SAN DIEGO (AP) — Brooks Koepka felt nerves he had not experienced in years. The swagger that was such a hallmark of his five major championships was replaced by concern about the reception he would get upon his return to the PGA Tour after nearly four years on Saudi-funded LIV Golf.
Koepka didn't make a birdie until his final hole Thursday. He failed to break par on the tough South course at Torrey Pines in the Farmers Insurance Open.
And there was a small measure of relief.
“I’m just grateful to be out here and have a chance to compete with these guys,” Koepka said.
A large gallery followed him around on a glorious day along the Pacific bluffs with occasional shouts of, “Welcome back, Brooks.” On his way to the second tee, two young boys called out to him and Koepka walked over for fist bumps. He walked the entire 30 yards of a fence where fans wanted his autograph after his 1-over 73.
“I care about what everybody’s thinking out here, what everybody’s doing, and just trying to be as good of a person and good of a player as I can be,” Koepka said. “Just wanted a warm reception. Just like everybody else, you walk into a room, nobody wants to feel exiled. They just want to be loved.”
Koepka was freed from the final year of his nine-figure contract with LIV Golf on Dec. 23, applied for his PGA Tour membership about two weeks later and in three days was provided a path back.
The hard part was how he would be received. That's what brought the relief, and a big smile even after a round in which he hit the ball cleanly and couldn't buy a putt. The 8-footer for birdie on the 18th was the longest putt he made all day.
“I'm the only one in the entire world that’s going through this situation so it’s very difficult to explain,” Koepka said. “But I’m enjoying it, I really am.”
And now he has company, with former Masters champion Patrick Reed leaving LIV Golf with a chance to return to the PGA Tour as early as September. Koepka didn't see that coming and only learned about it during his pro-am Wednesday.
“Yeah, it's wild,” Koepka said. “Whatever Patrick wants to do and to be the best golfer he can be, best for his family, I'm in full support of that.”
Koepka said he felt nervous on the first tee, though it didn't show. He piped his drive 301 yards at sea level into the fairway, one of his better iron shots of the day to 10 feet and missed his putt.
“I guess I should have been more nervous the rest of the round,” Koepka said.
The South course is among the strongest on the PGA Tour, producing more pars than any excitement. Koepka missed birdie chances on both par 5s on the front nine, and he made a sloppy bogey on the par-5 13th when his flip wedge up the steep hill to a flag he couldn't see was too strong and went into the rough behind the green.
He was 11 shots behind Justin Rose, who had a 62 on the easier North course, and eight shots worse than Seamus Power, who had a 65 for the low score on the South.
“It’s been a while since I played competitive golf, so I like the way I’m playing,” said Koepka, who last played Oct. 5 at the Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland. “I just need to kind of play my way into it.”
His departure to LIV Golf in 2022 — one of the biggest surprises among the players who left the PGA Tour for the guaranteed Saudi riches — felt much longer ago. Koepka couldn't recall if he heard any comments outside the ropes in Portland when he made his LIV debut.
And he wasn't sure what to expect in San Diego.
“I don’t like thinking ahead at all or trying to anticipate what was going to happen, but I wasn’t sure, which is kind of weird being uneasy,” he said. “From the first tee on, it was great. It actually made me settle down a little bit. Like I said, it made me feel good just to be out here.”
Koepka is in the Phoenix Open next week. He is not in the $20 million signature events unless he qualifies. His return also stipulates a $5 million charity donation, no access to PGA Tour equity shares for five years, no FedEx Cup bonus money he might earn this year.
The tour also said whenever Koepka plays he will be added to the field to not take a spot from anyone. And then two more players get into tournaments on Monday of tournament week to make sure every group is a threesome.
The two beneficiaries this week were Jackson Suber and Lanto Griffin, a big deal to Griffin because Torrey Pines is his favorite course and he otherwise would not be in except for Koepka.
That led Griffin to say jokingly, “If Brooks really wants to create some goodwill, he should enter every tournament and then withdraw on Tuesday.”
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Brooks Koepka tees off on the second hole on the South Course at Torrey Pines during the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open golf tournament Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)
Brooks Koepka walks the fourth fairway on the South Course at Torrey Pines during the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open golf tournament Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)
Brooks Koepka reacts after missing a birdie putt on the fourth hole on the South Course at Torrey Pines during the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open golf tournament Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Thursday she is running for governor of Minnesota, promising to take on President Donald Trump while unifying a state that has endured a series of challenges even before the federal government's immigration crackdown.
Klobuchar's decision gives Democrats a high-profile candidate and proven statewide winner as their party tries to hold onto the office occupied by Gov. Tim Walz. The 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee, Walz abandoned his campaign for a third term this month amid criticism over mismanagement of taxpayer funding for child care programs.
“Minnesota, we've been through a lot,” Klobuchar said in a video announcement. “These times call for leaders who can stand up and not be rubber stamps of this administration — but who are also willing to find common ground and fix things in our state.”
