Brooks Koepka alarmed some golf fans when he admitted after The Players Championship in March that he'd lost some 20 lbs. The weight loss was causing him to swing slower and not hit the ball quite as prodigiously as we've come to expect from the three-time major winner.
However, Koepka assured fans he was losing weight for a reason. We would just have to wait a while to figure out why.
As it turns out, the speculation is Brooks Koepka's weight loss was to get in better shape to pose nude in the upcoming "ESPN The Magazine" annual "Bodies" issue. However, that hasn't been confirmed yet. For whatever reason, Koepka figured he would look a little better minus 20 lbs. (They say the camera adds 10 lbs., so perhaps he figures it an aesthetic 10-lbs. loss.)
Koepka has been limiting his diet to 1,800 calories per day, and that's meant cutting out a variety of foods he might otherwise snack on when he had a cheat day. The Florida State product admitted, however, that he may have overdone it on the weight loss, saying that “maybe went about it a little too aggressively.”
However, Koepka said at The Players that he felt he was only giving up four months of his career to lose the weight and the associated swing speed. Maybe that's true, but for a guy who has won three of the last six majors he's played, this is perhaps not the best timing.
Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee said he feels Koepka is betraying his chances at the Masters, where he has improved his finish each time he's competed at Augusta National.
“For him to change his body and his body chemistry for vanity reasons for a vanity shoot is the most reckless self-sabotage that I have ever seen of an athlete in his prime,” Chamblee said. “I get why they asked Gary Player to do that shoot, I get why they asked Greg Norman. I get why they do that. Those guys are incredibly fit guys and want to show the world they’re fit. But to do something that takes you out of your game, to change your game completely. To see someone whose body has changed drastically, it’s never worked out very well. It’s led to deterioration.”
