Last October, Brooks Koepka secured his third LIV Golf victory, his second in Jeddah. Now with the LIV Golf Jeddah event scheduled for a new date at the beginning of March, the two-time defending champion is primed to make his return to Royal Greens Golf & Country Club, as he goes in search of a three-peat in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

“Obviously, I have had a huge success there in the last two years. I’ve played well and enjoyed it and hopefully, I can find a way to make it three in a row,” said Koepka.

“It’s strange, because I have no idea what it is about Royal Greens that suits me. I think it’s just one of those things where you get lucky and you’ve got to get lucky to win.

“I have obviously got lucky there two years in a row, so I’ll take that!”

During his first LIV Golf victory at Jeddah in 2022, Koepka went head-to-head in a playoff against his close friend Peter Uihlein, his Smash GC teammate at the time. Triumphing in both the individual and team events.

Montana Pritchard/LIV Golf

The winning then continued for Brooks. He picked up a second LIV title in Orlando in April ’23, becoming the first active LIV Golf League member to hoist a major trophy at Oak Hill in the PGA Championship.

Fast forward to October, Brooks would return to Saudi Arabia as the defending champion in LIV Golf Jeddah. Brooks defeated Talor Gooch in another two-hole playoff in King Abdullah Economic City, but this time the W was different for Brooks, it was his first win as a father, having become a dad to baby boy, Crew, just three months prior.

“Winning as a dad is pretty cool. The first time I won as a dad was in Jeddah.

“It’s been pretty cool. It’s been life-changing for me, not even in golf but outside of golf in normal life. But it’s been fun, it’s the coolest experience. I love to be able to see the little guy every day.”

PGA Championship 2023: Warren Little/Getty Images

Before Brooks’ return to winning ways, the last few years for him had been a rough journey. One that he has been open about, especially in the Netflix series “First Swing”, where at the time, he wasn’t sure of the extent of his knee injury resulting in a loss of form and game time.

While he had to sit at home and watch from the sidelines as Scottie Scheffler began his rise to the top of the professional game by winning the 2022 Masters.

“It wasn’t fun. Anyone who has been through that hurt knows it is not the nicest thing to go through. All the rehab and surgery.

“Even more with the surgery because that had never been done before, and there was a lot of uncertainty with it. I’m just happy to be healthy.”

But it was a team effort that brought Brooks back. He got his previous old team back together including his coaches Claude Harmon III and Peter Cowen had to essentially “rebuild” himself a new swing.

“It was obviously very different.

“It took a while after creating bad habits to then try to figure out where your body is at. It probably took a year and a half to rebuild it, but it’s perfect now.”

LIV Golf Jeddah: Charles Laberge/LIV Golf

With the upcoming 2024 LIV Golf League kicking off in Mayakoba, Mexico. Koepka and his new look Smash GC have set themselves goals of hitting the ground running. Starting fresh, especially after their team’s mixed performances to date.

“Hopefully we (Smash GC) can get a win. Having Talor (Gooch) coming over was a big thing for us.

“My close friend as well G-Mac (Graeme McDowell) is a guy with experience, and not forgetting Jay (Kokrak) who is an incredible player and I don’t even think he has tapped into his potential yet.

“I just need to keep doing what I’ve been doing and Talor needs to do the same and more of what he did last year, then I think we have got a good shot at being one of the best teams.

“I’m just happy to be healthy and playing good golf and you never know where the season is going to take me.”

For over a decade, it’s been quite the journey for Brooks. From starting out his professional winning theme on the Challenge Tour in 2012 (above) and 2013, he has carried on that trend of winning across the globe on multiple tours.

A time when he maybe thought of golf as a lot simpler for someone just starting out in the game.

English Challenge 2012. Andrew Redington/Getty Images

“It’s like anything, the more involved you get, the more you realise it’s a business and more of a job. It was more fun back then on the Challenge Tour.

“Being a young kid, you don’t realise all the work that goes into it. We all do “work” but you don’t realise what goes on behind closed doors. To be around other guys and what it takes to be a professional golfer shows that it’s definitely more of a job now than how it was back on the Challenge Tour.”

Main image: Chris Trotman/LIV Golf