AUGUSTA, Ga. — Who is Brooks Koepka? 

Every generationally great golf superstar runs through a variety of phases over the course of a career lifespan (see: Phil Mickelson’s Wikipedia page). This because golf lifecycles are long, yet it’s simultaneously rare for golfers who reach the top of the world rankings to stay there for an extended period of time. 

Brooks Koepka flung the double-hinged doors to his PGA Tour career open in 2015 with a particular kind of arrogance that was perhaps more old school than anyone immediately identified. He sashayed up and down major championship fairways in a way that turned heads. He did the exactly what we value most in the world today: He won. A lot.

And when Koepka didn’t win, he almost won. He finished in the top 10 across 15 of 22 major champions from 2015-21. He slayed. Everywhere. All of the time.

His arrogance would have been easy to hate if his winning hadn’t made it immaterial. Just look at his reaction when asked whether he considered Rory McIlroy a rival.

“I’ve been out here for, what, five years?” Koepka once said. “Rory hasn’t won a major since I’ve been on the PGA Tour. So, I just don’t view it as a rivalry. I’m not looking at anybody behind me. I’m number one in the world. I’ve got open road in front of me. I’m not looking in the rearview mirror, so I don’t see it as a rivalry.”

Koepka burst onto the scene as a different kind of golfer than we were used to seeing, but his posture was also, you know, mostly true. It’s hard to be labeled cocky or overrated when you win nearly everything you look at for four consecutive years. He passed Justin Thomas and Dustin Johnson in major champions. Then he passed the golden boy, Jordan Spieth. He was golf’s mostly safe bad boy; in the often-staid world of pro golf, his prowess resulted in a collection of kingdoms.

But then, just as quickly as the winning started, it stopped, and Koepka nearly disappeared altogether. A year ago, he left for LIV Golf, purportedly to cash in on account of a dicey injury history, and it looked as if his brief but electric run at the top of pro golf was more of a comet than a star.

As strange as it sounds, a four-time major winner whose reputation is that of one of the great champions of his era leading this Masters on Friday evening is discombobulating. Sure, he won a week ago at LIV Orlando at a golf course literally called Crooked Cat, but given his injury history, his poor performance at last year’s majors and what going to LIV implied (that he wasn’t all that serious about being Brooks Koepka any longer), it was difficult to envision, well, 65-67 to start the week — 17 strokes better than McIlroy, 16 better than Bryson DeChambeau and 11 better than last year’s champion and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.

I’ve had a difficult time pinning Koepka down this week. Even though it should be expected that a golfer’s arc would have a variety of stops and starts, successes and failures, Koepka’s swings have been so wild that it’s been difficult to know how to categorize him. 

Who is Brooks Koepka?

Is he the killer who mainlined other players’ fear and spit out major championships on command? The one who took the lunch money of the supposed nerds he faced and used it to purchase polish for his oversized trophy case? The guy who once thought so little of DeChambeau and his game that he goaded galleries into taunting his former rival?

… or is he the psychologically broken man who stared into the ether last April at this event as Netflix cameras filmed him wondering what it was like be the player he used to be? The one who tried to put his fist through the back window of his Mercedes rental last year after shooting 75-75. The one who took his dog down to his dock after that Masters was over and hung his feet over the same ocean by which he’d been bested by Phil Mickelson at the PGA Championship nine months prior and uttered some of the most existential sentences I’ve ever heard from a champion golfer.

“I’ve had these question marks for like the last year and a half,” Koepka said in Netflix’s “Full Swing.” “‘Is he going to be the same golfer?’ Am I ever going to be the same? And I still don’t know where I’m at.”

Is he injury-prone and broken beyond belief? Or is he fearful of failure and simply shifting some of the blame so that he’s able to maintain self-belief? 

Is he somebody who even enjoys golf? He said on Friday that if he had to retire early from golf because of injury, he would be somebody who only played golf “a couple times a year.”

Is he somebody who is actually helped by the fact that he has seemingly divorced himself from a true obsession with the game? Koepka came in with few expectations this week and certainly no sense of the historical consequence of his actions yet shot 65-67. World No. 2 McIlroy came in with every expectation and shot 72-77 to miss the cut. 

Koepka, unlike McIlroy, doesn’t feel the weight of history coming into weeks like this one because Koepka doesn’t seem too keen on caring about anyone’s history. McIlroy, on the other hand, is enamored by it and immersed in it. Augusta National, cruelly, has a way of punishing the ones who want it the most. 

“Ideally [we would be chasing] somebody who would care more and potentially be feeling different than maybe Brooks will be,” said Jordan Spieth on Thursday. “But at the same time, it’s been a little while for him, too.”

Is Brooks Koepka somebody who misses the PGA Tour, or is he happy with his decision to go to LIV? Koepka disclosed Friday that if he had been healthy, the choice to go to LIV would have been more difficult but that he’s still happy with his decision. However, he has also been adamant about how he misses playing against the best players in the world.

