Brooks Koepka Profile

Brooks Koepka

Overview

Brooks Koepka has asserted that winning Major Championships is easier than regular tournaments and, what's more, he has backed up the bold claim by winning five of them.

Brooks Koepka was born and raised in the United States but got his start in professional golf in Europe, something he credits with polishing his game and fueling his success at the highest level.

Koepka holds five Major titles, winning back-to-back US Opens in 2017 and 2018 before achieving the same feat at the 2018 and 2019 US PGA Championship, which he won again in 2023.

The US PGA Championship win in 2023 made him the first LIV golfer to win a major.

Koepka is the only golfer to ever hold two major titles in successive years simultaneously and the first man to successfully defend the US Open title since the 1980s.

Koepka did not achieve the kind of early success that propelled the likes of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy to golfing superstardom. Instead, he seemed to grow into the role, coming into his own as the new era of power-hitters dawned.

Coming from a family obsessed with sport, Koepka has been willing to put in the work in the gym to improve his chances out on the course.

His high percentage of majors contrasts with a patchy regular tour record and Koepka himself has said he feels that golf's biggest tournaments are the easiest to win.

Koepka reached number one in the Official World Golf Rankings for the first time in his double-major winning 2018 season.

Brooks Koepka's amateur career

Koepka wasn't quite a golfing prodigy but did manage to earn a place on a high school team while still in the sixth grade and was recruited to Florida State University in Tallahassee.

He would set an all-time low scoring average for the Seminoles after choosing golf over basketball and baseball in high school.

Koepka was consistent in his performances at university, securing 15 top ten finishes across three seasons.

While his amateur career ended without notable tournament wins, Koepka did enough in his final year to earn a spot at the 2012 US Open. He went on to miss the cut though and would, in a surprise move, join the European Challenge Tour rather than seek a place on the PGA Tour.

Turning Pro

The decision to join the Challenge Tour might just have given Koepka the confidence needed to kickstart his professional career, and he soon bagged his first win on the circuit.

In September 2012, he won the Challenge de Catalunya in Spain by three strokes and in 2013 went on to add three more titles to his collection.

Before he was a four-time Major champion and World Number One.

Brooks Koepka was just a young rookie on the @Challenge_Tour. pic.twitter.com/cXRCprMrgr
— GOLFTV (@GOLFTV) July 31, 2019

That success earned him a spot on the European Tour, prompted progress up the world rankings, and then, courtesy of a fourth-place finish at the 2014 US Open, he added a PGA Tour card to his resume.

Later in 2014, he claimed his first win on the European Tour at the Turkish Airlines Open, he finished eighth in the Race to Dubai standings and was handed the European Tour's Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year award.

Koepka won his first PGA Tour event, the Waste Management Phoenix Open, in February 2015 and with that moved into the top 20 ranked golfers in the world for the first time. He won that title for a second time in 2021.

The US Open double

Heading into the 2017 US Open at Erin Hills, Wisconsin, Koepka had won just once on the PGA Tour so not many had him winning with a record-low score.

His 16-under 272 was enough to earn a four stroke victory and the largest purse of his career. The win made him the seventh straight first-time winner of a major championship, but he would prove able to repeat the feat and write his name into golfing folklore.

After the 2017 season, Koepka was forced to undergo surgery on an injured wrist. He missed the 2018 Masters but recovered in time to line up for the defense of his US Open crown at Shinnecock Hills.

Koepka recovered from an opening round of 75 with a 66 and 73 to hold a share of the lead heading into the final round together with close friend Dustin Johnson and compatriots Tony Finau and Daniel Berger.

A final round of 68 was just enough to hold off a hard-charging Tommy Fleetwood and for Koepka to become just the third man in history to defend the US Open crown.

The US PGA Championship double

Just two months after his second US Open title win, Koepka took the golfing world by storm when he blasted his way to a third major title at the 2018 PGA Championship at Bellerive Country Club.

Koepka was five strokes off the lead after an opening round of 69 but came racing back into contention to become the first man since Tiger Woods in 2000 to win both the US Open and the PGA Championship in the same calendar year.

Koepka's aggregate score of 264 set a new PGA Championship record and equaled the lowest total in major history.

Before he could defend that title, Koepka endured a media storm surrounding a supposed fallout with Ryder Cup teammate and friend Johnson.

Later in 2018, Koepka topped the Official World Golf Rankings after winning the CJ Cup, but was subsequently dethroned.

