Brooks Koepka withdrew from the 2021 Tour Championship on Saturday with a wrist injury. Koepka was 3 overs that day and was near the bottom of the 30-golfer leaderboard at East Lake Golf Club.
It appeared that Koepka injured his wrist in a special shot during his third round on Saturday, where he hit a route, which you can see here.
This is interesting for a few reasons. Although Koepka had no chance of winning the tournament (he was 18 strokes below Patrick Cantley when he retreated), there is still a ton of money at stake. Last place in the Tour Championship fetches $395,000, and 10th place is more than double that. The top eight all get at least $1 million. Koepka would receive that $395,000 check because it was withdrawn and finished last.
Another reason is that the Ryder Cup, which Koepka won in the U.S. Koepka seemed unfazed by the incident and was simply cautioning ahead.
Brooks Koepka has withdrawn from the @PlayoffFinale with a left wrist injury. pic.twitter.com/8R0q0I1tKI
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) September 4, 2021
"That same wrist. I had a problem with the back in '17, '18, so just make sure it's all good," Koepka said.
Injuries have become a theme with Koepka. His wrist injury in 2018 kept him out of that year's Masters, which was won by Patrick Reed. He missed events at various points because of a left knee, which troubled him during 2019 and was injured again at the end of that calendar year. He said in February 2020 that his knee might never be the same again. He missed the end of last year's FedEx Cup playoffs and the 2020 US Open with injuries on winged foot. This year, it was a split knee that knocked him out of the Players Championship and almost out of the Masters and has popped up from time to time since then.
Koepka will play a $250,000 charity match against Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy at Liberty National Golf Club next week. Koepka was supposed to play left-handed, but that is unlikely to happen at this time.
The captain's choice for the 2020 Ryder Cup will be announced on Wednesday. While it's doubtful that a decision will be made until then (if a decision has to be made at all), next time we'll get an update on Koepka's health status. Depending on how Koepka feels, the U.S. Can add players up to matches in three weeks. She was the 2016 U.S. The team, which won at Hazeltine, and the 2018 U.S. The team, which lost in Paris, played in both.