Brooks Koepka isn’t built like your typical golfer.
At six feet tall and 200 lbs, Koepka is an imposing figure out on the course. He’s a powerful player built for the big moments, and that’s helped him win five major championships in his career.
His rise to the top of the Official World Golf Rankings has cemented his status as one of the best to ever play the sport, but despite his quality, his relationship with the game is complicated. He did not grow up dreaming of winning a Green Jacket or Claret Jug.
Instead, Koepka had a burning passion for baseball, a sport in which his great-uncle won two World Series for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Cruelly, an accident when he was 10 years old stopped him from making this dream a reality.
The accident that forced Brooks Koepka to take up golf
The trajectory of Koepka’s life changed in an instant when he was 10 years old. While riding in a car driven by his nanny, the vehicle was involved in a significant accident.
The collision was severe enough to leave the young Koepka with a fractured nose and fractures to his sinus cavity. It was a traumatic event for any child, but the physical aftermath carried a professional consequence that would alter the course of sports history.
Doctors banned him from playing contact sports for the foreseeable future. That drove Koepka to golf, one of the few sports he could play. His heart was set on baseball, but because of the risk of injury, he was forced to play golf.
He spent that summer at Okeeheelee Golf Course, and it was quickly apparent that he could make a career out of this. And Koepka developed into one of the all-time greats.
But after winning the US Open in 2023, Koepka told Golf Digest: “If I could do it over again, I’d play baseball – 100%, no doubt.”
Why Brooks Koepka once called golf boring
Koepka never truly fell in love with golf as he did with baseball. “Golf is kind of boring—not much action,” he once told Golf Digest. But it wasn’t an insult to the sport. It just never quite captured his passion.
He grew up in a family steeped in baseball tradition, far from the quiet fairways of PGA Tour events. A six-hour round of golf simply doesn’t compare to the MLB environment for Koepka.
And Koepka is even ribbed by his father about being a professional golfer. Koepka’s dad was a pitcher for West Virginia Wesleyan, and used to poke fun at his son for playing golf.
Even winning five majors isn’t enough to make golf cool for the Koepkas!
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