Klobuchar cited Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota, federal officers killing two Minnesotans, the assassination of a state legislative leader and a school shooting that killed multiple children — all within the past year. She avoided direct mention of ongoing fraud investigations into the child care programs that Trump has made a political cudgel.
“I believe we must stand up for what’s right and fix what’s wrong,” Klobuchar said.
Klobuchar becomes the fourth sitting senator to announce plans to run for governor in 2026. The other races are in Alabama, Colorado and Tennessee.
Multiple Minnesota Republicans are campaigning in what could become a marquee contest among 36 governorships on the ballot in November. Among them are MyPillow founder and chief executive Mike Lindell, a 2020 election denier who is close to Trump; state House Speaker Lisa Demuth; Dr. Scott Jensen, a former state senator who was the party’s 2022 gubernatorial candidate; and state Rep. Kristin Robbins.
Running for governor is a relatively low-risk move for Klobuchar. If she loses, she’ll keep her Senate seat and won’t be up for reelection until 2030. If she wins, either she or Walz will appoint someone to fill the vacancy, depending on the timing of her resignation from the Senate. Resigning a little early would give her successor a slight seniority advantage.
A special election would later be held to choose a successor to finish the rest of Klobuchar's term.
The Minnesota contest is likely to test Trump and his fellow Republicans’ uncompromising law-and-order approach and mass deportation program against Democrats’ criticisms of his administration’s tactics.
Federal agents have detained children and adults who are U.S. citizens, entered homes without warrants and engaged protesters in violent exchanges. Renee Good was shot three times and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in early January. On Saturday, federal officers fatally shot ICU nurse Alex Pretti during an encounter.
Many Democrats on Capitol Hill, in turn, have voted against spending bills that fund Trump’s Department of Homeland Security. A standoff over the funding could lead to a partial government shutdown.
Trump and other Republicans also will try to saddle Klobuchar — or any other Democrat — with questions about the federal investigation into Minnesota’s child care programs and its Somali community. Trump also has made repeated assertions of widespread fraud in state government, and his administration is conducting multiple investigations of state officials, including Walz. The Democrat has maintained that his administration has investigated, reduced and prosecuted fraud.
Demuth was quick to release a new video and a web page that illustrate what’s likely to be another main line of her campaign: that Klobuchar cannot be trusted to end the fraud in public programs or curb the growth of government.
“Minnesotans only need to look at her record to know that she simply cannot deliver the change that our state needs, and would be nothing more than a third term of Tim Walz,” Demuth said in a statement.
Now in her fourth Senate term, Klobuchar is a former local prosecutor and onetime presidential candidate who positions herself as a moderate and has demonstrated the ability to win across Minnesota.
She won her 2024 reelection bid by nearly 16 percentage points and received 135,000 more votes than Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. Harris outpaced Trump by fewer than 5 percentage points.
Klobuchar gained attention during Trump’s first term for her questioning of his judicial nominees, including now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. At Kavanaugh’s acrimonious confirmation hearings, she asked the future justice, who had been accused of sexual assault as a teenager, if he ever had so much to drink that he didn’t remember what happened. Kavanaugh retorted, “Have you?”
The senator, who had talked publicly of her father’s alcoholism, continued her questioning. Kavanaugh, who was confirmed by a single vote, later apologized to Klobuchar.
After Trump’s first presidency, Klobuchar was among the most outspoken lawmakers during bipartisan congressional inquiries of the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol during certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. As Senate Rules Committee chair, she pressed Capitol Police, administration officials and others for details of what authorities knew beforehand and how rioters breached the Capitol.
“It’s our duty to have immediate responses to what happened,” she said after helping write a report focused not on Trump’s role but on better security protocols for the seat of Congress.
Klobuchar sought the presidential nomination in 2020, running as a moderate in the same political lane as Biden. She launched her campaign standing outside in a Minnesota snowstorm to promote her “grit” and Midwestern sensibilities that have anchored her political identity.
As a candidate, Klobuchar faced stories of disgruntled Senate staffers who described her as a difficult boss but also distinguished herself on crowded debate stages as a determined pragmatist. She outlasted several better-funded candidates and ran ahead of Biden in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. But Biden, then a former vice president, trounced her and others in the South Carolina primaries, prompting her to drop out and join others in closing ranks behind him.
After Biden’s victory, Klobuchar would have been well-positioned for a Cabinet post, perhaps even attorney general. But the Senate’s 50-50 split made it untenable for Biden to create any opening for Republicans to regain control of the chamber.
Klobuchar announced in 2021 that she had been treated for breast cancer and in 2024 announced that she was cancer-free but undergoing another round of radiation.
Barrow reported from Atlanta. Associated Press reporter Maya Sweedler in Washington contributed.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn, speaks during a field hearing on immigration Friday, Jan. 16, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
