Brooks Koepka, Rickie Fowler face different Masters questions after Houston MCs

There was one thing Brooks Koepka wanted to accomplish this week in Houston. After three straight top 20s and with his iron play leading the PGA Tour, the five-time major champion wanted to put himself in the weekend cauldron at Memorial Park to see if his game is ready for what’s on the horizon.

“I do feel like it is ready. The only thing is, I really haven’t put myself in contention with nine holes to go. That’s really the last missing piece that I feel like I need to accomplish here before Augusta. But the game feels good. Everything’s trending in a nice direction.”

All signs pointed to Koepka’s declaration being true. His iron play has been phenomenal, a diagnosed driver issue should have cleared up his biggest issue at last week’s Valspar and a recent change to the TaylorMade Spider putter had finally seemed to fix a putting issue that has plagued him for two years.

That last one was the key.

Koepka returned to the PGA Tour at the Farmers Insurance Open and lost over seven shots on the greens. Koepka made the switch to a mallet putter in Phoenix and missed the cut. But he seemed to find something on the greens at the Cognizant Classic, where he gained 2.7 strokes putting. That dipped at TPC Sawgrass, but Koepka still finished T13. The putter was working again at last week’s Valspar, where Koepka picked up over two strokes on the greens again en route to a T18 finish.

All of that had him arriving at the Texas Children’s Houston Open believing that relentless, exacting type of golf that won him five majors was back.

“Now I can sit back and kind of play golf how I used to play in ’17, ’19, kind of in that run when I was playing very good where I can be very patient and just kind of wait my time,” Koepka said. “I said it was like conservatively aggressive. I picked the right line, the right spot to make sure that I was never going to make double. I made a few doubles over the last few weeks, which has been kind of irritating. My game is rounding into form. I can see it. I don’t know if maybe results-wise, it probably hasn’t looked that way, but I can see it as a whole, it’s really all starting to come together.”

But things are never linear or simple in golf.

Koepka started his week in Houston 2-under through six, but finished his opening nine with two double bogeys. After coming home in 38, Koepka signed for an opening-round 5-over 75. He shot 1 under on Friday, but the damage was done. In two rounds, Koepka lost over three shots putting and lost over a shot on approach, which gave him an early trip home from Houston and some work to do to prove that Brooks Koepka before the Masters in two weeks.

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While Koepka arrived in Houston looking for final proof that he was back ahead of major season, one of golf’s most consistent performers was still looking to punch his ticket to Augusta National.

Rickie Fowler entered the week ranked 61st in the Official World Golf Rankings. Fowler opened the year with three straight top-20 finishes and then posted a T9 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. The arrow has been trending up for Rickie Fowler for some time. Fowler played good golf during the summer last year and finished inside the top 50 in the FedEx Cup Playoffs, securing his spot in all of the 2026 Signature Events. That security allowed him to take time off during the fall to rest a shoulder injury that he battled through in 2025. His body is healthy in 2026 but he credits his consistency to open the season to something else.

“I think a lot of it is on the mental side, not trying to do too much or anything special,” Fowler said on Thursday in Houston. “Trying to kind of let the rounds come to me and piece things together and kind of plot my way around.

“I’ve definitely become a better golfer as a whole. I would say this year and going into where I’m at now, I feel like some of the best I’ve swung it as far as controlling the golf ball and what I’ve been able to do. I think there’s a combination of a lot of things. If you’re not getting better mentally over the years and kind of learning and figuring out better ways to get around and score and play golf, it’s never necessarily that easy, but you would think — this is my 17th year on Tour, I better know my way around a bit.”

But despite his consistent play, Fowler still is not in the field at Augusta National. With this being the final week before the top-50 cut-off for the 2026 Masters, Fowler likely needed a top-five finish to jump inside the number and secure a trip to Magnolia Lane.

Needing a good week in Houston, Fowler fired an opening-round 67 to put himself in the mix.

But the wheels quickly came off on Friday at Memorial Park.

Fowler made a sloppy double-bogey at the par-3 second to drop onto the cutline. Birdies at No. 3 and 8 got him back to even on the day, but a double-bogey at the ninth wiped those away. Fowler got one shot back at the 10th, but bogeys at 15 and 17 pushed him down to even par and ended his quest for a Masters spot on Friday evening.

For Fowler, who has only played in one of the last five Masters, now there’s only one way to get to Augusta National this year: Win next week at the Valero Texas Open.