(Reuters) – Brooks Koepka required treatment three times for hip tightness during the PGA Championship on Friday, but the American played down injury concerns after posting a second-round 68 that left him tied for second place.
Two-time defending champion Koepka, who struggled with left-knee soreness after the PGA Tour resumed in mid-June, was worked on by physiotherapist Marc Wahl as he lay on the grass, sparking concerns that the knee problem was bothering him again.
“It was my hip. Nothing to do with my knee… I woke up this morning, it was tight, and worked out and it got even tighter and we loosened it up,” Koepka told reporters at TPC Harding Park.
“It was a little tight when I was hitting balls on the range, but it’s nothing to be worried about.
“My TFL (tensor fascia latae) is usually pretty tight on the side. It just kind of moved to the front and tightened up the front and kind of the inside and groin. It’ll be fine.”
Koepka, who last needed mid-round treatment during the Arnold Palmer Invitational in 2015 for a rib injury, said his hip began to feel better only towards the end of the round.
“I think the one going into 16, where he yanked on my foot, I don’t know what Marc does, but it popped and it felt like it just repositioned itself and that’s when it felt a lot better,” Koepka added.
The American then birdied the par-four 18th to go six-under at the halfway stage of the tournament, two shots behind leader Li Haotong of China.
“It was nice to finish that round with a birdie. It got, I thought, pretty difficult from about 11 on,” Koepka said. “The wind picks up, and it’s quite difficult. It’s not an easy golf course.”
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by William Mallard)
