Koepka returns to the Cognizant Classic for first time in four years

There are countless comforts of home for Brooks Koepka this week when he plays the Cognizant Classic. That doesn't mean everything is necessarily comfortable.

His young son Crew watched plenty of hockey during the recently concluded Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, which means there was quite a bit of hockey being played inside the Koepka home. Evidently, Crew — in his defense, the kid isn't even three yet — hasn't exactly mastered the art of stickhandling. And his father learned that the hard way.

"Took a stick to the face the other day at the house, so that was interesting. It's been a while since that happened. It definitely hurts," Koepka said. "I feel Jack Hughes and his pain a little bit, but didn't lose a tooth, thankfully."

Hughes — after losing some teeth against Canada — scored the game-winning goal for a US Olympic gold last Sunday. Koepka would happily settle for a win this Sunday, in his third tournament since returning to the PGA Tour after nearly four years with Saudi-funded LIV Golf. "Just want to put myself in contention here a few times before Augusta," Koepka said. "And see where everything lies."

Koepka is a Palm Beach County native, and this is his home tournament. He came to it as a little kid, carried the scoring sign for some players when he was learning the game, and is now about to play in it for the eighth time as a pro and the first time since 2022.

He'll have plenty of friendly faces in the crowd on Thursday and Friday — some of them people he rarely gets a chance to see because of his schedule — and he's hoping to stick around for the weekend at PGA National, so he can see them on Saturday and Sunday as well.

"This is a true hometown event," Koepka said. "Like I said, (I was) coming to it for years when I was a kid, and, then, I don't think anybody in my family, or really anybody has got more than like a 25-minute drive, (including) my friends. It's nice to be able to be this close to home and to have everybody come out."

It's a different tournament than when Koepka last played at PGA National.

First off, it was still The Honda Classic then. PGA National played to a par 70 in those days; par is 71 now. The winning scores the last three times Koepka played this event were 10 under, 6 under and 9 under; the winning scores in the last three years were 14 under, 17 under and 19 under — and Jake Knapp shot an opening-round 59 last year, something that didn't seem remotely possible at PGA National just a few years ago.

"It was a little bit too easy last year, I thought," said Ireland's Shane Lowry, who now calls the Palm Beach area his full-time home and, like Koepka, will be sleeping in his own bed this week. "I don't want to exactly see 59s around here. I hope the scoring is a little bit more difficult this year and it plays like it used to."

There are no players in the field who are currently in the top 25 of the world rankings; Ryan Gerard, at No 26, tops that list. Meanwhile, 11 different top 25 players — including four of the world's top five — appeared in TGL matches on Monday and Tuesday night, just a few miles away from PGA National.

It's been an issue for the Cognizant for years. The current tour schedule has it wedged into a spot that kicks off the Florida Swing — with Bay Hill and the Players coming up in the next two weeks.

"I'm sure every tournament, bar the signature events, don't get the fields that they'd want," Lowry said. "I think it is in a very tough spot in the schedule, probably one of the toughest, and I don't think it's anything to do with the course. The reason players don't play is because they don't want to play that much. It is a tough stretch of golf. I do wish a lot of other players would play, but that's their choice."

Koepka couldn't play it when he was with LIV. He seems very appreciative of the chance to be back.

"It's a nice event," he said. "It's definitely weird staying at home. You just get so accustomed to living out of a suitcase or hotel, or whatever. But it's enjoyable. It's nice to come back and just feel your own comforts when you get home."

Agencies Via Xinhua