Brooks Koepka has been widely accused of taking his eye off the ball when it comes to his golf game recently, and despite his horror opening round on Thursday, he proved that wasn’t the case
Brooks Koepka is a five-time major champion, who has twice ended the year recognized as the best player in the world, and has earned $45 million since signing up to LIV Golf — and that doesn’t even include his reported $100 million signing bonus.
Koepka doesn’t need to be slugging it out in the cold rain of southern England this week, but that’s where he finds himself, playing in the BMW PGA Championship on the DP World Tour at Wentworth, having missed the cut at the Irish Open last week in disappointing style.
Having already achieved so much in the game, with so many accolades on his shelf, money in the bank and a family waiting for him back in the United States, few would begrudge him for taking his eye off the ball ever so slightly. But that’s far from the case, as he displayed on Thursday at Wentworth.
Koepka’s team at the Pro-Am on Wednesday ran away with victory, shooting a combined -30 to make a mockery of the tough course.
But Thursday’s opening round provided him with unforeseen difficulties, and he ended up tied for clubhouse last after shooting a devastating three-over.
To many, it would be just another example of the same old story: formerly great player trades competitive nature for cash. Bags and bags of cash.
But Koepka displayed on Thursday that couldn’t be further from the truth. After coming into the clubhouse tied for last, Koepka would have been forgiven for making a swift getaway, especially considering rain and the threat of lightning caused play to be disrupted for an hour and a half.
But when play got underway and the fans flooded to see Rory McIlroy — another five-time major champion, but one on the complete opposite end of the scales in terms of where his game is at — Koepka and his two coaches made their way to the putting green.
Brooks Koepka, who shot three-over at @BMWPGA today, working on his putting hours after his round ended. pic.twitter.com/nI7vBp26pf
— Daniel Blackham (@DanBlackham_) September 11, 2025
There, the man who was recently snubbed by Keegan Bradley for the Ryder Cup without any real complaints set up shop on the left side of the putting green, placed a few tees in the ground and got to work.
He attempted putt after putt, each time asking his coaches for feedback and making adjustments. At one point, his coach whipped a sharpie out of his pocket and drew on his putter face, before allowing the major champion to reset and take some more putts.
It can’t be stressed enough how out of the ordinary Koepka’s appearance was. It was quite fitting that the backdrop to his practice session was an empty grandstand and a gigantic picture of McIlroy, once his competitive nemesis, now a player incomparable to him.
McIlroy comes to Wentworth, his new home, looking to extend the best year of his professional career, just days removed from his Irish Open win. The PGA Tour man had already won the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the Players Championship and the Masters [completing the career grand slam, by the way, something Koepka is still two wins short of] before he made the trip to Ireland last week. Koepka, on the other hand, hasn’t tasted victory on LIV in over a year.
One of just three players working on putts, Koepka at some points asked his coaches to film his setup on his phone, before crouching down to analyze the footage himself.
Koepka is facing a difficult 12 months coming up. He’ll have to watch his former teammates in action at Bethpage Black in the upcoming Ryder Cup, before a decision will have to be made over whether he continues with LIV Golf and signs a contract extension, or leaves the Saudi Arabia-funded league behind.
Either way, it’s clear to see the competitive juices are still in there somewhere.
