Healthy Koepka surges to top at Masters

Brooks Koepka is healthy, and that could be bad news for the rest of the Masters field. Photo: Christian Petersen, Getty Images AUGUSTA, GEORGIA | If the Masters truly does have everything a golf tournament can offer, that means there is a touch of chaos in the mix. Enter the Brooks Koepka swagger wagon. Say what you will – and we all have – about what LIV has done to the game and the cast of characters it recruited away from the PGA Tour, but one of the blessings of this Masters is how it has gotten the band back together, in a sense.

It’s like the world’s most elegant lost and found department. No one who should have been in this Masters was denied a spot because of his fealty to LIV Golf. If they earned it, they are at Augusta National. And through one steamy Thursday, their names are speckled in the upper portion of the leaderboard. Koepka says his injury woes have been “mentally grueling.” Photo: Christian Petersen, Getty Images Joaquín Niemann, Cam Smith and Patrick Reed are still relevant after 18 holes, but it is Koepka, with...