Jason

Kokrak

Kokrak turned professional in 2008 and enjoyed early success playing in golf’s development levels.

His total earnings of $338,092 from 16 events on the 2011 Nationwide Tour (now known as the Korn Ferry) saw him promoted to the PGA Tour the following season.

Kokrak soon hit the headlines in 2013 by hitting a hole-in-one on a par 4 at Seaside, Georgia, with an almighty 409-yard drive to the fifth hole during the McGladrey Classic.

After several near misses in and around the top four of the leaderboards, he eventually landed his first big prize with the 2020 CJ Cup at Shadow Creek, netting the $1.755million purse.

Having broken into the top 50 in the official world golf rankings, success at Shadow Creek sparked a run of three tournament wins over 13 months with Kokrak adding the 2021 Charles Schwab Challenge ($1.35m) and the 2021 Houston Open ($1.35m) to his roll of honor.

As he prepared for a new adventure with LIV Golf, Kokrak was able to look back on a hugely successful 13-year career on the PGA Tour which earned him $20,437,410 in prize money.

In 2021 Kokrak became an international ambassador for Golf Saudi. Although he was interested to hear about the ambitious plans for LIV Golf, he turned down some early advances until he received a call from long-term friend Brooks Koepka.

“Brooks and I had been close for quite a few years before LIV Golf,” he told Fairway To Heaven.

“We both saw the first tournament at Centurion and he called me and said: ‘Hey, we’re both playing the US Open next week, we gotta talk.’

“He said ‘If I can get where I need to be and I’m comfortable, would you want to be on my team moving forward?’

“I said if you’re in, I’m in.”

Kokrak signed up for the LIV Golf Invitational series in July 2022 while ranked 36th in the world. He made his debut for Smash under captain Koepka in the fledgling event’s third tournament in Portland and has been a regular member of the team ever since.

Kokrak turned in his best individual performance in LIV in the penultimate round of last season, finishing third at Greenbrier to help Smash take the weekend’s team title.

Playing in his final PGA event before his move to LIV, Kokrak was struggling to make the cut in the 2022 Travelers Championship.

His approach to the ninth (his 18th hole of the day) flew 44 yards over the green and went into hiding.

News began to emerge that Kokrak had simply walked off and driven home without even bothering to sign his scorecard.

But playing partner for the day Will McGirt confirmed that they hadn’t realized the ball had gone out of bounds.

By the time they did, Kokrak wasn’t sure where to place a drop ball. Knowing he wouldn’t remain in the competition, he waved the group behind through to avoid delaying them further, packed up and went home.

That did result in his disqualification for not signing his card but it certainly wasn’t a sign of disrespect towards the PGA that some fans had speculated.

Jason Kokrak is quick to praise his long-term caddie David ‘D-Rob’ Robinson for helping him to improve his accuracy on the greens.

“We’ve been together for about seven years now,” Kokrak told Fairway To Heaven.

“Everybody needs to get themselves a D-Rob. He has a wealth of knowledge, loves the game of golf and is an incredible player in his own right.

“The guy is unbelievable on the greens. I was never a good Bermuda green reader, I grew up with Bentgrass greens so I can see that style much better.

“He’s very visual and picks up on things very quickly. How you’re putting on a certain day or paying attention to other people’s putts, how they’re breaking, how they’re slowing down.

“It’s pretty impressive just to listen to him.”

It comes as a surprise to golf fans to discover Kokrak was born in North Bay, Canada, especially as his father ran a dry-cleaning business in Iowa.

“My mum just happened to be up in Canada visiting family and I was born up there,” Kokrak says.

“Everybody’s like ‘wait, are you Canadian’ and I say ‘well yes, I’m Canadian, my mum’s Canadian and I’m happy to be born there’, but I’m a US citizen now and have been since I was 12 or 13 years old.

“Everything that I know is in northeastern Iowa, almost where I live now.”

Kokrak stands 6ft 4in in height and after advice from David Robinson he upgraded from a 35 to a 36-inch shaft putter which was better suited to somebody of his build.

That adjustment in size of his Bettinardi Studio Stock 38 putter helped him land his maiden PGA Tour win at Shadow Creek in 2020 and he hasn’t looked back.

The term mixed bag could have been made for him as you’ll find a variety of branded clubs in use.

A regular driver has been the TaylorMade Stealth Plus and by the same manufacturer

the SIM2 three and seven-woods or the Titleist TSi2 seven-wood.

A selection of PGX 0311 T Gen4 irons are complemented by the 52-degree wedge from the same range, together with a couple of Titleist Vokey Design SM8s (56 and 60).

Take a look at his golf bag and you’ll see the Eagle Rare Bourbon logo sat across it.

What started as an interest prompted by his brother has turned into a hobby with Kokrak favoring the wheated bourbons in his collection.

“I have a partnership with Eagle Rare and Buffalo Chase Distillery,” he says, “so it’s been a lot of fun.”

Jason Kokrak will celebrate his 40th birthday in May 2025 with wife Stephanie and their two sons.

Stephanie (formerly Stephanie Mrofchak) works as an assistant teacher having graduated from the University of Akron, Ohio, with a degree in Early Childhood Development.

The couple spent their early married life living in Charlotte, North Carolina, but moved back to Hudson, Ohio in 2019.

For those who want to know how to pronounce the Kokrak family name, it’s with hard K’s and a soft O, to give you ‘Koe-crack’.