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By Kent Gray
What a difference five years, three majors and the ascension to the top of the golf world makes.

When Brooks Koepka last played the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship he opened with a five over 77 and exited The National the very next afternoon having missed the cut by seven strokes.

Fast-forward to Wednesday and the now world No.2’s opening gambit in the freshly minted $7 million Rolex Series event was 10 shots better than in 2014. Koepka will start the second round five strokes behind new joint course record holder Shane Lowry after  five birdies in an otherwise blemish-free card.

“I felt like I played well, struck it well, made those kind of key par putts coming down the back nine. The actual front nine wasn’t the best; it was a little sloppy. But I’ll just clean it up for tomorrow,” Koepka said.

Lowry and co. can’t say they haven’t been warned. Koepka makes golf look ridiculously easy even when he isn’t humming.

“Yeah, probably a little different player than I was back five years ago, but I like this golf course.  Kind of reminds me of like a major championship.” he said.

”I like the way it sets up. I feel like it’s very visually intimidating. You’ve got to strike the ball well. I mean, these greens are so good that anything from inside 10 feet, you put it on line, it’s going to go in.”

The PGA Tour Player-of-the-Year was asked, again, how he could possibly better his two-major haul of 2018. His answer was another warning shot across the bow of those above him on The National leaderboard.

“I just need to keep doing what I’m doing. I feel like my game is in a good spot, and I feel like if I can build on everything I did last year, I’ll be just fine. You know, the majors are obviously very important but I want to try to win a few more regular events and kind of establish myself as probably one of the better players.”