Brooks Koepka in perfect shape for US PGA defence with LIV title that banishes Masters struggles

Brooks Koepka has found form just in time for his PGA Championship defence after winning his first LIV Golf event this season in Singapore.

Koepka, 34, went without success through the first six events of the year and fell well short of expectations at the Masters, finishing in a tie for 45th. But after finishing tenth in Adelaide last week, the American followed up a five-under-par 66 opening round at Sentosa with an even better seven-under 64 to take a three-shot lead into the final round.

Under pressure from Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman, Koepka maintained a two-shot lead ahead of the Australians to finish 15-under for the week. Attention now turns to the PGA at Valhalla in ten days.

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"It's all starting to come around," he said during an on-course interview. "I've put in a lot of work.

"I feel like on the golf course, off the golf course, it's been a good two weeks, to say the least. Taking a week off and then grinding pretty hard with Claude [Harmon III, Koepka's coach] over the last few days, I thought that was very important.

"Kind of started to see it turn maybe Wednesday, Thursday of Adelaide, so to see it pay off here is huge." Koepka also had his wife, Jena, and nine-month-old son, Crew, in attendance, as was the case at Augusta National. "It's awesome," he added. "It's such a cool feeling. It's great to have them here.

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Brooks Koepka returned to winning ways in Singapore at the final LIV Golf event before the PGA Championship
(Image: Getty Images)

"I finished better than 45th like the last few times he's been there. At least he got to see me do something a little better than that."

At the start of the week, Koepka acknowledged that his game felt "clearly not very good, with Augusta the way that it went". He added: "I kind of felt like I wasted all the time from December until then."

But now the American is heading home to defend the major he has won three times before, including back-to-back years in 2018 and 2019. "I like the way things are trending," he said as he prepares to defend the title he won again at Oak Hill last year.

"We just need to go back next week and make sure everything is kinda going, do the right stuff and go from there." At the press conference, Koepka expanded on those thoughts.

"I feel good," he shared. "I feel a lot better than I did last week. It was rounding the corner for me. I felt like the results weren't there. It was improving but the results weren't there. It's nice to see some results and the hard work paying off.

Koepka added: "Winning always helps, but I still have the same expectations every time I go tee it up and that's to win. Those are my expectations and what I want to do.

"One result doesn't mean anything really in the scheme of things. For two weeks, a lot can change. Yeah, it does help, but at the same time, I've seen guys miss cuts and then go win and then win and then not compete the week after. It's all ebbs and flows."