Brooks Koepka is all set to make his comeback at the Farmers Insurance Open. However, the attention is not just on his swing, his form, or even his scorecard. The spotlight is on a pair of battered clubs that refuse to leave his bag – tools so trusted that they’ve followed him through the biggest wins of his career and now into a long-awaited return at Torrey Pines.

“Brooks Koepka’s Tour return at Torrey is a great opportunity to remind you he’s still playing @TaylorMadeGolf ‘17 M2 (3-wood) and @Nike Vapor Fly Pro (3-iron),” wrote Jonathan Wall in an X post.

The 2026 Farmers Insurance Open will be the American professional’s first non-major start on the PGA Tour since 2022. And he’s sticking with his vintage TaylorMade ’17 M2 3-wood and Nike Vapor Fly Pro 3-iron. This gear loyalty underscores Koepka’s reluctance to change clubs that have contributed to his five major wins.

“As of right now, that 3-iron has been my old faithful. I know the flight it should be, the original one actually caved in on 18 at Portrush this year. Luckily, I wasn’t playing Saturday or Sunday, so I didn’t have to go without a club. But it’s been crazy, I’ve been carrying the backup around for a couple of months, sort of knowing it was at the end, and it just happened to now make its way to the front of the bag,” Brooks Koepka said about the Nike Vapor Fly Pro 3-iron in an interview with Today’s Golfer.

The 9x PGA Tour winner has gamed the Nike Vapor Fly Pro 3-iron since 2016. Even after Nike exited manufacturing the club, Koepka continued to use it.

It’s known for a slim profile, minimal offset, and a flexible NexCOR face that boosts ball speed while maintaining control.

Nike Vapor Fly Pro-3 uses progressive construction. It has a hollow RZN cavity in long irons, like the 3-iron, for higher launch and greater forgiveness on mishits. It is also reinforced by a FlyBeam chassis for stability. Specs include 19° loft, 39.75″ length, 59° lie angle, 4.3mm offset, and D2.5 swingweight, paired stock with True Temper XP 95 steel shaft (or Fujikura Pro in Koepka’s worn case).

Besides the Nike club, he also cannot let go of the TaylorMade M2 3-wood.

Koepka says that the club is hard to replace, and he doesn’t even want to.

“No. I haven’t really tested anything. I’m not a tinkerer. If something works, something works, and I don’t really switch up. I like everything that I’ve got in the bag. I feel like I have a good understanding of the control, where the misses are. Yeah, I haven’t really tinkered with anything, man. I like my bag setup right now,” Koepka explained ahead of the 2026 Farmers Insurance Open.

Since he has found the flight and loft of the TaylorMade M2 3-wood to be good, he wants to stick to it. He has spares, but no backups actively planned. In fact, he had previously admitted that a 3-wood is the toughest club to get fitted for.

With this comfort zone in the bag, Brooks Koepka would now like to win the Farmers Insurance Open to improve his rankings.

Brooks Koepka’s chance to get back into the elites

The American professional currently ranks 264th on the OWGR. This shows how much the former World No. 1 has faced after his move to the Saudi-backed league. But at the 2026 Farmers Insurance Open, he faced a pivotal moment that could get him into the top 50s. In fact, he doesn’t even have to win the event.

Just a top-10 finish would suffice. And if he manages that, the doors to the Signature Events will be open sooner.

With a 13-event divisor from pre-LIV PGA starts, new results dilute his average initially. Therefore, even a T30 would yield only about 2 points, resulting in minimal gain. The Farmers Insurance Open, on the other hand, offers 57.5-61.5 points, as per the OWGR projections based on the field’s strength.

But if he misses the cut, he would enter a survival season, where he could even lose his exemption.

A strong finish at Torrey Pines could do more than lift Brooks Koepka in the OWGR. It could fast-track his return to golf’s biggest stages and reset the trajectory of his PGA Tour comeback. And fittingly, that push toward the elite may hinge on the same battered clubs he refuses to replace, carrying him forward just as they have through the defining wins of his career.