Brooks Koepka is back in championship form at the Masters. If you want to catch him, better hurry

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Brooks Koepka was on the left side of the fairway on No. 8 with a 3-iron in his hand and the kind of uphill lie that he would have called a “killer” the last few years. Of course, the downhill lies weren’t so fun either. And trying to crouch low to the ground to get a good look at how a putt breaks? Forget about it.

The state of Koepka’s right knee was such that retirement was at least on the table if things didn’t improve. Koepka played the game to win major championships; the rest of this golfing life was just a job. If his body told him he couldn’t do it anymore, what was the point?

“If I wasn't going to be able to move the way I wanted to, I didn't want to play the game anymore,” said Koepka. “It's just that simple. There was definitely moments of that.”

But more recently, Koepka has had no reason to fear the pain that might come when he bends and loads weight onto his right side and uncorks a powerful swing that made him the most fearsome player to see on a major leaderboard from 2017-19.

And when he knocked that 3-iron right into the bank in front of the green on Friday, then watched it stop nearly pin high for a 13-foot eagle putt that he drained, Koepka might have become that player again.

Brooks is back. But given which side of the professional golf schism Koepka has landed on, you better catch him while you can.

Even if Koepka wins this Masters for his fifth major championship — and it’s looking pretty good with a three-shot lead in the clubhouse when officials suspended the round due to inclement weather — the next time you’ll see him (or won't see him, more likely) will be later this month in Adelaide, Australia, or the following week in Singapore. Back to the easy, breezy LIV Golf anti-grind that is so obviously beneath his talent and incapable of satisfying his hunger to be remembered as one of the greats of all time.

How do we know that? Because every time Koepka steps in front of a microphone, he says it without saying it.

He may never publicly acknowledge any misgivings about taking the LIV money last year when he was at a physical and mental low point in his career, but regret drips off his every word. When he says he misses competing against Rory Mcllroy and Scottie Scheffler, as he did last week, or admits that he might not have left the PGA Tour had he been healthy last year, we can all read between the lines.

“If I'm being completely honest, I think it would have been (a more difficult decision),” Koepka said Friday. "But I'm happy with the decision I made.”

Is he really, though?

Koepka at his peak is the ultimate big stage player. Deep down, he knows that’s not what LIV is about. There is little chance that beating Dean Burmester, David Puig and the remnants of Bubba Watson in 54-hole tournaments being broadcast on the CW Network does much to satisfy his ego as a competitor.

But Koepka left because he wasn’t sure he would ever be that guy again given the health of his knee. If you watched the Netflix series “Full Swing,” which documents last year on the PGA Tour through the eyes of a handful of star players, the Koepka-centric episode made it clear that he was in a lot of pain, emotionally vulnerable and wrecked with doubt about the future. At one point, he even admits to wife Jena Sims that he “can’t compete” anymore with the top players.

“I go back to the first major I ever won — I’d pay back every dollar I’ve ever made just to have that feeling again for another hour,” he said at one point in the show.

Reality television isn’t always reality, but it appeared to capture at least some of what was going on with Koepka. He admitted Friday that when he left Augusta National last year after shooting 75-75 and missing the cut, he tried twice — unsuccessfully — to punch out the glass in the rear of his courtesy car.

“I guess Mercedes makes a pretty good back window,” he said.

Given how dark Koepka’s state of mind was at the time, you can understand why he was compelled to choose a different path. He would not have been the first golfer to dominate the game for a time, then lose the magic for whatever reason and never get it back. At least in his case, LIV was offering something other than the agony of missing cuts and being just another guy out on the PGA Tour.

“I think you look at the history of Brooks, he's always lived for these moments,” said Gary Woodland, who played with Koepka the last two days and watched him shoot 65-67 with just one bogey over his first 36 holes.

The shame of it, though, is that we’ll only see Koepka in these moments four times a year. Sure, regardless of whether he’s playing on the PGA Tour or LIV, Koepka will still show up at the majors and is clearly capable of winning them again.

But golf could use a fully healthy, firing-on-all-cylinders Koepka trying to battle Scheffler and Jon Rahm and all the other big stars as often as possible. The more often the top players are in the same tournaments, the better. But after this week, most fans will not see Koepka hit even a single shot until the PGA Championship next month.

It is a strange, unprecedented way to pursue becoming one of the greatest players of all time. But if Koepka wins this weekend, he’ll move up considerably on that list.

With two U.S. Opens and two PGAs, adding a Masters title would make Koepka just the ninth player to reach the five-major plateau in the last 50 years.

“The whole goal is to win the Grand Slam, right?” he said. “I feel like all the greats have won here and they have all won British Opens as well. Look, I guess it's one more box for me to tick to truly feel like I've done what I should have accomplished in this game.”

If Koepka’s knee has truly come around for good after a gruesome, complex injury and long rehab, then it’s probably just a matter of time. On Friday, in admittedly calm conditions before the rain and wind swept through, he dominated Augusta National with power and precision. Aside from a slightly wayward drive on No. 17, he essentially put the ball where he wanted all day. Koepka went 5-under on the par-5s and played the other holes in even par, but that didn’t tell the story of just how accurately he was hitting his targets. If he had converted a few more putts from the numerous hole-high approaches he had on the par-4s, he might have been able to put away this tournament on Friday.

Now, instead of talking about being unable to compete anymore, Koepka is saying he feels like he did five years ago.

“I'm able to do everything I need to,” he said. “And the confidence is there. The confidence was lost just because of my knee and that was it.”

It would be a welcome development if golf has entered a second era where Koepka feels like a threat every time he tees it up at a big event. He’s that electric of a player and competitor.

But in golf’s current fractured state, he only gets four chances a year to beat the players he most wants to beat.

“It is what it is,” he said. “It's the situation we've got right now, so I can't do anything about it. I just go play.”

Enjoy it while you can.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Dan Wolken on Twitter @DanWolken

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Brooks Koepka back in title form at Masters. Catch him while you can