Brooks Koepka Is Where He Needs To Be

Usually, when a professional athlete is trying to explain a controversial decision they made with regard to their career, they will try to convince you that they did it to spend more time with their family.

It can be an effective shield against criticism. After all, it would be impolite to admit you did something for the money. Harold Varner III was the only golfer bold enough to come out and admit the obvious three years ago. Family was the talking point cited by nearly everyone else who left the PGA Tour to join LIV Golf. Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen, Ian Poulter, Patrick Reed, Bryson DeChambeau, and Brooks Koepka all stated that they wanted more time with family. LIV offered them that opportunity.

When Koepka showed up at the Farmers Insurance Open this week, marking his official return to the PGA Tour, he once again brought up his family as the motivation behind his decision. He used the word 14 different times, in fact, during his press conference. Nothing about it seemed calculated, however, or intended to mislead. Gone was any flicker of press conference bluster or bravado.

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It felt, instead, both sincere and vulnerable.

“Just my family. A lot has gone on over the past 5-6 months with my family, and that played a big, big role in coming back,” Koepka said at Torrey Pines. “And 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. And I think that was the decision that my wife, myself, everybody, my team, thought that that was best as well."

Koepka did not go into specifics about what he had been through. But anyone who follows his wife, Jena, on social media understood what he was alluding to.

In October 2025, Jena revealed that she had lost a pregnancy at 16 weeks. She and Brooks were looking forward to giving their son, Crew, a sibling, she said, but their baby's heart had stopped. Their grief was immense. They had done everything excited parents do when expecting a baby — gender reveals, baby bump pictures, sonograms. In one of the pictures she posted, Jena held up an envelope containing a sonogram of the baby’s footprints.

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It’s a grief no parent is ever prepared for, but she said she wanted to share their experience publicly, because “Too often these struggles happen in silence. If you’re experiencing pregnancy loss or infertility, please know that you are not alone.”

I don’t pretend to know Brooks Koepka well. But years ago, my wife and I experienced a similar loss. What you realize, when you finally are able to talk about it, is that it’s far more common than you’ve ever been led to believe. A cone of silence often hides it, but when someone breaks that cone, you begin to understand you are not alone.

I am excited Koepka is back on the PGA Tour, in part because I enjoy watching him play against the best competition. But I am also happy for him and his wife because it seems like the Koepkas are now where they want to be at this moment in their lives, surrounded by the people they wish to lean on. That peace cannot be calculated in dollars.