Brooks Koepka speaks, A conspiracy to put him out front, & his 2026 over/unders | The Shotgun Start

Not sure if you've heard about it, but Brooks Koepka is back on the PGA Tour this week! Andy joins Brendan for this Farmers Insurance Open preview coming off a big Ballfrogs win on Monday night. He's giddy about the Frogs continuing to earn the top spot in our TGL Power Rankings and makes a pitch for Michael Thorbjornsen to become a permanent member of the team. Brooks Koepka has not yet joined a TGL team, but he did join some assembled media for a pre-tournament press conference at Torrey Pines on Tuesday. He spoke about his nerves returning to the PGA Tour and seemed a little emotional discussing the path that led him back to the Farmers. Andy and Brendan unpack the half-hour presser before Brendan offers up some over/unders for Koepka's 2026 season. How many Signature Events will he play? Will he return to Bellerive for the BMW Championship in August? Will he ever suit up for Jupiter Links after all? Koepka will be in a featured group at the Farmers for Thursday and Friday which will be broadcast on linear TV thanks to ESPN. Brendan wonders if this is the PGA Tour showing off to Bryson and Rahm that they could also be prominently featured on the Worldwide Leader in Sports if they were to return before their approaching deadline. Could Patrick Reed also be part of this conspiracy? We'll have to find out. Andy shares his "5 Guys to Monitor (For Various Reasons)" ahead of this week's festivities at Torrey, keeping an eye on a horse for the course and a major champion that could be on the trade block. One-and-done picks are made for the Farmers with PJ's pick prompting a fun Medinah story from Andy. Elsewhere on the schedule, LPGA season kicks off this week at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions and Patrick Reed looks to stay hot on the DP World Tour in Bahrain. In news, the 2026 PGA Tour Player Advisory Council was announced and has a distinctly American feel, Nelly Korda has some *takes* about WTGL, and a DP World Tour player goes down for a performance-enhancing drug suspension. Join us in Chicagoland for an SGS Live Show on Thursday, February 12! We'll be hanging out at SPACE in Evanston, Illinois for a night of Q&A, Champs Tour Minute, and plenty of Bears chatter. Check out ⁠⁠https://www.ticketweb.com/event/the-shotgun-start-space-tickets/14054084?pl=space⁠⁠ for more details. Check out our new No Interest in Fighting merch here: https://proshop.thefriedegg.com/collections/new-arrivals Listen on Spotify and Apple here: - Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-shotgun-start/id1435273901 - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0jMFGCaFpcG0eKyOCNbb0T?si=174134a0c7b446d8 Sign up for our Fried Egg Golf Newsletter, delivered every Monday, Wednesday, Friday https://thefriedegg.com/subscribe-to-the-fried-egg-newsletter/ Also check out our Membership - Fried Egg Golf Club - which includes in-depth course reviews and daily blog posts: https://thefriedegg.com/membership/ Check out our other course profile videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjqqxh4N0xEaxZ_jhhQBcu901PmlUU-J8 Fried Egg Golf on social media: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/fried_egg_golf Twitter - https://twitter.com/fried_egg_golf The Shotgun Start on social media: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/shotgunstartpod Twitter - https://x.com/TheShotgunStart The Fried Egg team: Andy Johnson - https://twitter.com/AndyTFE Brendan Porath - https://twitter.com/BrendanPorath Garrett Morrison - https://twitter.com/garrett_TFE Joseph LaMagna - https://twitter.com/JosephLaMagna Will Knights - https://twitter.com/WillKnightsTFE Meg Adkins - https://twitter.com/megadkins_TFE PJ Clark - https://twitter.com/TheRealPJClark Matt Rouches - https://www.instagram.com/mattrouches Cameron Hurdus - https://www.instagram.com/cameronhurdus