“But it’s just competitively where you miss playing against them, right?” he said. “Because you want Rory to play his best and Scottie to play his best and Jon to play his best and go toe-to-toe with them. I do miss that, and that’s one thing that I do miss, and that’s what I think makes these majors so cool.”

Who the hell is Brooks Koepka, then?

What I’m not wondering is who he is over the long arc of a career. That’s complicated and impossible to determine by a round or two or even a year or two. It takes time to decipher that. What I’m wondering is who Brooks Koepka is right now, in this moment, with the Masters his to win or lose.

The Brooks Koepka who became Brooks Koepka would bury this field with a sneer and a smile. He would go out in Round 3 and shoot a 69 to put the tournament out of reach before gliding into a 44L jacket Sunday evening. It would feel in doubt but never be in doubt.

Does that Koepka still exist?

“The feeling [right now] is probably pretty similar [to the run of four majors],” he said. “I feel really good. I like the way I’m swinging the golf club, putting it, chipping it, driving it, iron play is solid. It feels really similar.”

Now, as Koepka leads the 2023 Masters nearly at the halfway point at 12 under by three over Jon Rahm, who has nine holes of his second round to finish on Saturday morning, another trophy of the big four would move him a major past McIlroy and into a tie for 20th on the all-time major list. Real history.

I don’t know who Brooks Koepka is because sometimes I’m not sure Brooks Koepka knows who Brooks Koepka is. He has been a great champion. He has also been somebody who has seemingly traded his future for the present. He seems to care more about material wealth than media guide records. He has dismissed the exactly what he is the best in the world being; Brooks Koepka often seems to be a walking contradiction.

However, Augusta National has a way of removing the veil on who you are right now, laying you bare and letting not only us know but you know as well. That’s the beauty of this place. It can communicate the composition of its participants in ways that its own participants don’t even know how to disclose. Augusta National has a way of forcing its weighty history upon you late in Masters weeks when the barometer reads “hold the hell on” and the muttering you hear outside the ropes tells you all you need to know about the stakes of your endeavor.

Who is Brooks Koepka?

The next two rounds will tell us a lot.

Amateur contends

There’s no strokes gained confidence, but if such a statistic existed, Sam Bennett (-8) might be in second behind Koepka. In fact, Koepka might be paired in Round 3 with the only player in the field who’s more confident than he.

“Everybody coming into the week was, ‘Yeah, hope you get low am,'” said Bennett. “That’s pretty much all they were saying. I just wanted to put two good rounds up. I knew my golf was good enough to compete out here. I found myself in a situation that now I’ve got a golf tournament that I can go out and win.

“I don’t hit it far like [fellow amateur Gordon] Sargent. I don’t have 190 [mph] ball speed. I don’t have a pretty swing like some of the other amateurs. It’s golf, not a golf swing. I’ve done the right things this week. I was prepared. I was more experienced than the other guys, and yeah, here I sit here with a chance to go on the weekend and do something special.”

Put that in my veins!

Rahm lurks

The elephant in the room is Jon Rahm. He’s 9 under and will be playing the 10th hole whenever Round 2 resumes. If he shoots 32 on the second nine, he’ll lead going into Round 3. If he shoots 37, he could play his way out of the tournament. There’s going to be a lot at stake when the horn blows to resume play, but Rahm has been immaculate over his last 26 holes. After making double at the first on Thursday, he’s 11 under in his last 26.

Fred Couples’ record

Speaking of shots I’m looking forward to seeing when play resumes Saturday. Couples is currently even par and hitting his second out of a bunker on No. 18. Data Golf says the cut is either going to be 1 over, 2 over or 3 over, which means Couples can afford a bogey and possibly a double to become the oldest man to ever play the weekend at Augusta National.

Jason Day kicks away a chance

Day was 9 under with four to go, but he played those holes in 4 over with the lowlight coming at No. 15 where he laid up and still dumped one in the water. He made 7 there and finished at 5 under, seven back of Koepka. He said he was reeling a bit after the round.

“It feels good [to be healthy], but today kind of ruins it for me,” he said jokingly. “I’ve just got to give myself time. I’ve just got off the golf course, and I’m thoroughly annoyed with myself, and I’m sitting here answering questions, and that can be difficult because it’s in the heat of the moment, and I’m trying to get ahold of myself.”

Rory, Tiger struggle

After Tiger Woods said before the tournament that Rory McIlroy would win a Masters and that it was only a matter of time, McIlroy followed an uninspired 72 on Thursday with a ghastly 77 on Friday; he will miss his second cut in his last three Masters. What went wrong? Basically everything not named driver. It’s a disappointing and inadequate outcome for one of the three best players in the world, and Rory’s Forever War continues. 

Tiger has his own issues. Trying to keep his streak of made cuts alive at 23 and set a new record for the Masters, he’s 2 over and playing the 12th hole. Parring in might get it done, but he probably needs to play the last six in 1 under to feel good about it.