Top Golfers from each State: Florida Golf and Brooks Koepka

The sunshine state is home to many of the game’s biggest Florida Golf legends. From Jack, Tiger, and Rory, along with so many others, Florida is their adopted home. But none of those legendary players were actually born in Florida, which is why we are giving the nod to Brooks Koepka.

Born in West Palm Beach, and a three-time All American at Florida State University, Brooks Koepka has been a Florida boy all his life. When looking at other golfers who were born in the state of Florida, it was hard to even argue any of them should make this list over Brooks.

In 2017, our own contributor Mike Randleman published a single article ranking the top golfer in each state. On his list, he selected David Duval as the top golfer born in Florida, a solid choice. However, the article was published 12 days after Brooks Koepka won his first major championship, and a lot has changed since then.

As mentioned above, Brooks Koepka captured his first major in 2017 winning the U.S. Open at Erin Hills. Although Brooks had turned pro in 2012, this was only his second career PGA Tour win. And although he didn’t collect a PGA Tour win until a little over two and a half years of being a professional, Brooks started winning overseas almost immediately after turning pro.

Brooks joined the Challenge Tour in 2012 after he turned pro and won four Challenge Tour events in less than a year. In 2014 Brooks won his first Euro Tour event at the Turkish Airlines Open, and the win is still his only Euro Tour win that isn’t a major or WGC event.

In 2016, Koepka was a member of the victorious 2016 Ryder Cup team. Brooks had a strong showing, going 3-1-0, earning three points, and only Patrick Reed contributed more points for the team at 3.5. Many golf fans believe the 2016 Ryder Cup put Brooks Koepka on the map, which is why it wasn’t that surprising when Brooks lifted the U.S. Open Championship trophy the following June.

Brooks finished his 2017 season by helping the United State capture the Presidents Cup at Liberty National. Brooks contributed two points to the team, going 2-2-0.

Brooks would go 364 days before his next PGA Tour win, as he won back to back U.S. Open’s in 2017 and 2018. This made Koepka the first player since Hall of Famer Curtis Strange in 1989 to go back to back in the U.S. Open. Following the 2018 U.S. Open, Brooks only waited two months before getting his next win, this time at Bellerive in the 2018 PGA Championship.

Brooks followed up the two major wins winning only his second PGA Tour event that’s not a major or WGC, by winning the CJ Cup in October of 2018.

Which brings us to last season. Brooks finished no lower than fourth in any of the season’s majors and defended his PGA Championship title at Bethpage Black. Going for the three-peat at the U.S. Open, Brooks finished three strokes back in a solo second to Gary Woodland.

Brooks captured his second, and last, 2019 win at the WGC-Fed Ex St. Jude. This was enough for Brooks to end the season atop the Fed Ex Cup rankings, but after finishing outside the top 20 at the Northern Trust and the BMW, Brooks finished the season third in the standings.

Now, as we wait for the 2020 season to resume, we wonder what is next for Brooks Koepka. Will he be able to complete a three-peat of the PGA Championship at Harding Park? Will he outdo his 2019 tie for second at the Masters and leave himself only one major shy of the grand slam? Or will he do the unthinkable, and win a PGA Tour event that isn’t a major?

Either way, being a four-time major champion, WGC winner, Ryder and President cup winner, along with racking up over 30 million dollars in career earnings, there should be little debate that Brooks Koepka is, and will continue to be the best golfer born in the Sunshine State.