New Delhi, June 14 -- CALEDON, Ontario - The grip is the first thing, and the last thing, a golfer can control. Brooks Koepka lost it on Saturday in the worst week imaginable to lose it.

Six days before the start of the 126th U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills - the course where he became a back-to-back champion in 2018 - Koepka arrived at the third round of the RBC Canadian Open at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley and found that his left hand had stopped working. Not stiff, not tight. Numb. The ring finger and the pinkie, he said afterward, would not close around the club.

Golf Channel's Rex Hoggard reported that a trainer administered treatment to Koepka's left elbow before he teed off Saturday and then walked all 18 holes alongside him. Koepk...