When was Brooks Koepka the most nervous? At this surprising tournament

Five-time major champion Brooks Koepka has a seemingly invincible persona on the golf course, but the 33-year-old, who now competes on LIV, can easily recall a time of peak nervousness during competition.

On the latest episode of The Scoop with Claire Rogers, Koepka revealed a surprising answer to Rogers’ question about a time when he felt the most nervous on the course. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t during any of his five major victories.

“Because it meant the most to me, and I was trying to finish off the event, it was the LIV event in Saudi Arabia,” Koepka said. “Just because I finally felt like I was back. I hadn’t won. I hadn’t played that well, but like, I knew I was starting to come back and I could see the progression that was going on even while the scores weren’t exactly there. And then, that meant the most to me just because I’m like, OK, finally I can do this again.

“There weren’t many fans or anything around, but just the pressure that I had like, internally, was was greater than anything else,” he said.

Koepka won the 2022 LIV Golf Jeddah Invitational by triumphing over Peter Uihlein on the second playoff hole. It was Koepka’s first worldwide victory since his win at the 2021 WM Phoenix Open. Koepka followed the October win in Saudi Arabia with a win at LIV’s Orlando event the following April, then claimed his fifth career major at the 2023 PGA Championship in May.

Koepka said that his longtime caddie, Ricky Elliott, is helpful in times of stress on the golf course.

“I do everything quick,” Koepka said. “If I get like nervous, antsy, whatever it is, my pace picks up. That’s when Ricky’s like, yo, slow down, buddy, you’re gonna walk with me. And I’m like, OK, all right, cool. I got that. So I gotta slow my pace down, slow my stride down.

“Sometimes you gotta be reminded to slow down and just enjoy it and enjoy the ride.”

For more from Koepka, including the player he would most enjoy playing with for the rest of his life, check out the full episode above.

Golf.com Editor

As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of female varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everyone on the masthead. She can out-hustle them in the office, too, where she’s primarily responsible for producing both print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF’s inaugural Style Is­sue, which debuted in February 2018. Her origi­nal interview series, “A Round With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in both in the magazine and in video form on GOLF.com.