What does a five-time major champion look like when the putter refuses to cooperate? Brooks Koepka‘s first round back on the PGA Tour provided an answer: 73 strokes of frustration disguised as competence.

The 35-year-old posted a 1-over 73 on Torrey Pines South Course in the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open. This was his first competitive PGA Tour round since leaving for LIV Golf in 2022. The ball-striking held. The flatstick betrayed him as he had thirteen birdie putts inside 30 feet but just one conversion at the final hole.

Koepka turned in 1-over 37 on the front nine, and the damage came not from poor swings but from dead reads. He carded a three-putt bogey from 52 feet on the par-4 fourth. Then the sequence that defined his day: a 27-footer left short on No. 7, a 21-footer that died early on No. 8, a 9-footer pushed right on No. 9. So, three holes, three birdie looks inside 10 feet, and all three ended in misses.

His pre-tournament Strokes Gained: Putting averaged -0.187 over his prior five starts. Thursday confirmed the pattern hasn’t broken. Koepka’s tee-to-green numbers before the Farmers told a different story—Off-the-Tee +0.316, Around-the-Green +0.203—but those gains evaporated the moment he reached the greens. The disconnect between ball-striking quality and scoring output defined his round.

The back nine steadied without igniting. Koepka played an even-par 36 coming home. A bogey on the par-5 13th after finding a divot. A par save on the 15th after driving near the cart path. A 5-iron from 222 yards to 22 feet on the 16th—and another missed birdie putt, this one misread left.

Then, finally, the 18th. Koepka overshot the green, chipped from the rough to 8 feet, and drained the only birdie putt that mattered. This sure was a small consolation, but a consolation nonetheless, and a much-needed one, too. He finished ahead of playing partners Max Homa and Ludvig Åberg, both at 6-over. At Torrey Pines, star power doesn’t guarantee leaderboard position. Thursday proved this as the marquee group combined for 19-over par.

This venue carries history for Brooks Koepka, and not the comfortable kind.

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Brooks Koepka’s Torrey Pines history offers little comfort

The 5x major winner has missed cuts in four Farmer Insurance Open appearances. The only weekend he made was in 2015, his first attempt. Since then, the South Course has extracted its toll with mechanical consistency.

Yet he chose this as his comeback act. Maybe he is trying to make a point, one that we will only know on Sunday. Koepka acknowledged before the tournament that his return wouldn’t be seamless—not with peers, not with performance.

“I’ve got a lot of work to do with some of the players,” he shared. “There are definitely guys who are happy and definitely guys who will be angry.”

The locker room dynamics remain uncertain, but the scorecard, at least, offered clarity: the rust showed where it always shows first.

Koepka will tee off for Round 2 at 1 p.m. ET on the North Course. He’ll need birdies to climb toward the cut line. Torrey Pines waits. So does the answer.