Brooks Koepka Is Making Fast Friends in His Return to the PGA Tour

Koepka has enjoyed a whirlwind return to the PGA Tour, Bob Harig writes, which has included changing putters ... and phone numbers.

Brooks Koepka is making his fourth start of his return season at the Players Championship. | Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — One of the benefits of Brooks Koepka’s return to the PGA Tour is that the fields in which he plays are expanded to accommodate him.

When the Tour agreed to allow him back this year after leaving the LIV Golf League after four seasons as part of its Returning Member Program, it made clear it would not impact any player who would be bumped from the field because of his presence.

Not only that, to keep groups in threesomes, two players are often added to the field.

This week at the Players Championship, Patton Kizzire and Seamus Power were the fortunate players who got into the now-123-player field at TPC Sawgrass, getting the opportunity to compete for a $25 million purse they otherwise would not have had.

“I think every week somebody’s thanked me, which has been kind of—it’s weird,” Koepka said Tuesday at TPC Sawgrass, where he is playing in his fourth PGA Tour event since returning. “I don’t know. Just never been thanked for playing an event before. So it was cool.

“I mean, it’s kind of nice. I mean, it’s a good opportunity for those guys to get in and play, and if they play good, hopefully keep it running for the rest of the year because pretty much I would say going to be between the same, you know, 15 to 20 guys that are pretty much going to get in, it’s a good opportunity.”

Playing opportunities will continue to be a topic of conversation on the PGA Tour.

This year, field sizes have been reduced across the schedule as the Tour went to a leaner model which saw just 100 fully exempt players off last year’s FedEx Cup points list (down from 125) and fewer spots allotted off the Korn Ferry Tour (20 down from 25).

Part of the thinking was to help with pace of play but the Tour also believes it makes the overall circuit more competitive if it is harder to stay on or get into tournaments. The Players Championship has seen its field reduced from 144 to 120 but went up to 123 with Koepka eligible due to his 2023 PGA Championship victory.

Koepka admitted that after a few years away, he needs to acquaint himself with some players.

“There was definitely some I didn’t know,” he said. “I mean, I don’t know if this is a guess, but 30% of this Tour I don’t know right now. I mean, I’m knowing more guys just being out here, but it’s going to take me a few more weeks.”

Why Koepka recently changed his phone number

And if they want to reach out to him? They’ll have a tougher time, Koepka said, because he recently changed his phone number.

He did so after his second event back at the WM Phoenix Open where he missed the cut.

“I do it probably more often than I should,” Koepka said. “I think after Phoenix just wanted a little bit of a reset. Then my phone was blowing up. So just wanted to really focus in on preparation and dialing into golf. I thought that was the best way to just kind of come unglued from the world for a half second and where basically it was only my family and anybody that’s golf related really has my number right now, which is—it’s been kind of nice.”

Koepka is trying to regain the form that saw him win five major championships and become the first player to win five times on the LIV Golf League.

But he hasn’t won since 2024 and had a forgettable 2025 in which he missed the cut in three of the four major championships and barely contended in LIV events, failing to win and finishing 32nd in the league’s points standings.

“I think it was a lot of putting,” Koepka said. “I think it’s been going on longer than a year though. I think it’s been pushing two. Just where I haven’t, the consistency of speed hasn’t been there. I felt like every time I hit a good putt, it just kind of hit the lip or would miss it by a foot and you don’t want to ever question what’s going on.

“But when you feel like you did something right and you look up and it’s not even close, you know that there’s a problem. And that was just kind of my breaking point in Phoenix.”

Koepka switched putter models after that and following a poor first round at the Cognizant Classic started to find some form. A first-round 74 had him sweating the 36-hole cut but he rebounded with a 66-69-65 final three rounds to finish tied for ninth.

A putter change helped Brooks Koepka to a T9 finish at his hometown Cognizant Classic. | Reinhold Matay-Imagn Images

Like many who struggle on the greens, Koepka found himself putting pressure on the rest of his game.

“I felt like I had to make birdie from my approach play,” he said. “I think that sometimes, if you’re not doing something well it can cost you, just because you try to be maybe a little bit more aggressive or take on a pin that you normally wouldn’t have. Then somehow you end up in a horrible spot, and you’re looking at bogey with a wedge and you’re just sitting back in the middle of the fairway going, on the next hole, like what was I doing; how did I just turn a birdie hole or a birdie opportunity into a bogey.”

The Players will offer Koepka a good test.

In six previous appearances, his best finish is a tie for 11th in 2018 and has had particular trouble at the par-3 17th, where he is a combined 20 over par.

“One year I made an 8 and a 7. Yeah, that wasn’t very good,” Koepka said. “But that 17th hole has gotten me over the years. I’ve played good rounds here; that's just kind of the one bugaboo that always gets me.

“But it’s in the past. Nothing I can do about it. I hit the green yesterday, so I was pretty pumped about that.”