Chase Koepka, Brooks’ brother, 3 shots off Shriners lead

By Brian Hurlburt Special to the Review-Journal

5 years ago

Brooks Koepka watches his tee shot on the 10th hole during Shriners Hospitals for Children Open ... — Brooks Koepka watches his tee shot on the 10th hole during Shriners Hospitals for Children Open at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas Thursday, Oct. 3, 2019. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Maverick McNealy of Las Vegas hits from behind a tree on the 16th hole during Shriners Hospitals for Children Open at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas Thursday, Oct. 3, 2019. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Kevin Na prepares to tee off on the 10th hole during Shriners Hospitals for Children Open at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas Thursday, Oct. 3, 2019. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

One of two Koepkas in the Shriners Open field shot 5-under 66 on Thursday, but it wasn’t world No. 1 Brooks.

Brother Chase, playing on a sponsor exemption, carded a bogey-free round and is three shots behind leader Nick Taylor.

Brooks Koepka shot 1-under 70, and his inner belief remains strong despite being seven shots behind. He was satisfied with his first competitive round of the season but used a post-round practice session to shore up some things.

“Today was just knocking off the rust after five weeks off,” he said. “You know there will be a little bit of rust, but I didn’t think I played too badly. I hit good golf shots and got penalized a couple times. It was a little sloppy, but I feel just fine. I just need to finetune everything, but everything feels good.”

Former champ, club survive Round 1

Kevin Na, the 2011 Shriners champion, walked off the course fairly pleased despite some struggles and doing damage to a vital club.

“I kind of scraped it around a little bit,” said Na, a Las Vegas resident. “I didn’t strike it great, but I scored well. I finished nines birdie-birdie, which was a nice way to finish. Rounds like today when you don’t feel like you have it all and still get a 3-under score out of it is huge.”

Na’s 60-degree took a beating when he hit his second shot on the par 5, 13th hole offline, but he was confident the club would be ready for round two.

“I tried to roast a 3 hybrid up there and it hit a tree and went into the desert,” Na said. “Then I hit a shot out of the desert and the club got a little banged up. I have a guy here in Vegas, Chris Reid, and he’ll come fix it up for me.”

Vegas roundup

Besides Na, several other pros with strong Vegas ties are in the mix. Maverick McNealy shot 65 to lead the local contingent. He was followed by Adam Scott (66), Collin Morikawa (67), Jack Trent (67), Nick Watney (68), Ryan Moore (69), John Oda (69), Wyndham Clark (70), Charley Hoffman (70), Scott Piercy (70), Aaron Wise (70) and Kurt Kitayama (71).