AUGUSTA, Ga. – Above 26,000 feet on Mount Everest is called the "death zone." It’s where an oxygen-deprived body begins to die and a climber’s judgement becomes impaired.
In golf, those foreboding places only exist at the major championships. Winning anywhere as a professional is rewarding, but it’s the Grand Slam events that take everything from a player for just the slightest chance at glory. It’s why careers are measured by major championships and only the undisputed best set their clocks to those four tournaments. Behind all the bravado and misplaced indifference, it’s what drives Brooks Koepka.
“The ‘death zone’ fuels Tiger [Woods], it fuels the great ones,” explained Claude Harmon III, Koepka’s swing coach, after the two reunited last year.