Brooks Koepka playing his way out of darkness at Augusta

AUGUSTA, Ga. --WHEN BROOKS KOEPKA finished his round, his name atop the leaderboard headed into the weekend at Augusta National, he walked alone down a sidewalk and stomped his feet to knock off dirt before going inside one of the many white buildings hidden in the shrubs, trees and flowers. The first person he saw, an old touring pro, gave him a hug and whispered something to him.

«It's good,» Koepka said, looking truly happy. «Trust me.»

Then Hall of Fame wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald came over and wrapped him in another bear hug. That matched the vibe around the course the past two days. Folks are excited for Koepka, who has been on a walk through his own personal wilderness the past two years. He slipped and fell and dislocated his knee, and in the process of trying to fix it himself, he made it much, much worse. Last year at the Masters he missed the cut and went out to the player's lot by the caddie shack and punched the back window of his courtesy car. The glass held so he reared back and punched it again.

«I guess Mercedes makes a pretty good back window,» he said.

The ride away from the course was silent, he said. Things started to add up. He left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf, getting a guaranteed payday that his broken game couldn't earn him in its current state. He couldn't swing and reverted to a stack and tilt designed to protect his knee. Many rounds he spent energy trying to find a line to walk that wouldn't hurt. With the effort put into protecting the injury, other stuff started to hurt. In August, at the LIV event at Donald Trump's course, he walked into the locker room after his last round and hit rock bottom.

«I think I need to go back to Claude,» he told his physio.

Claude Harmon was his swing coach