Brooks Koepka has been searching for something ever since he triumphed at the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill. That week in Rochester, Koepka returned to his major-killing ways. He was fully healthy, his game firing on all cylinders, his confidence at peak levels.
Since that fifth major win, though, Brooks Koepka watched his game dip while on LIV Golf. His major performances in 2024 and 2025 were well below his elite standard. His putting woes became a source of frustration, and Brooks Koepka was unhappy. He was playing poorly and spending a lot of time away from his family due to the global travel of LIV, and he and his wife, Jena Sims, tragically suffered a miscarriage last year. The desire to spend more time with his family was the driving force behind Koepka’s return to the PGA Tour in January.
“Just my family. A lot’s gone on over the past five, six months with my family. That played a big role into coming back,” Koepka said at Torrey Pines in January. Sims and their son, Crew, have been able to be out on the road more with Koepka back on the PGA Tour and Brooks Koepka has been quietly playing good golf. It hasn’t all come together. The putter has remained a sticking point. He hasn’t yet played his way into the Signature Events, but he has been close.
Brooks Koepka has been building back to his old self. Slowly, piece by piece. Finally, on Saturday, at a tournament Koepka probably didn’t have on his radar to start the season, it all finally came together when the five-time major champion shot back-nine 29 to vault into contention at the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic. It was the first 29 Koepka has shot on the PGA Tour since the CJ Cup at Nine Bridges in 2019. And, more importantly, it gave Brooks Koepka the thing he has been missing.
“That’s the most excited I’ve been playing golf in a long, long time,” Koepka said after his round. “I can tell you that much. I would say back until ’23, the PGA. That’s the most — it’s been a long time since I’ve had fun playing golf. I was very frustrated last year. Just wasn’t in a good place, but I think a lot of times when you — it’s like anybody, right? If they’re happy off the golf course, they’re going to play well on the golf course. I think that’s a huge, huge piece of it, and I’ve found that.
“Refound my happiness, my love for the game. All the pieces are connected. It’s just now I’ve got to go out and go play.”
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Koepka finished T12 at the Masters while Rory McIlroy went on to defend his title and eclipse Koepka with his sixth major title. The next week saw Koepka sit around at the RBC Heritage as the first alternate, hoping to get a tee time. It didn’t come. He and Shane Lowry missed the cut at the team event Zurich Classic, and then Koepka failed to make it off the alternate list at the Cadillac Championship.
But with the PGA Championship next week at Aronimink, Koepka entered the field in Myrtle Beach to ensure he had a tee time to fine-tune his game. He has been waiting to feel all the way back. His iron play has been superb for the last two months. But he dealt with a driver issue he rectified at the Masters and hasn’t found consistent success with the flatstick.
Koepka has said that “good golf” will take care of everything. It will get him into Signature Events and have him in the right place to win more majors. The kind of golf Koepka has been hunting arrived in Myrtle Beach on Saturday, and it could foreshadow something bigger on the horizon. Finally, everything is starting to gel for Brooks Koepka on the eve of golf’s second major — one he has won three times and that will be hosted at a burly, northeast course that should suit his eye and game.
After his Saturday 65, Koepka stood at the mic in Myrtle Beach, a scene that seemed unfathomable six months ago, and smiled while talking about a much-needed round in an unexpected location. The confidence poured out of golf’s great major hunter while he looked toward the future — both Sunday and next week at Aronimink.
“I’m super excited. It will be something I’ve been looking forward to for a while,” Koepka said. “I feel like I’ve been knocking on the door. It’s very close. It’s one piece here, one piece there.”
On a week where golf’s best are battling in Charlotte, Brooks Koepka went to Myrtle Beach in need of something, and he might have discovered the final piece needed to bring the happy, brash, swaggering major killer of old back to life.
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