CJ Cup: Brooks Koepka is back on PGA Tour; or is he?

Brooks Koepka is making his PGA Tour return next week at the CJ Cup. He’s returning to action, but is the four-time major winner back?

The last time we saw Brooks Koepka on the golf course it wasn’t a memory that many of us, most specifically Koepka, would like to remember. However, Koepka is now ready to make his return to the PGA Tour, and he will do so next week at the CJ Cup.

Koepka has missed the last two months while rehabbing an injury that caused him to miss the cut at the Wyndham Championship in August. From there, he shut himself down, skipping the FedEx Cup playoffs to get healthy so that he could return for the fantastic fall that the PGA Tour has ahead of it.

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Koepka struggled his way through the PGA Championship at Harding Park, stopping for treatment on his leg multiple times throughout the event. Koepka was in the hunt to win the event until he blew up on Sunday and shot his way out of it with a 74. He finished in 29th place.

That was just after Koepka looked to be back to his old self, almost, when he finished second at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. But those were the exception rather than the norm for Koepka last season.

There were five missed cuts and a WD in 13 starts last season. Other than his runner-up in Memphis, his only other top 25 finish was a seventh place at the RBC Heritage.

Common sense would attribute all of the MCs and WDs to Koepka’s injury. However, looking closer at the results from last season, one could also see another trend.

Even when Koepka was healthy, he didn’t play all that well. He started the 2020 calendar year at the Genesis Invitational, where he was 43rd. Two weeks later, he missed the cut at the Honda Classic. And the following week, he was 47th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

From there, it wasn’t until the tour returned from the COVID-19 pandemic that Koepka played again. Seemingly, that should have given him plenty of time to fix what ailed not only his body, but his golf game.

And Koepka was initially better as the tour resumed. He was 32nd at the Charles Schwab Challenge in June, and followed that with his seventh-place finish at Harbour Town.

But then, he missed the cut at the Workday Charity Open and was 62nd at the Memorial. After that, he missed the cut at the 3M Open. He followed that with his second at the WGC, his 29th at the PGA and an MC at the Wyndham.

So, Koepka returns next week at the CJ Cup, where he has won before. However, that was in South Korea. This year’s event will be at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas.

The big question will be, is Koepka fully healthy? Or is he just getting himself prepared for the Masters in November? We will likely never know the real answer to that question. For now, we’ll just have to see if Koepka appears healthy next week in Las Vegas.