Career Comparison: Jordan Spieth vs. Brooks Koepka
As golf fans, we are constantly looking for ways to compare players’ careers. While this exercise leads to countless hours of entertaining debates, it would be great to have an objective system to compare two players’ careers. With this exercise in mind, I decided to come up with my own system that can be used to compare any two players from the modern era.
System Overview
For my system, I first started by ranking and assigning a point value for winning each different type of professional golf tournament that exists in the modern era of golf. The point values that I assigned to the tournaments are as follows:
Tournament — Points
Majors — 5
The Players Championship — 4
World Golf Championships and FedEx Cup playoff events — 3
Rolex Series tournaments and Race to Dubai Final series — 2
Other PGA Tour events — 1
Other European Tour events — 0.5
Top 10 finish in Majors (excluding wins counted above) — 0.25
Any other professional tour victories — 0.25
At the end of this process, each golfer will end up with a single point total, and the player with the higher point total will have been deemed to have greater career achievements. For ease of comparability, my system focuses only on professional tournaments. This will allow for the comparison of players that grew up in different areas of the world and for players that may or may not have played golf collegiately. Additionally, my system does not award any points for a player earning a spot on a national team for the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup. Awarding points for earning a spot on a national team would provide a golfer from the United States with double the opportunities to earn points compared to an International golfer, as the United States players have the opportunity to play for a Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup team every year, while an International player only has the opportunity to play in a team event once every two years. Lastly, I chose not to award points for season long awards that golfers earned, as I feel like the player will already have earned points (according to the table above) for the wins in that season that led them to the award.
For the first use of my system, I chose to compare the careers of Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson. Those results are detailed here.
Player Comparison Introduction
For my second edition, I chose to compare the careers of two American players, both with multiple majors to their name: Jordan Spieth and Brooks Koepka. At the time of this comparison on February 14, 2021, Jordan is 27 years old and Brooks is 30.
Jordan started his time in the golf spotlight at a young age after he captured two US Junior Amateur Championships (competition among boys ages 19 and under) in 2009 and 2011, joining Tiger Woods as the only other two-time winner of the event. After his distinguished junior golf career, he then played collegiately at the University of Texas. In 2012, midway through his sophomore year at Texas, he turned professional, and by 2013 he secured his first PGA Tour win. Jordan then became a superstar after capturing 3 major championships, and he is currently just a PGA Championship short of achieving the career grand slam. Over the last few years, Jordan has been in a well-documented slump, as his last victory was in July 2017 at the British Open. During this time, he has remained one of the most popular professional golfers among golf fans due to his open and honest personality and his exciting playing style that, contrary to many players in today’s game, does not revolve around overpowering golf courses with distance.
Brooks had a less heralded start to his golf career than Jordan. Brooks played collegiately at Florida State University, then started his professional golf career on the Challenge Tour in 2012, which is the second-tier professional golf tour in Europe. Through solid play over the next few years, Brooks then earned his European Tour card, and then eventually his first PGA Tour card in 2014. Brooks then catapulted himself to the top of game with a tremendous run of play that netted him 4 major championships from 2017 to 2019. Since the end of 2019, Brooks has dealt with various injuries. Just recently, Brooks won in February 2021 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, which was his first win since July 2019 at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. Brooks is known for his steely reserve and ability to withstand pressure situations in huge events. While most think of Brooks as a power player that relies on distance, he often displays deft touch around the greens. After Brooks recent slump-busting victory, the golf world is on notice for the return of a healthy Brooks Koepka.
Now, we will go through Jordan and Brooks’ career victories with my point system, to determine which player has objectively achieved more in their career as of today.
