Brooks Koepka is making his return to competitive golf next week at the CJ Cup at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas, the event moved from South Korea to the United States due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Koepka, who has dropped from No. 1 in the world at the start of the year to No. 10, has been out since withdrawing prior to the first round of the Northern Trust in August, a span of nearly two months.
The two-time U.S. Open champion missed the tournament at Winged Foot due to recurring knee issues that were aggravated a year ago when he attempted to defend his CJ Cup title in South Korea. He didn’t play after that until January.
“Excited to get back out there at next week’s CJ Cup at Shadow Creek,” Koepka said via Twitter. “It’s been a challenging but productive two months of rehabbing my injury.”
Koepka originally had a stem cell treatment for the knee in August 2019, then came back for two tournaments before the issues sidelined him into 2020.
In 13 worldwide starts in 2020, Koepka, a four-time major champion, has just two top-10 finishes, including a tie for second at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. The following week, he began the final round of the PGA Championship in position to win the tournament for the third straight year, but shot a final-round 74 and finished tied for 29th. He missed the cut the following week at the Wyndham Championship.
Among others in the field at Shadow Creek will be No. 1 Dustin Johnson, defending champion Justin Thomas, PGA champion Collin Morikawa and Jon Rahm.