Brooks Koepka Fights Through Nerves, Shoots 73 in First Round of PGA Tour Return

The former LIV golfer said he got a warm reception around Torrey Pines's South course as he shot 1-over 73 to start the Farmers Insurance Open.

Brooks Koepka shot 1-over 73 in the first round of his return to the PGA Tour. | Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images

SAN DIEGO — Brooks Koepka’s vibe never suggested he cared too much about what people thought. It was simply the way he carried himself, the way he approached his professional golf career, the way he never seemed to sweat the small stuff.

But Koepka admitted Thursday after his playing his first round on the PGA Tour in nearly four years that he wondered what the reception would be like after his return from the LIV Golf League. He didn’t exactly spill emotion, but it was clear that Koepka felt some pangs of nervousness as he played the Torrey Pines South course during the opening round of the Farmers Insurance Open.

Koepka has faced far more intense circumstances in golf. He’s won five major championships. He’s played in Ryder Cups. He’s had enormous sums of money on the line based on a shot, a chip or a putt.

But an otherwise mundane opening round for Koepka to begin his 2026 season had him on edge.

“Just because I care,” Koepka said after shooting 1-over 73. “I think I’ve fallen back in love with the game. And honestly, watching my son [Crew] play a little bit and wanting want him to watch me play well and realize how much this game’s given me, how fun it is and how cool it is to just be out here.”

Koepka didn’t exactly light it up in his first round back, making two bogeys and just a single bogey—on his last hole—on the tough South course, where only two of the top 20 players on the leaderboard played their first round.

But given how little he has played—his last event was the Dunhill Links Championship on the DP World Tour on Oct. 5—the score that left him outside of the top 100 in the field didn’t seem to bother him too much.

“I felt like it was pretty good,” said Koepka, who hit just six of 14 fairways. He hit 13 greens but needed 32 putts. “I struck it really well. I didn’t hit enough fairways. If I was able to get to the back of the ball I felt like I hit a good quality shot. Didn’t really make any putts besides 18 right there. It felt good. It’s been a while since I played competitive golf, so I like the way I’m playing, I just need to kind of play my way into it.”

It has been a rather remarkable last month for Koepka. One of LIV Golf’s big signees when the league launched in 2022 and a five-time winner on the circuit, Koepka was the center of conjecture late in the year when word got out that he was mulling a change.

How Koepka got back to the PGA Tour

Although he had a year to go on his LIV Golf initial deal, he and the Saudi-backed league came to an agreement to let him leave, which was announced on Dec. 23. On Jan. 9, he met with PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp and applied to be reinstated. That was granted a few days later with the stipulation he won’t be able to get sponsor invites to signature events, must pay a $5 million fine that will go to charity and can’t be part of the player equity program for five years.

All of it was a bit of a jolt to Koepka’s longtime caddie, Ricky Elliott, who was on the bag back before Koepka won his first PGA Tour event in 2015 after toiling in Europe for a few seasons.

“He didn’t really talk to me about any of this too much,” Elliott said. “I’ve been with him so long I figured I’d just go where he told me we were going to go play. He’s played so much golf around the world and loved it. He played in Europe, Asia, Japan. He played the PGA Tour and the LIV tour. Now he’s back and I think he probably feels the PGA Tour isn’t too bad.”

Koepka never suggested it wasn’t. When he left for LIV Golf in June 2022, he acknowledged that he was concerned about his golf future due to a series of injuries that he felt had been holding him back.

Although there was good bit of acrimony on both sides of the PGA Tour/LIV divide, Koepka never much engaged in it. That undoubtedly helped him with his peers, many of whom he saw all the time at home in South Florida anyway.

If there was an expectation of any spectator animosity, Koepka said it never happened Thursday.

“It was great. Yeah, the fans were awesome today.” Koepka said. “I think it was very cool to hear ‘welcome back.’ It was pretty much every hole, which is great. I loved to hear it and I’m excited for the next few days.”

Work remains for Koepka to make weekend, but easier North course is next

Koepka has some work to do Friday on the North course—where Justin Rose shot 10-under-par 62 to take the lead—in order to be here for the weekend.

Although he outperformed Ludvig Åberg (78) and Max Homa (75) in his group, Koepka is well off the 36-hole cut line, which will include the top 65 players and ties.

He suffered through one of the worst years of his career in 2025, missing the cut in three major championships (he tied for 12th at the U.S. Open) and failing to win a LIV event while finishing 31st in the individual standings.

Koepka played four DP World Tour events late in the year and after missing two cuts finished fourth and in a tie for 15th.

Thursday’s round wasn’t likely to sway him much one way or the other.

“I haven’t played competitively for I think Rickie said 14 weeks, so it’s a lot of time off, a lot of time to think, a lot of time to reflect,” he said. “If you do that for a while sitting on the couch, you can go pretty deep on what you feel. I’m just excited.”

Why?

“Everything. Just the opportunity to be out here,” he said. “I think that’s the main thing. Just being out here and seeing how quickly this has all kind of come together. It’s kind of blown my mind and I’m just grateful to be out here and have a chance to compete with these guys.”

Koepka’s mindset is likely to change as time marches on. The killer instinct that served him so well and for so long will likely need to be part of his repertoire again as he attempts to climb back to the levels he once knew.

But for now, this was a good start with an unlikely demeanor.

“I care about what everybody’s thinking out here, what everybody’s doing, and just trying to be as good of a person and good of a player as I can be,” Koepka said. “Just wanted a warm reception. Just like everybody else, you walk into a room nobody wants to feel exiled, they just want to be loved. I mean, that’s human nature I think.”