Wednesday 11 March 2020 20:40, UK
Brooks Koepka is confident that a trip to see Butch Harmon will "right this ship" and lead to better form at this week's Players Championship.
Koepka insisted that Claude Harmon remains his full-time coach, and his left knee that required stem-cell treatment last year is "exactly where it should be" and not the cause of his disappointing start to his 2020 campaign in which his tie for 17th in Saudi Arabia is his lone top-20 finish.
The world No 3 felt he needed to iron out some flaws that have hampered his swing, so he took the decision to fly to Las Vegas for a session with Butch Harmon on Monday before heading to TPC Sawgrass the following day.
"Claude's always going to be my coach, and Pete (Cowen) is always going to be my short game coach," said Koepka. "I had spoken with them on Saturday, I made a phone call to Claude and it's one of those things I felt like I just I had so much going on in my head, so many swing thoughts and needed to clear the slate.
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"The Harmons are like family to me, and so we flew out Sunday, went and saw Butch Monday, and got in yesterday afternoon. Butch has seen me swing it a million times, he's stood there when I'm hitting balls with Claude and he's stood there at the Ryder Cup.
"It's one of those things where I just needed a different set of eyes, maybe something might click, because I was failing. Claude was telling me the same things he's said for five years, the three keys that we have just worked on, and for some reason I just couldn't do it.
"That's on me. It's not on Claude, it's not Claude's fault, it's not Pete's fault, it's not anybody's fault except my own, and the fact that I couldn't do it, I just needed a fresh set of eyes just to look at it and see if he saw anything out of the ordinary.
"And the beauty of it is Butch has seen it so many times. So it was good for me to go out there. I had Claude's blessing. I called Claude, I told Pete, and they were all behind it. You fall into bad habits, and sometimes you just got to work your way out of them. What Butch said, I mean he saw it in four swings, I think.
"It was good, and it was nice to get out there and go see him. Obviously I hadn't seen him in a while since he's not out here. But every time I'm around Butch I enjoy it, you get a nice laugh. Butch is a great golf coach, but at the same time he's a great motivator, and a big team guy when he's standing there.
"I've got, I think, the best team around me, and those guys do the same thing. I think it's in the Harmons' blood for a little bit of motivation and confidence and that's probably the reason why Claude stays with me at our house. Every time we get a house he stays with me, and it's definitely in their DNA."
