Things were much different the last time Brooks Koepka was at the Players Championship. His hair was bleached blonde, the state and future of his game uncertain — and a few months later he was off to LIV Golf. At that point, it appeared that Koepka’s final round at TPC Sawgrass would be the second-round 81 he shot in blustery conditions before marching off the property early in 2022.
Four years have passed since then. For many in the pro-golf sphere, it has felt longer. Koepka got healthy while on LIV, won the 2023 PGA Championship and then battled putting troubles before returning to the PGA Tour in January as part of the one-time Returning Members Program that gave him a pathway back.
The Koepka that left for the Saudi-backed breakaway league was famous for his bravado and hardened exterior. A big-game hunter with unlimited self-confidence. The Koepka that returned at Torrey Pines was softer. He talked about the nerves surrounding his return. The uncertainty around how his return would be received kept Koepka up at night. Koepka embraced the unknowns. He looked forward to any tough conversations he might have and was vulnerable about what it meant to be welcomed back with open arms. The famously stoic Koepka let the emotions seep through as fans cheered his return along the San Diego coastline as if were a conquering hero. It hit him in a way he didn’t anticipate.
“I didn’t think it was going to be maybe as emotional for me, but it was,” Koepka said on Tuesday at TPC Sawgrass. “It was great. It was honestly a great feeling. Sometimes I can be very good at burying my emotions, and I just look at it as this is a job; just be robotic and go about your process. I’m pretty sure everybody sees that when I’m on the golf course. … I was just taking in the moment and appreciating where I was. I think that was something I haven’t done in maybe my professional career, and it was just enjoyable.”
Koepka later added: “I didn’t know how the reception was going to be. Obviously, you can sit in bed and just kind of lay there and think about a million different things about how it’s going to go. I mean, right? You have all these scenarios that play out, but it never really comes to fruition of exactly what you think. I think that’s been the big thing. It’s been exciting. It’s been fun. And it makes it enjoyable to be out there.”
At Torrey Pines, Koepka said he has “fallen back in love” with golf. He wants his son to see him at his best and to understand everything the game has given him. The major champion carrying his son after finishing his second round illustrated how time has changed things for Brooks Koepka. Priorities shift, armor softens. And yet, the sands of time can change only so much.
A notoriously “slow starter,” Koepka arrives at TPC Sawgrass for the first time since 2022 after going T56-MC-T9 in his first three starts back on the PGA Tour. Fifth major claims aside, since its move to March, the Players Championship’s identity is that it’s as an important mile marker in the golf season. It’s the unofficial gateway to the major season, a time when the best in the world can truly measure the state of their game on a major-esque track. Play well, and you’ll leave Ponte Vedra Beach confident with the Masters looming. Get blown out to sea, and you’ll have precious little time to sharpen up before you set foot on the property at Augusta National and the major season washes over you.
“This is kind of right where I feel like you needed to know where your game was at,” Koepka said Tuesday. “Every time you come to the Players, you get a good idea of, hey, you’ve got a couple more weeks right before Augusta; if you’ve got to make any changes, this is where it needs to happen. This is kind of, in my eyes, the kickoff of the real heat of the golf season. And it’s a lot of fun, it’s exciting, and just need to be on top of things.”
Koepka understands the challenge of TPC Sawgrass, and how it highlights the true state of your game, all too well. In six starts at TPC Sawgrass, he has finished no better than T11 while playing the famed 17th hole in a cumulative 20 over, including a triple-bogey and a double in his last two rounds in 2022. He chalked up that week to a mixture of bad luck and poor play. The knee injury he was battling was also a factor, but nonetheless, the poor showing at the Players forecasted what was to come that year. He went MC-T55-55-MC in the four majors after leaving Sawgrass while defecting to LIV. Koepka’s two best Players finishes, T16 and T11, came in 2017 and 2018, respectively, when he won three of his five majors.
It’s not a fool-proof indicator, but the Players often has a way of foreshadowing what’s to come. Three of the last four Players winners have gone on to win a major later that year. Scottie Scheffler didn’t in 2023, but he still carded three major top-10s after winning at Sawgrass. Going back to 2014, when Martin Kaymer won the Players and the U.S. Open later that year, only Si Woo Kim (2017) and Webb Simpson (2018) didn’t follow up their Players win with either a major win or multiple top 10s.
With the emotions and nerves of his PGA Tour return in the rearview, Koepka is settling into a familiar but still new routine. He has changed putters and tinkered with his mechanics. The confidence in his game is building and his patented mojo is returning with each round.
The next phase of his reentry starts this week at the Players, where Koepka hopes to find evidence that the Koepka of old, the major killer, can still be the Koepka of today.
“The answer to everything is play good golf and everything will take care of itself,” Koepka said.
But answers aren’t always easy to find at TPC Sawgrass.
