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Cadillac Championship gives Brooks Koepka déjà vu as alternate opportunity slips through

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Five of the top 15 players in the world ranking are skipping this week's signature event. Is this a bad sign? Rex Hoggard and Ryan Lavner discuss in the "Golf Channel Podcast with Rex and Lav."

If the PGA Tour ever power ranked its players based on patience, then Brooks Koepka would have a strong case for No. 1.

Koepka, who became the first alternate at this week’s Cadillac Championship after Kristoffer Reitan replaced Jake Knapp Thursday morning, has now spent two of his last three Thursdays waiting several hours to see if he would get into a signature-event field.

First, it was at the RBC Heritage in Hilton Head on April 16, where Koepka was caught on camera waiting with coffee for a chance to play Harbour Town only to be sent home once the field all made it off the tee.

History repeated itself Thursday in Miami, where Koepka’s patience was yet again not rewarded.

He was seen practicing into the afternoon but was again denied once the final pairing of Brian Campbell and Sam Stevens made it off the tee a little before 3 p.m. ET.

Had Koepka replaced someone, his participation in the Cadillac Championship would have given two more players a chance to enter the signature-event field.

Those additions to the 72-man field would have been Taylor Moore and Stephen Jaeger, and they would have gotten in under the Tour’s Returning Member Program that was created in January to allow Koepka and select other LIV Golf defectors back to the PGA Tour.

In the wake of the Saudi Public Investment Fund backing out of LIV Golf at the end of the 2026 season, the league announced Thursday that it was establishing an independent board.

Michael Thorbjornsen, who replaced Justin Rose at the RBC Heritage earlier in the month, was the first alternate slotted in this week when Patrick Cantlay withdrew.

That bumped Reitan into the top alternate spot. Koepka vaulted into first alternate position following the Knapp news Thursday.

Knapp withdrew due to a thumb injury.

Koepka has committed to play at the Oneflight Myrtle Beach Classic, an opposite-field event, next week.