As the most-recent Major Championship winner Brooks Koepka is surely having fun in the lead-up to The 147thOpen Championship, but according to him, he had more enjoyable times in his career – on the European Challenge Tour.
The World Number Four, who successfully defended his U.S. Open title last month at Shinnecock Hills, returns to the country of his last Challenge Tour victory — the 2013 SSE Scottish Hydro Challenge — where he earned a mid-season promotion onto the European Tour with his third win that year.
Having crossed the Atlantic Ocean in search of his third-career Major, and second in a row, the American spoke with genuine fondness about his days on Europe’s top developmental circuit.
“The Challenge Tour was a bunch of fun and by far the most exciting time in my life,” said Koepka. “I have said this a million times but it was the most fun I’ve ever had playing golf.”
In 2012, Koepka began a meteoric rise up the Official World Golf Ranking when he claimed his first professional victory at the Challenge de Catalunya. Finishing the season 43rdin the rankings, he secured an eligibility category for the 2013 campaign.
After notching wins at the 2013 Montecchia Golf Open and the Fred Olsen Challenge de España, he shot 62-68 on the weekend of the Scottish Hydro Challenge to earn an automatic promotion to The European Tour.
The goal of any professional golfer is to reach new heights, but the climb is often filled with bittersweet moments.
“Looking back on it, I probably wish it could have lasted a bit longer but then part of me doesn’t because I can move on,” he said. “But they are memories I will have for the rest of my life.
“I enjoyed it way more than I probably do now, playing on the PGA Tour.
“In the States, you have your team and other people around, such as your wife or girlfriend and guys go home to them.
“You don’t see guys coming out for dinner or watching the football matches together.
“It felt like the whole tour was on the plane and you would get there and everybody would be staying in a small town and going out to eat together.
“The whole restaurant would just be guys who were playing on the tour.”
At 26 years old, Koepka became the seventh former Challenge Tour player to win a Major when he triumphed at the 2017 U.S. Open.
Today, the 27 year old’s career has taken on new meaning as his legacy will increasingly be defined by the Major tally next to his name.
As he continues to assert himself as a force in global golf, it may very well be his cherished Challenge Tour memories of competing in different environments all over the world that provide him the greatest foundation for success.
