He sure looked like Major Brooks. The world beater. The swaggering, smirking, growling, grounding-and-pounding pro immune to anxiety. Thanos in a polo.
But the person sitting at the dais on Tuesday morning didn’t sound much like Brooks Koepka.
That guy said he was nervous, which was a term the guy everyone knew maybe would have had to look up.
“I think it feels a little bit different,” he said.
“I’m definitely a little bit more nervous this week just coming back.”
Tuesday, though, perhaps that was to be expected. He was returning, to the PGA Tour, where he had been, before bolting for LIV in 2022. Two days ahead of Christmas, Koepka and that circuit parted ways, and a dozen days later, Koepka and the PGA Tour agreed to a comeback deal.
But none of that was playing.
How would that go? Would there be nerves there? Birdies? Bogeys? Thursday, at a little after 9:30 a.m. local time, we started to find out. That was when Koepka teed off on the first hole on Torrey Pines’ South Course, his first stroke of his first round at the Farmers Insurance Open.
Below is how the rest of the round went for the four-time major winner.
He shot a one-over 73, which was 11 shots behind leader Justin Rose. And as you would suspect with a one-over 73, there was some good, and there was some not-so-good.
The good? Shot one of the round found the fairway, and shot two dropped to 10 feet. On 5, from thick rough left of the green, Koepka chipped to an inch. On 10, after coming up short on his second shot on the par-4, he pitched to 6 feet and made par. On 18, after hitting over the green with his second shot and with the green sloping toward water past the hole, he chipped to 7 feet on his way to making his only birdie of the round.
But there were hiccups. He bogeyed 4 after a tee shot into a fairway bunker and a three-putt. He took four strokes from 43 yards on the par-5 13th and made bogey. From the tee, he hit just six of 14 fairways, and he averaged two putts on greens hit in regulation.
The round was fair. A 73 on the more difficult South Course didn’t hurt his chances, but he’ll need a lower number on Friday on the North Course to make the weekend. It should also be noted that Thursday’s round was his first since Oct. 4 of last year.
The moment below was good.
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