At Bethpage Black, Koepka sliced out another piece of history for himself and returned to the number one ranking with a fourth major win in the 2019 PGA Championship.

He opened the tournament with a round that equaled his own joint-record for the lowest single-round score at the major (63) and a final round stumble was not enough to unseat him after he had built a massive seven shot lead over the first 54 holes. Indeed, after 36 holes, he had had the lowest-ever score in major history.

He would be awarded his second successive PGA Player of the Year award and ended as the Tour's leading money winner.

Fifth Major at US PGA Championship

Koepka held off a spirited challenge from Viktor Hovland to win the US PGA Championship at Oak Hill on May 21, 2023.

Six weeks after feeling he "choked" in the final round of the Masters, Koepka held his nerve to card a closing 67 to finish nine under par and claim his third US PGA title, his fifth major overall and the first for a player on the Saudi-funded LIV Golf League.

Hovland traded blows with Koepka until a costly double bogey on the 16th, but a birdie on the 18th deservedly gave the Norwegian a share of second place with Scottie Scheffler on seven under.

Koepka took a one-shot lead over Hovland and Corey Conners into the final round, having enjoyed double that advantage following 54 holes of the Masters in April.

The 33-year-old carded a closing 75 at Augusta National to finish second to Jon Rahm and felt he had choked under pressure, but exorcised those demons at the first opportunity.

The former world number one made a flying start with a hat-trick of birdies from the second and was momentarily four shots clear before Hovland matched his birdie on the fourth.

Hovland also birdied the fifth to close the gap and was within a single stroke when Koepka pushed his drive on the sixth into Allen's Creek and was unable to save par.

Koepka doubled his lead with a birdie on the 10th, only to then see his approach to the next plug in a greenside bunker.

After blasting out to 12 feet, Koepka saw his par attempt lip out and although he bounced back immediately to birdie the 12th, he could not shake off a resolute Hovland.

The 25-year-old, who was in contention for the third consecutive major, took advantage of the par-five 13th to keep the pressure firmly on and both men birdied the short 14th to effectively turn it into a two-horse race.

However, in a carbon copy of what happened to Conners in round three, Hovland drilled his second shot into the face of a fairway bunker on the 16th to run up a double bogey.

Koepka's birdie gave him a four-shot lead and he could afford to bogey the 17th and par the last to complete an impressive victory.

"This is probably the sweetest one of them all because all the hard work that went into this one, this one is definitely special," said Koepka.

Brooks Koepka's personal life

Born into a sporting family, Koepka has spoken of his regret in not following his great uncle Dick Groat into Major League Baseball.

His father Bob was an avid golfer and passed on his love of the game to both his sons. Brooks' younger brother Chase is also a tour professional and the pair played together in the 2019 Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

Koepka gave up a promising career as a baseball pitcher to focus on golf, while he is also said to have enjoyed playing basketball in his youth. A car accident when he was 10-years-old helped push Koepka towards golf because he was unable to play contact sports. Instead, he spent many days at West Palm Beach's public Okeeheelee Golf Course.

Model Jena Sims and Koepka have been dating since 2017, having met at the 2015 Masters. Their relationship was made public when Sims ran to him to celebrate his 2017 US Open triumph.

Brooks Koepka Jenna Sims Ryder Cup September 2018

Brooks Koepka and Jenna Sims at the 2018 Ryder Cup

The couple married in 2022 and are expecting their first child in the near future.

Brooks Koepka's net worth

Koepka's net worth is estimated to be somewhere around $40million, with much of that generated from his major triumphs.

He is one of a handful of top players who have chosen not to lock themselves into an equipment deal since Nike's departure from the manufacture of hard goods in 2016.

Koepka may not have an equipment deal but he still enjoys lucrative marketing partnerships with Nike, Michelob Ultra, NetJets, Rolex and BMW.

The couple live in a £2.5million four bedroom, five-and-a-half bathroom property on the exclusive Jupiter Island in Florida.

Brooks Koepka

Brooks Koepka

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Brooks Koepka has asserted that winning Major Championships is easier than regular tournaments and, what's more, he has backed up the bold claim by winning five of them.

Brooks Koepka's amateur career

Turning Pro

The US Open double

The US PGA Championship double

Fifth Major at US PGA Championship

Brooks Koepka's personal life

Brooks Koepka's net worth