By Frank Dalleres
Brooks Koepka admitted he feared his career had been wrecked by injuries after ending his 20-month drought with victory at the LIV Golf Invitational Jeddah on Sunday.
Koepka beat fellow American and Smash GC team-mate Peter Uihlein on the third play-off hole after the pair finished tied at the top of the leaderboard on 12 under par.
It represented the four-time major winner’s first title since February 2021, following an injury-ravaged couple of years that he revealed had made him doubt his future in the game.
“I didn’t know if my career was over for a half second,” Koepka said. “I told Claude [Harmon, former coach] I wasn’t sure I was going to play. So it’s nice to come back and be able to win.”
Koepka’s success banked him $4.75m (£4.25m) in total: $4m for winning the individual prize and his share of the $3m his side earned for claiming the team competition.
Uihlein paid the price for repeatedly finding sand at the par-five 18th, which the pair replayed three times until he found the water out of a bunker and Koepka birdied.
“I just caught a rock. I guess I was dodging bullets to begin with on the first few, then something got in between and it shot right out,” he said.
Uihlein could have banked almost $13m (£11.5m) with victory, including an $8m bonus for finishing second in the season-long individual championship.
Instead Branden Grace, winner of the first LIV Golf event in London earlier this year, held onto second place behind Dustin Johnson, who tied up the title and $18m (£16m) last week in Bangkok. Patrick Reed was third, earning him an additional $4m.
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