“That was the benchmark” - Brooks Koepka hopes to leapfrog Tiger Woods in all-time Golf Major winners list before retiring

Brooks Koepka has had a spectacular career in professional golf, but there is no doubt that his run through the Majors has been on another level. At the age of 33, he has won five Majors, but he feels he has enough talent and energy to achieve many more.

Recently, Brooks Koepka was asked to give his opinion on how many Majors he could win in his career. This happened on Baltusrol's Fore Play podcast, where Koepka was a guest this Sunday.

Brooks Koepka's answers were surprising, and he made it clear that surpassing Tiger Woods is "the benchmark".

Here's what Brooks Koepka said on the Fore Play podcast:

"I feel like I can get to 12 [major victories]. Think how many I've already blown. I blew one to Phil [Mickelson], so that would be six, to Tiger [Woods], that's seven, to Jon Rahm, that's eight, to Gary Woodland, so it's nine. I should have nine, I feel like I should have nine right now."

About the chance of beating Tiger Woods, he added:

"I hope so, that'd be great right? That was the benchmark, 14 'till I give him 15."

Between 2017 and 2019, Koepka won four Majors. He had to wait four years to win another Major. That happened at the 2023 PGA Championship.

What is Brooks Koepka's record in Majors?

Brooks Koepka's Major victories came at the 2018, 2019 and 2023 PGA Championships and the 2017 and 2018 U.S. Open. But the quality he has shown in these tournaments is not limited to his victories.

Koepka has played in 39 editions of Majors and has missed the cut only five times (he withdrew from The Open in 2020). In addition to his five victories, he has 13 top-10s, including four runner-up finishes.

These second places were the ones he referred to in the interview above. The first of these was at The Masters in 2019, where he lost by one stroke to Tiger Woods despite finishing tied with Dustin Johnson and Xander Schauffele.

Koepka's second runner-up finish was at the 2019 U.S. Open, where he lost by three strokes to Gary Woodland. His third was at the 2021 PGA Championship, where he lost by two shots to Phil Mickelson. He finished tied with Louis Oosthuizen.

Finally, Koepka lost the 2023 Masters to Jon Rahm. The difference was four strokes and he finished tied with Phil Mickelson.

Koepka has also finished in the top 25 in six other Majors. He has only finished outside the top 30 in seven events (not counting the times he missed the cut or withdrew).

Curiously, Koepka's Major wins are more than half of his PGA Tour victories (9).