After Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed and Phil Mickelson, another American Major champion is ready to leave the PGA Tour to embrace the new Arab Super League project.
Brooks Koepka, Super League
Brooks Koepka, former world number 1, winner of the US Open in 2017 and 2018 and of the PGA Championship 2018 and 2019, is just the latest big name getting ready to marry the new economic power of the green.
With Koepka preparing to join his brother-colleague Chase in this way, despite the criticisms addressed in the recent period to Mickelson, branded as a “greedy” Brooks Koepka (West Palm Beach, May 3, 1990) is an American golfer.
Winner of the U.S. Open in 2017 and 2018 and the PGA Championship in 2018 and 2019, he became the first golfer in history to simultaneously hold the titles of two majors for two consecutive years. He became world number 1 in the Official World Golf Rankings after earning the 2018 CJ Cup, holding that position in four rounds for a total of forty-seven weeks.
He played golf at Florida State University in Tallahassee and, as an amateur, won three tournaments and was All-America three times. He went on to qualify for the U.S. Open 2012, where however he did not pass the cut. In the same summer he turned pro, taking part in the Challenge Tour.
He won his first title at the Challenge de Catalunya, while in the following season he won the Montecchia Open and triumphed at the Challenge de España, where he set the record score of the competition, 260 (-24) , winning by 10 hits.
Three weeks later, with his victory in the Scottish Challenge, he earned the opportunity to compete in the European Tour for the remainder of 2013 and 2014. In this vintage he won the Turkish Airlines Open and finished third in the Dubai Desert Classic and the Omega European Masters.
Finishing eighth in the Race to Dubai standings, he was named “rookie of the year” In 2015 also comes the first title in the PGA Tour, the Phoenix Open. At the Open Championship he finishes tenth and at the PGA Championship he finishes fifth.
At the end of the season he renounces participating in the European Tour. To the U.S. Open 2017 wins his first Major, scoring a -16 and thus equaling Rory McIlroy’s 2011 tournament record. U.S. title Open (no one had succeeded since Curtis Strange in 1989) and won the third Major, the PGA Championship.
Thanks to the victory of the CJ Cup he reaches the first position in the world ranking. In May 2019 he triumphs again at the PGA Championship, a result that allows him to regain the primacy in the ranking, subsequently maintained for 38 consecutive weeks.
This year he also won his first World Golf Championships competition, the FedEx St. Jude Invitational. For the second consecutive year he is named “player of the year” by the PGA of America. Having qualified for the 2019 Presidents Cup, he is forced to retire due to a knee injury that also affects him in the 2020 season.
In February 2021 he returned to success at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, where on the last day he came back five strokes behind with a score of 65, 6 strokes under par.
