[Photo: Luke Walker]
The first call was to Tiger Woods.
Late last year, when Brooks Koepka had finished deeply emotional talks with his family and weighed up the details with those who see to the business side of his career, ultimately deciding to cut short his contract with LIV Golf one year early, it was his long-time competitive adversary, but very close friend, that he wanted to tell first.
RELATED: The other side of Brooks Koepka
“Yeah, called him. I’ve always had a good relationship with Tiger,” Koepka said overnight (Australian time) at Torrey Pines, where he’s making his return to the PGA Tour this week in the Farmers Insurance Open.
“I felt like that was what I wanted to do. Once I had the opportunity to get reinstated on the PGA Tour, it was exciting and kind of really didn’t know what to do. That was the first person that kind of came to mind. I didn’t know Brian [Rolapp, the new tour chief executive], I didn’t have a relationship with him, obviously, just because he’s pretty new. And Jay [Monahan, the commissioner] was going to be the next call. I felt like Tiger was somebody that I’ve relied on in the past for questions and answers and how to deal with things and I felt like that was maybe the most comfortable call for me.”
Koepka didn’t relay what was said between the two men, but Woods – who has always passionately defended the value of the PGA Tour in golf’s civil war with LIV – no doubt was happy to welcome back one of the greatest big-game players of a generation.
At Torrey Pines, Koepka, wearing a sweatshirt and his Nike hat low over his eyes, spoke almost solemnly and for the first time at length about his stunning return in front of a larger-than-normal gathering of reporters at the Farmers. The 35-year-old will tee off in the first round with Max Homa and Ludvig Aberg in his first non-major start on the PGA Tour since March 2022. The five-time major champion played his first event for LIV in June 2022 and won five times on the Saudi Arabia-backed circuit.
Koepka admitted that he’s understandably “more nervous” than normal for this return, even feeling like everything was a “whirlwind” when he arrived at Torrey Pines on Monday to greetings and conversations with more than a dozen peers and caddies while seeing the faces of other players whom have emerged in the time he was gone.
“I think everybody in this room would say the same thing; it’s always good to feel wanted and to be accepted,” Koepka said. “You see that from a little kid to now – everybody wants the same thing.”
He’s not sure what awaits him on the first tee come Thursday. The golf world has been, at times, bitterly divided over the rivalry between the well-established PGA Tour and the upstart LIV, and Koepka was among the most prominent and valued players to defect after saying early on that he would not go. He got a signing bonus reportedly for well beyond $US100 million and made another $US20 million alone for his five victories. But Koepka also was among the most low-key in touting the potential virtues of LIV while maintaining some of his strongest tour relationships while playing in majors.
In his agreement to come back to the tour through its newly established Returning Member Program, Koepka signed off on being out of the player equity program for five years; he won’t be eligible for 2026 FedEx Cup bonuses; and he’ll give $US5 million to charity. The tour also established a policy that two further players will be added to any field in which Koepka plays.
Still, Koepka is not sure what kind of response he’ll get from the tour’s rank-and-file, but said he’s looking forward to those conversations.
“Not everybody’s going to have the same opinion, that’s the exciting part about this, right?” he said. “There are some guys that are happy to see me back and some guys that won’t and I understand that… That will be the fun part of having those conversations. Some of them might be tougher than others, but at the same time it’s the opportunity I was given, and I think anybody that I guess is in my shoes that has the opportunity to come back and the position that I was in, I was going to take it. I wasn’t just going to not play. If they gave me an opportunity to play, I wanted to play.”
Koepka has been somewhat vague in speaking of the reasons behind his decision to return, though he has emphasised that a lot of it had to do with circumstances in his family and the need to be more present. Last October, Koepka’s wife, Jena Sims, shared on social media that she had suffered a miscarriage while pregnant with the couple’s second child. They have a 2½-year-old son, Crew.
Koepka said that his family rarely travelled to LIV’s many international events, and, in turn, they will be at Torrey Pines this week.
“I’m not going to get into too much detail about the family issues that we’ve had, but yeah, I believe it was September, right around the Ryder Cup week, we had to be in New York, we were up there for a little bit,” Koepka said. “Circumstances kind of changed in my family a little bit. Then that’s when I guess things started to change and evolve and just started to have those conversations of what’s best for my family. So we took it from there.”
Talks began about the possibility of Koepka returning to the tour, and Rolapp, working with the tour’s board members, made it happen by establishing the Returning Member Program. Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau Jon Rahm and Cam Smith were offered a short window in which to return, and Koepka was the only one who took up the offer.
Koepka returns to a tour that is quite a bit different than when he left. Scottie Scheffler had not yet won his first PGA Tour event, and now he’s long been the world No.1 and has 20 victories. Rory McIlroy has nine victories in the same span, including his Masters win last year to tie Koepka’s major total of five.
Of course, Koepka is considered as hard-nosed as they come in the game, so he’s relishing the challenge of trying to keep up with those guys.
“I’m super-excited about [it],” he said. “Obviously, Scottie’s been dominant I guess is probably the right word. Yeah, Rory’s got five [majors] now. I don’t think anybody’s shocked by this if you’ve watched golf over the past few years, how well those guys are playing. I’m excited to battle with them. I think that will be really fun. I think just the competitive side of me, obviously, you obviously want to do a little bit better but that’s going to be very tough to do better than Scottie right now.
“I want to play with those guys, see where I’m at and how I can get better. That’s the whole goal every day, trying to practise and being out here is just get a little bit better and I’m excited about that.”
Koepka’s results against the world’s best have not been stellar since he went to LIV. While he won the 2023 PGA Championship as a LIV member, he has only two other top-20 finishes and last year missed three of four cuts.
“I just didn’t play good last year. I don’t think… maybe the end of ’24… just wasn’t playing that great,” he said. “I’m not going to put an excuse on anything else other than I’m the one holding the club, I’m the one who’s got to execute everything, and I just didn’t do a good enough job.”
Koepka’s tour comeback to Torrey Pines is intriguing because the Farmers was rarely on his usual schedule, and in four appearances he’s missed three cuts. Of course, in the most recent major played at Torrey – the 2021 US Open on the South Course – Koepka played strongly and finished fourth.
He said his game is in “good shape”, but all he can do is prepare and see how it goes.
“That’s the fun part, I love the grind, I’ve always enjoyed it,” he said. “I guess it’s a fresh start for me, which is cool. It’s just another chapter I guess in my book. I’m excited for that.”
