win in 20 months, ending the longest drought between hoisting trophies since he started his remarkable run of major titles.

But the road back from a difficult stretch that saw his game in a three-year tailspin started this summer.

With one top 15 finish in his first four events after signing with LIV Golf, Koepka tied for eighth in Bangkok before defeating Jupiter's Peter Uihlein in a playoff in Saudi Arabia. About two months earlier, while playing at Bedminster, Koepka made a call that started his ascent.

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"I called him and he was on the range (that week)," Koepka said about reuniting with renowned golf instructor Claude Harmon III. "I started working with him there and ... if we’re home four or five days a week I’ve just been bugging him to see if he’ll work with me every day."

This was Koepka admitting his mistake after dropping Harmon in 2019. At the time Harmon, who started working with Koepka in 2013, called the split "devastating."

It took Koepka three years to figure out the secret to his success.

"I'd say that's probably been the main thing for me is just having Claude,” said Koepka, the Palm Beach County native who lives in Jupiter.

Harmon told Golf Magazine that Koepka is hitting the ball the way he did in 2019. That year, Koepka won a career-best three times and more than $9.6 million in prize money and held onto the No. 1 ranking after capturing the PGA Championship in May. Koepka was 19th in the world when he joined LIV. With LIV golfers not eligible for world golf ranking points, he has slipped to No. 39.

In his defense, Koepka's body has not held up in recent years with the 32-year-old slowed by an assortment of injuries. There were times he battled through the ailments but never could find a rhythm.

Now, it's unlikely Koepka ever will approach the heights he reached during a two-year stretch when he was the best — and most feared — golfer on the planet.

And if he does come close, joining LIV Golf and facing competition not at the level of the PGA Tour will always raise questions.

"There was always a question mark, 'am I gonna be the same player' just because of all the injuries and all the different things?" said Koepka, who has two U.S. Open and two PGA Championship titles. "You start questioning whether you can do it, and all of a sudden it's like all the pieces are starting to come back."

Since the start of the 2019 PGA Tour season, Koepka entered 49 tour events. He had five top 3 finishes (compared with seven in the 2018-19 season) and 18 missed cuts, the same amount as the previous seven seasons.

Koepka played in six LIV events entering this weekend's team championship at Trump National Doral, earning $6.7 million. He is guaranteed at least another $1 million after his team, Smash, won its match Saturday to advance to Sunday's final on the Blue Monster.

With four teams remaining, the winning team will split $16 million, followed by $8 million to the runners-up, $6 million to the third-place team and $4 million to the team that finishes fourth.

Koepka won his head-to-head match over Ian Poulter, 3 and 1, after falling to Harold Varner III Friday, 4 and 3. Smash joins Dustin Johnson's 4 Aces, Cam Smith's Punch and Louis Oosthuizen's Stinger in the finals. The teams will compete in a round of stroke play and go off in twosomes. The scores of all 16 players count.

Smash was the only team to sweep all three matches Saturday with Uihlein winning his head-to-head over Lee Westwood and Jason Kokrak and Chase Koepka winning their twosome match.

"We played well in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), playing well to be sitting here today," Brooks said. "I'm very pleased with how everyone is playing. Everyone is playing solid."

With more than a three-month break before LIV enters its second season, Koepka will focus on his body. He will hit the gym but the routine will not be as intense as when he was working out like a bodybuilder in training.

And, of course, he will put in time with the man he asked back to restore his game.

"I'm not gonna do what I was doing, but do a lightened version of it," he said. "Be nice to have some of this weight off. But just keep playing golf.

"I've been working with Claude, and I'm very pleased and I don't want it to get out of whack and just return to where it was.”

Tom D'Angelo is a journalist at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at tdangelo@pbpost.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Brooks Koepka finding success on LIV series after reuniting with Claude Harmon