SAN DIEGO – It’s rare when the reconciliation is more difficult than the breakup, yet here we are.
Brooks Koepka walked into the Farmers Insurance Open media center early Tuesday a little less strident than he was the last time he played a PGA Tour-sanctioned event that wasn’t a major.
That was the 2022 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas, where Koepka lost to another soon-to-be-LIV-player, Dustin Johnson, in the quarterfinals.
That version of Brooks was bold and unapologetic, regularly repeating the notion that only the majors mattered, every other event was just a stepping to stone. That version had no interest in making friends or golf’s stoic niceties. He was a self-made wolf among sheep.
But that wasn’t the Brooks that braved the morning chill on Tuesday at Torrey Pines. The shoulders on this version aren’t as pulled back and the air of indifference toward anything short of greatness has been dulled by 3 ½ years playing relatively forgettable golf on LIV.
“I’m definitely a little bit more nervous this week just coming back,” said Koepka, who was welcomed back to the Tour this month via a new Returning Member Program. “But it feels good. I’m super grateful to be back. Yeah, there’s a lot of guys I don’t know over the past, I guess, 3 ½ years. There’s a lot of new faces, but excited to meet those guys and feel like I’m part of the Tour.”
Under the new program, Koepka — and potentially three other players who joined LIV Golf — was allowed to return to the fold with a few notable stipulations: including a $5 million donation to charity, a limit to the amount he can earn both on and off the course via the player equity program, and reduced status that leaves him currently outside the circuit’s signature stops.
But beyond the small print in the new policy, Koepka needed to also show a modicum of contrition and there are three constituencies that needed to hear it — the media, the fans and his fellow Tour players. He cleared the first hurdle Tuesday in a press conference that stretched nearly 30 minutes and covered a wide range of topics.
“I think the nervousness probably was more for this [his press conference], to get this out of the way to be quite fair,” Koepka said. “I’m maybe a little bit antsy to get to Thursday just so I can get back to playing golf and that’s where I feel the most comfortable. But I was definitely nervous just for this. Seeing guys, I mean, I was kind of overwhelmed at the text messages that I received from guys — guys on both sides and I think that meant a lot to me.
“I’m grateful, I’m excited and I just want to get back to playing golf.”
But if Koepka “won the press conference,” the next test comes Thursday when he’s scheduled to tee off at Torrey Pines in a marquee group alongside Ludvig Åberg and Max Homa. Koepka has always embraced the spotlight and before joining LIV Golf he had no problem playing the role of antagonist — remember how uncomfortable his bro-spat with Bryson DeChambeau became — but it remains to be seen how the fans will welcome him back.
Returning to the Tour at the Farmers Insurance Open, where Koepka has only played four times in his career, was a savvy move considering the audience compared to next week’s WM Phoenix Open, which owns its raucous persona, should be largely welcoming. But Koepka admitted there is still a level of uncertainty.
“Maybe I’m a little nervous about that as well just to see how the fans respond to it. I hope that they’re excited. I hope that they’re happy that I’m out here,” he said.
It’s telling that the constituency where Koepka seems to have the least amount of concern are his fellow Tour players.
“I’m looking forward to all those conversations, right? Not everybody’s going to have the same opinion, that’s the exciting part about this, right?” Koepka said. “There are some guys that are happy to see me back and some guys that won’t, and I understand that.
“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.”
Koepka’s quest to win back the locker room began last September when he and his family decided it was time to leave LIV Golf and begin the journey back to the Tour, whatever that journey looked like. That conversation started with Tiger Woods, who was the first person Koepka called about a potential return after he left LIV. Following that conversation, the bureaucratic wheels turned quickly to pave the way for Brooks and three other members of LIV Golf who had recently won a major or The Players Championship — Jon Rahm, DeChambeau and Cam Smith.
While the three other members of LIV all qualified for the Returning Member Program, they likely lacked the one unwritten ingredient that Koepka embraced Tuesday — contrition.
Just don’t confuse contrition for regret.
“I don’t regret anything I do. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve always enjoyed the ride no matter where I’m at,” he said. “I have no regrets. But at the same time, I’m excited for this new chapter, grateful to be out here.”
Contrite, sure, but still Brooks.