Ukraine’s first major player got lesson from Brooks Koepka. Then, he gave his own

Lev Grinberg saw Brooks Koepka coming down the 10th fairway at Royal Birkdale earlier this week and went for it. The 18-year-old amateur who became the first Ukrainian-born player to tee it up in a major on Thursday wanted a tip from one of golf’s preeminent major winners about what he was about to face.

“He said, ‘When you’re in trouble, just get out as fast as you can and make bogey. Bogeys don’t hurt you but doubles really do,’” Grinberg said on Thursday after shooting one over.

Grinberg grew up in Kyiv, Ukraine, and picked up golf by a happy accident. He said he and his father used to go for bike rides on the outskirts of the city, and one day came across two guys hitting golf balls. His father suggested they try it out, and a six-year-old Lev took to the sport quickly while hitting balls at Kozyn Golf & Country Club, a nine-hole course 15 miles outside Kyiv. Grinberg’s father, a former international badminton player, saw his son’s talent. Grinberg moved to Belgium at age 11 so he could have a better place to train. He later moved to France and joined the French Golf Federation at Le Golf National. He’ll play under the French flag this week at Birkdale, but some of his family, including his grandfather, still live in Ukraine, which is in its fourth year of a war with Russia after the Russian military invaded in 2022.

Grinberg said he still talks to his grandfather every day and called him on Monday after his first walk around Royal Birkdale to let him in on a history-making experience.

“I just explained to him how amazing everything is here,” Grinberg told Golf Channel on Wednesday. “And how I wished him to be here. But I definitely would like to see him at one of my next majors.”

Ukraine does not have a rich golf history. When it was under Soviet control, the sport was outlawed, being viewed as a pastime for Western elites. When Ukraine gained its independence in 1991, and the Ukraine Golf Federation was formed in 1997, the sport finally started to take hold in the country. According to the Ukrainian Golf Federation, there are still only 2,589 golfers in the country as of 2025. Before the war began, only six golf courses had been built in Ukraine. Grinberg’s home course, Kozyn, remains operational and is part of the “Unite for Golf” initiative, launched by the Ukraine Golf Federation to help wounded Ukrainian war veterans rehabilitate physically and mentally. While Kozyn is still open, Golf Stream, a 36-hole layout north-west of Kyiv, was decimated when Russia invaded and is now a minefield.

Against that backdrop, Grinberg’s golf rise is even more incredible. He made his first cut on the DP World Tour at age 14 and qualified for The Open by winning The Open Amateur Series, the final two rounds of which are played on the Old Course at St. Andrews. He will attend Arkansas in the fall as he looks to carve a path to the PGA Tour.

But before beginning that march, Lev Grinberg had to make history on Thursday at Royal Birkdale. The 18-year-old amateur went off early alongside Francesco Molinari and Tom McKibbin, knowing that the first ball he sent into the Southport air would be one for major championship history. Grinberg’s pre-round range session was exactly how he drew it up, and he relished the rush of nerves that accompanied him on the first tee shot of what he plans to be a long major championship career.

“When I was hitting on the range, I was hitting it really good and I knew exactly what I was doing, so I was really confident going and hitting the first tee shot,” Grinberg said. “Of course, walking up to hitting the first tee shot, I was a little nervous and unsure. But I love the feeling. It’s so nice. That’s what you come back for. Just natural adrenaline. Yeah, after that I was awake.”

Grinberg’s opening tee shot found the fairway bunker. He pitched out and got up-and-down from 100 yards for an opening par. Leaning on Koepka’s advice, he made six straight pars before an unfortunate double bogey at the par-3 seventh sent him down the board. But he closed with pars on eight and nine to turn in two over. A missed six-footer for par at 11 meant he dropped to three over, but Grinberg didn’t feel like his score was reflective of how he was swinging it.

“I told myself on 14, like, how am I plus three?” Grinberg said. “I’m hitting it so good and I’m playing so good.”

Then he rolled in an 18-footer for birdie at 16 and made another circle at the par-5 17th to get to one over, which is where he finished after 18 holes.

“I’m really happy with how it went. I hit the ball really good,” Grinberg said. “Of course, golf doesn’t always turn out the way that you want it to be, and it’s not always going to be perfect or even a great round. I’m really happy. I felt really good on the golf course. I was really less stressed than I thought I was. I’m really happy. I learned a lot of things today. That will definitely help me in the future. I’m excited for tomorrow.”

As of this writing, Grinberg is just five shots off the early lead held by Daniel Brown, Sungjae Im and Collin Morikawa. If he puts together another professional major round on Friday, he’ll have a good chance to play the weekend.

Resilient, optimistic and brimming with confidence, Lev Grinberg, who made history for himself and Ukraine on Thursday in Southport, is looking to Friday not as an opportunity to play 36 more holes at the 2026 Open Championship but as the start of something much, much bigger for himself, his family and, by association, his home country. Not something dictated by the hard, sometimes cruel realities of the world. But something all your own, that can be exactly what you want to make of it. Something that says you don’t have to be defined by things outside your control, that you have the power to carve your own path if you only know where to look.

“We don’t think about the war that much,” Grinberg told Golf Channel on Wednesday. “We just try to enjoy life and think about the good things. [My grandpa’s] doing OK. He’s in good health. He’s in good hands. He’s living in the apartment where I grew up. I call him every day and when we get a chance to see him, we’re going to be hugging him.”

For Lev Grinberg, that direction is forward into a future he already sees taking shape.

“It’s my first major, and I’m pretty sure that if everything goes well with my body, I will be back to many more majors,” Grinberg said on Thursday. “Just going to have fun tomorrow and learn how everything is going to be.”

There’s a lesson in that for all of us, even if Lev Grinberg didn’t intend to give it.