Brooks Koepka could be RULED OUT of Presidents Cup

Brooks Koepka may be forced to pull out of the Presidents Cup due to injury.

Jack Seddon's picture
Tue, 12 Nov 2019
Brooks Koepka could be RULED OUT of Presidents Cup

Brooks Koepka recently revealed that he underwent a knee surgery straight after he competed at the Tour Championship in September, where he finished fourth. After a six week break to let his knee heal, Koepka returned to his first event of the new PGA Tour season, the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, where he missed the cut.

The four-time major champion then travelled to South Korea for the CJ Cup, where many of the world's top players returned due to the huge prize purse that was up for grabs.

After the first round, Koepka was forced to withdraw due to injury to his knee, which begs the questions, was Koepka ready to return to action as early as he did?

Koepka gained an automatic spot for the Presidents Cup against Ernie Els' Rest of the World side in Melbourne next month, with Tiger Woods recently making his captains picks of Patrick Reed, Tony Finau, Gary Woodland and Woods himself.

GolfMagic recently caught up with Claude Harmon III in West Palm Beach, where he gave us an update on Koepka's injury.

"Brooks is still trying to figure out what direction he is going to do," said Harmon. 

"I definitely think he is going to be taking some time off. You know, when any player gets injured the number one thing for the athlete, regardless of the sport, is they want to get back to playing and Brooks is desperate to get back to playing.

"He's had two of probably the best years of anybody, the way he's played over the last year, the way he and Rory played at the end of the year, he's desperate to stay number one in the world for as long as he can and he's desperate to win as many major championship and tournaments as he can, so hopefully we're going to see Brooks back on the golf course soon but whenever we have an athlete get injured, the goal for us is to say 'listen, nobody comes back too early', get fit first and if it takes a little longer, so we'll see what happens and see what the time frame is with Brooks and hopefully we'll see him back playing again soon."

With Harmon's comments, it's fair to assume that Koepka might be taking an extended period away from the course to focus on his health, meaning he would have to pull out of the Presidents Cup.

You'd also think that Woods would want to know sooner rather than later, so that he can select a replacement for Woods. The USA team captain admitted how difficult it was leaving Rickie Fowler out of the team, so could Fowler be the man to step in for an injured Koepka?