Brooks Koepka has addressed the media ahead of his return to the PGA Tour at the Farmers Insurance Open…

For a man who has forged his reputation as a cold, ruthless winner of major championships, Brooks Koepka’s demeanour was striking on Tuesday afternoon.

As he addressed the media at Torrey Pines ahead of his PGA Tour return at the Farmers Insurance Open, Koepka looked nervous. And he admitted as much, too.

This, of course, is no normal week for the five-time major champion, who is stepping back into his old domain for the first time since joining LIV Golf in 2022 with an unusual sense of trepidation.

“I think the nervousness probably was more for this, to get this out of the way to be quite fair,” he admitted in his press conference in California. “I’m maybe a little bit antsy to get to Thursday ust so I can get back to playing golf and that’s where I feel the most comfortable.”

Koepka was quizzed repeatedly by reporters on his decision to walk out on his nine-figure LIV contract a year early, as well as the developments which led to him being reinstated via the PGA Tour’s Returning Members Program.

It was clear that he had no interest in burning bridges with LIV, but Koepka said that he began exploring his exit from the league around the time of the Ryder Cup last September.

Koepka stressed that the most important factor in splitting from LIV and rejoining the PGA Tour was that he was able to focus on his family. His wife, Jena, announced in October that she had suffered a miscarriage. The couple have a two-year-old son, Crew, who is in attendance this week.

The American also revealed why Tiger Woods was the first person he called when getting the ball rolling on how he would make a comeback. Here’s everything Koepka had to say ahead of his PGA Tour return…

Brooks Koepka on……making his return to the PGA Tour

“It feels a little bit different. I’m definitely a little bit more nervous his week just coming back. But it feels good. I’m super grateful to be back. Yeah, there’s a lot of guys I don’t know over the past I guess three and a half years. There’s a lot of new faces, but excited to meet those guys and feel like I’m part of the Tour.”

… the most important factors in coming back

“Just my family. A lot’s gone on over the past five, six months with my family. That played a big role into coming back. Then just having conversations with my wife, my team and being able to make that decision to come back was – I guess tough conversations – but it was what was best for me and best for my family. I think that was a decision that my wife, myself, everybody, my team thought that that was best as well.”

… if he’d do anything differently after joining LIV in 2022

“I don’t regret anything I do. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve always enjoyed the ride no matter where I’m at. You also learn from anything, anything you’re doing, so I have no regrets. But at the same time, I’m excited for this new chapter, grateful to be out here. For Brian Rolapp [new PGA Tour CEO], Jay [Monahan, outgoing commissioner], Tiger [Woods], everybody that was able to get me out here, I’m super grateful for it and I’m excited.”

… how his return to the PGA Tour happened

“I’m not going to get into too much detail about the family issues that we’ve had, but I believe it was September, right around the Ryder Cup week, we had to be in New York, we were up there for a little bit. Circumstances kind of changed in my family a little bit.

“Then that’s when things started to change and evolve and just started to have those conversations of what’s best for my family. So we took it from there. Me and LIV, we left that agreement, everybody was happy with it. They understood the situation that I was in. Just excited to be out here. The 23rd [of December] I was released and then called Tiger right away, then that process got the ball rolling.”

…Phoning Tiger Woods first

“I called him. I’ve always had a good relationship with Tiger and I felt like that was what I wanted to do. Once I had the opportunity to, I guess, get reinstated on the PGA Tour, it was exciting and I kind of didn’t really know what to do. That was the first person that came to mind. I didn’t know Brian [Rolapp], I didn’t have a relationship with him obviously just because he’s pretty new. Jay [Monahan] was going to be the next call. But I felt like Tiger was somebody that I have relied on in the past for questions and answers, and how to deal with things. I felt like that would be the most comfortable call for me.”

…. facing Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy on regular basis again

“I’m super excited. Obviously Scottie’s been dominant. Yeah, Rory’s got five [majors] now. I don’t think anybody’s shocked by this if you’ve watched golf over the last few years, how well those guys are playing. I’m excited to battle with them. I think that will be really fun. I think just the competitive side
of me, obviously, you obviously want to do a little bit better but that’s going to be very tough to do better than Scottie right now.”

… whether he’s had tough conversations with players unhappy about his return

“Not everybody’s going to have the same opinion, that’s the exciting part about this, right? There are some guys that are happy to see me back and some guys that won’t and I understand that. Like I said, that will be the fun part of having those conversations.

“Some of them might be tougher than others, but at the same time it’s the opportunity I was given and anybody that I guess is in my shoes that has the opportunity to come back and the position that I was in, I was going to take it. I wasn’t just going to not play. If they gave me an opportunity to play, I wanted to play.”