Majors — 5 points
Jordan: 2015 Masters, 2015 US Open (Chambers Bay), 2017 British Open (Royal Birkdale Golf Club). 3 for 15 Points
Brooks:2017 US Open (Erin Hills), 2018 US Open (Shinnecock Hills Golf Club), 2018 PGA Championship (Bellerive Country Club), 2019 PGA Championship (Bethpage State Park — Black Course). 4 for 20 Points
Players Championships — 4 points
Jordan: None. 0 Points
Brooks: None. 0 Points
World Golf Championships — 3 points
Jordan: None. 0 Points
Brooks: 2019 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational (TPC Southwind). 1 for 3 Points
FedEx Cup Playoff Events — 3 points
Jordan: 2015 Tour Championship (East Lake Golf Club). 1 for 3 Points
Brooks: None. 0 Points
Rolex Series and Race to Dubai Final Series Events — 2 points
Jordan: None. 0 Points
Brooks: 2014 Turkish Airlines Open (Montgomerie Maxx Royal Golf Course). 1 for 2 Points
Regular PGA Tour Events (not already counted above) — 1 point
Jordan: 2013 John Deere Classic (TPC Deere Run), 2015 Valspar Championship (Innisbrook Resort — Copperhead Course), 2015 John Deere Classic (TPC Deere Run), 2016 Hyundai Tournament of Champions (Kapalua Resort — Plantation Course), 2016 Dean & DeLuca Invitational (Colonial Country Club), AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass Hill Golf Course, Monterey Peninsula Country Club — Shore Course), 2017 Travelers Championship (TPC River Highlands). 7 for 7 Points
Brooks: 2015 Waste Management Phoenix Open (TPC Scottsdale), 2018 CJ Cup at Nine Bridges (Nine Bridges Golf Club), 2021 Waste Management Phoenix Open (TPC Scottsdale). 3 for 3 Points
Regular European Tour Events (not already counted above) — 0.5 points
Jordan: None. 0 Points
Brooks: None. 0 Points
Top 10s in Majors (excluding wins counted above) — 0.25 points
Jordan: Masters (2014, 2016, 2018), British Open (2015, 2018), PGA Championship (2015, 2019). 7 for 1.75 Points
Brooks: Masters (2019, 2020), US Open (2014, 2019), British Open (2015, 2017, 2019), PGA Championship (2015, 2016). 9 for 2.25 Points
All Other Tour Wins (not counted above) — 0.25 points
Jordan: 2014 Emirates Australian Open (PGA Tour of Australasia), 2016 Emirates Australian Open (PGA Tour of Australasia). 2 for 0.5 Points
Brooks: 2012 Challenge de Catalunya (Challenge Tour), 2013 Montecchia Golf Open (Challenge Tour), 2013 Fred Olsen Challenge de Espana (Challenge Tour), 2013 Scottish Hydro Challenge (Challenge Tour), 2016 Dunlop Phoenix Tournament (Japan Golf Tour), 2017 Dunlop Phoenix Tournament (Japan Golf Tour). 6 for 1.5 Points
Conclusion
Jordan Spieth Total Points: 27.25
Brooks Koepka Total Points: 31.75
As you can see, my system gives Brooks’ career accomplishments the edge over Jordan’s by a slim margin of 4.5 points. All else equal, if Jordan were to add another major to his current tally of 3, both players would have 4 career majors, and my system would then identify Jordan as having the greater career accomplishments, which I would agree with. But, as things stand today on February 14, 2021, I agree with my system having identified Brooks’ career accomplishments as superior to Jordan’s.
I believe that Brooks’ stout resume in majors, with 4 victories and 9 additional top-10 finishes (excluding wins), compared to Spieth’s mark of 3 victories and 7 additional top-10s, makes up for Brooks’ relatively light accomplishments in regular PGA Tour events. In regular PGA Tour events, Brooks only has 3 wins, while Spieth has 7. These facts certainly support the popular narrative that Koepka is a big game hunter and is able to heighten his focus for the biggest events. With Brooks’ talent and demonstrated ability to close out tournaments, it is a bit of a surprise that he doesn’t win more regular PGA Tour events.
Although, as interesting as it is to compare Brooks’ and Jordan’s careers to date, it’s also just as interesting to try to speculate on who will have a better career going forward. Both players are very similar in that they captured all of their majors in a short two to three-year window, and that they have endured slumps over the last few years, albeit for different reasons. While Koepka’s troubles have clearly been linked to injuries, it’s much more difficult to pinpoint the causes of Jordan’s drop-off, which could range from the physical golf swing to even possible mental blocks or lack of confidence over certain shots or situations.
As of now in February 2021, both players have begun to show signs that they are ready to turn the corner, with Brooks winning the 2021 Waste Management Phoenix Open and Jordan notching back-to-back top-5 finishes at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. It will be interesting to see if these turnaround performances in regular PGA Tour events will translate into the success in major championships that we were used to seeing from Brooks and Jordan. Personally, I hope that both can regain their old form, as golf is more exciting when both are thriving on golf’s biggest stages. If Brooks is truly fully recovered from his injuries, as he says he is, I believe that we will see him hoist another major trophy sometime in the next year or so. As it’s much less clear to nail down the root causes, and thus solutions, for Spieth’s troubles, I give the edge going forward to Brooks and I believe he will continue to increase his lead over Jordan in my career ranking system.
Let me know what you think of my system, and if there are any changes that you think should be made to it? Also, let me know of other modern golfers that you would like to see me compare with my system!
