It has been confirmed that Brooks Koepka will tee it up in the Valspar Championship, which takes place between March 19th and 22nd.
It will be the five-time Major winner’s first appearance at the event in four years, with Koepka moving to LIV Golf three months after his T12 the last time he played at Copperhead Course at Innisbrook, in 2022.
The appearance will be Koepka’s third at the tournament, having also played in 2014, when he missed the cut.
The event, which concludes the Florida Swing, is considered a favorite among PGA Tour pros, partly down to the course, which includes narrow fairways and the notorious Snake Pit encompassing the 16th, 17th and 18th holes. As a result, Koepka is sure to be put to the test throughout the week.
He also seems certain to be part of a strong field, with Billy Horschel, Viktor Hovland and Patrick Cantlay other big names who are confirmed to play so far.
The Valspar Championship isn’t the only event in the Florida Swing that Koepka has committed to playing.
He’ll also play in his hometown event, the Cognizant Classic, which kicks off the Florida Swing on February 26th at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, and where he regularly played before defecting to LIV Golf almost four years ago.
Following that is a Signature Event, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, although Koepka still has work to do to get into the field, as he will need to qualify via the Cognizant Classic, but his options are limited.
At 255th in the world rankings, Koepka's too low to make the world’s top 30 in time to qualify via that route, while he can’t accept a sponsor’s exemption, per the conditions of the Returning Member Program that saw him resume his PGA Tour career immediately after leaving LIV Golf.
That leaves him needing either a strong enough finish at the Cognizant Classic to qualify via the Aon Swing 5 or Aon Next 10, or a victory, as his routes into the field.
While it remains to be seen whether Koepka will do enough at the Cognizant Classic to reach the Bay Hill event, another Florida Swing tournament he will compete in is the one that follows it, The Players Championship, which comes from TPC Sawgrass between March 12th and 15th.
Koepka made the cut in his first PGA Tour start since returning to the circuit, at the Farmers Insurance Open, but he didn't make it to the weekend at the WM Phoenix Open, and will not play in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am or the Genesis Invitational.
That means that by the time the Cognizant Classic comes around, he will have only played six rounds this year.
He will hope that his run of at least three of the four Florida Swing events will help brush off any remaining cobwebs with one eye on the first Major of the year, The Masters, which begins three weeks after the Valspar Championship.
