Jackson Suber Leads Brooks Koepka to 64, Shares RBC Canadian Open Lead
jackson suber started the day with a 6-under 64 and ended it tied for the RBC Canadian Open lead. Brooks Koepka made seven birdies in his last 10 holes, turning an even-par opening eight into a score that put him alongside five others at the top.
Koepka’s late birdie run
Koepka was even par after eight holes on Thursday, with one birdie and one bogey, before the round changed fast. He birdied four of the last five holes and finished with a 5-under 30 on the back nine.
That finish lifted him into a six-way tie with Sahith Theegala, Emiliano Grillo, Eric Cole, Matthew Anderson and Sam Burns. Koepka’s round also included nearly 108 feet of putts, a sharp change for a player who entered the week 136th in SG: Putting.
Putting reversal for Koepka
The greens had been the problem. Koepka had gained strokes on the greens in only two of his last six starts, and he had missed three cuts since returning to the PGA TOUR under the Returning Member Program.
His only top-10 finish in that stretch was a tie for ninth at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches. He also tied for 12th at the Masters and tied for 14th at THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson in his previous start, so Thursday marked a sharper start than the results that came before it.
Koepka’s first-round lift
Koepka called the round “It was just a culmination of kind of freeing the mind” after leaning on a simple adjustment. “If you just change one thing, move the ball position back a little bit with the putter and kind of help me free up the mechanical side of it and not really think of anything other than just have it slightly a bit back of where it's been.”
He added, “Ball striking has been good all year” and, on the putter, “Felt like it was OK today. Better than OK, it was solid, but nothing spectacular. I just need that putter to heat up. I feel like I’ve been knocking on the door playing good enough to win, playing good enough to have a chance on Sunday, it’s just been the putter that’s holding me back. Hopefully three more days of this.”
For Koepka, the opening round at the RBC Canadian Open offered a cleaner path than his recent results had provided. A putter that ranked 136th in the field before Thursday suddenly carried him into the lead, and the rest of the week will show whether the late surge travels beyond one round.
