SAN DIEGO — Torrey Pines looked plenty familiar to Brooks Koepka. The PGA Tour? Not so much.
Koepka was playing the back nine on the South Course the day he arrived as a footnote in PGA Tour history as the first member to defect to LIV Golf and then be allowed to come back. He was asking about the two paths for players to get into the $20 million signature events.
“Man, I've got a lot of catching up to do,” he said, not even taking into account all the changes still in the works on a new schedule.
It all starts for him Thursday in the Farmers Insurance Open when Koepka plays his first PGA Tour event (majors excluded) since he lost to Dustin Johnson in the quarterfinals of Match Play in 2022.
“I guess it's a fresh start for me, which is cool,” Koepka said, conceding he would have more nerves than usual because of the response he might get.
It probably helped that a day before he returned to PGA Tour competition, Patrick Reed announced he also was done with the Saudi-funded LIV Golf League and would return later this year.
“Is it coincidence? I don't know,” Adam Scott said about two LIV players announcing in a span of a few weeks they were coming back to the PGA Tour. “I guess it's inevitable given the structure they (LIV) are operating in with contracts expiring.
“As far as the PGA Tour goes, I think it benefits from having more good players here.”
It's given a boost to the first tournament of the year on network television. CBS has the weekend. And there's so much interest in the return of Koepka, a five-time major champion, that ESPN will have coverage on its flagship channel from noon to 3 p.m. EST on Thursday and Friday. It will be the first time in nearly 20 years that ESPN has live coverage of a regular PGA Tour event.
Torrey Pines already holds some appeal with its location (a good forecast helps), a public course on edge of the Pacific Ocean with a tournament that dates to 1952, though most of the history starts with Tiger Woods winning eight times as a pro, including the 2008 U.S. Open.
This also marks the 2026 debut of Xander Schauffele, the two-time major champion and San Diego native who hasn't played since winning in Japan last fall.
And it has a pair of defending champions.
Harris English won the tournament last year, a special moment for him because the Georgia native fell in love with Torrey Pines when his father brought him as a kid during his first trip to California.
He was at another tournament recently when someone brought up his win and English looked over at Ludvig Aberg and said, “He's actually won more recently than I have.”
The Genesis Invitational had to be relocated to Torrey Pines last year because of the deadly wildfires in Pacific Palisades near Riviera, and Aberg held off a strong field down the stretch.
“We're kind of both defending coming into this week,” English said.
Koepka's return came with some stipulations, along with a bonus to two players. Koepka has to make a $5 million charity donation, he has no access to PGA Tour equity shares for five years, can't take an exemption to signature events and cannot get FedEx Cup bonus money this year.
And then to make sure no one is affected by his return, the tour said Koepka would be added to the field whenever he plays. It also wants to make sure the opening rounds are all threesomes, so Koepka playing means two more players get in.
“Thank you, Brooks,” Lanto Griffin said, the 147th player in what otherwise is a 144-man field.
Griffin has conditional status from finishing No. 125 in the FedEx Cup the first year the tour decided only the top 100 keep full cards. This is his favorite tournament on the schedule, and he was losing hope as the seventh alternate a week ago.
But then a few players decided not to play and Griffin started doing the math as he moved up the alternate list. Leaving nothing to chance, he was on the 11th hole in cart checking out the course used for Monday qualifying when he heard another player might withdraw.
“Monday morning my wife said I was three out, and then Michael Kim withdrew. That means I'm in,” Griffin said. “I texted Brooks' caddie and they said they were playing for sure. Very fortunate.”
Koepka doesn't have great history at Torrey Pines, except for his tie for fourth in the 2021 U.S. Open. He missed the cut three times and tied for 41st in the Farmers Insurance Open. He has broken par only twice in 10 rounds in the PGA Tour event.
And now he has a week as the center of attention for reasons he would not have imagined when he first played Torrey in 2015. Koepka says he is excited. Another part of him, uncertain of what to expect this week, is looking forward.
“Would just like to get this week over and just feel like I can start playing golf again,” Koepka said.
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