Jena Sims is having a “full-circle” moment with Brooks Koepka at the 2024 Masters this week.
Years after the couple “first laid eyes on each other” at the 2015 tournament, Sims and Koepka brought 8-month-old son Crew to this year’s event, as the five-time major champ hopes to replicate the success he enjoyed in 2023, when he finished the Masters tied for second with Phil Mickelson and earned his fifth major win at the PGA Championship.
“It’s so special because Brooks and I met at the Masters so it’s almost full-circle,” Sims recently told The Post. “And now we’re bringing our kid there, which is wild.”
It’s been a “wild” year for Koepka and Sims to say the least.
Before welcoming Crew in late July, Sims, 35, was named a finalist in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit’s annual Swimsearch, fulfilling a longtime dream.
Now officially a 2024 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit rookie, Sims is appreciative of the road that led her to this moment, being part of the storied publication’s upcoming edition following past cuts.
“It’s shown me everything happens for a reason,” she said.
Initially “nervous” to share the news of her pregnancy during one of her early interviews, Sims was open to SI about her new journey, resulting in a fulfilling experience.
“I was just telling them about my life, and in the back of my head this whole time I was like, ‘I have a secret that y’all don’t know, and this is huge cause this could make or break me.’ Knowing what I know now, obviously, it is such an inclusive environment,” she said.
Sims said she connected with “so many more women” upon walking the Miami Swim Week runway in early July at seven months pregnant in a bikini and a belly-baring T-shirt.
“The stereotypical swimsuit runway doesn’t look like that and I think that’s definitely what Sports Illustrated represents is every body,” Sims said.
Not long after sharing that moment on Instagram with her nearly 300,000 followers, the Pageant of Hope founder — an organization that empowers children facing serious challenges an opportunity to celebrate who they are — was met with countless heartfelt messages from fans.
“An inspiration .. well done for embracing ‘body and baby,'” one user wrote while another commented, “Fearless! Thats always been your trademark!”
Sims brought that same energy to her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit photoshoot in December, when she posed on-location in Cancun.
“It’s really cool, [editor in chief] MJ [Day] on the day has a monitor and she’ll show you how you look, cause it pumps you up,” Sims said. “I did my first look and she was like, ‘Do you want to see one,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah!’ and it’s a big deal, they film you, your first reaction when you see yourself.”
Sims, who was only four months postpartum at the time of the shoot, “cried” after seeing those raw photographs for the first time.
“I was so proud of how I looked,” she said. “I worked my ass off.”
To cap off what had been a successful shoot, Sims and the crew toasted with a bottle of Clase Azul tequila she purchased from her hotel pool bar.
“[The bartender] was like, ‘Are you sure you want this whole bottle,’ and I’m like, ‘Trust me, yes,’ and I brought it to the shoot and I made everyone a shot and we all took a shot together,” she said.
Currently awaiting a peek at the finished product — “When you have that photo and you’ve got the [SI] watermark on it, that’s when it really happens” — Sims is keeping busy soaking in Crew’s milestone moments, sharing his face publicly for the first time, specifically.
“We [she and Koepka] went back and forth about it because we’re so protective of his face,” Sims said of Crew, who made his debut Wednesday at the Par 3 event, where the loved ones of Masters participants serve as caddies before the first major of the year begins.
Although the couple wasn’t going to allow Crew to participate in the Par 3 until he could walk, Koepka and Sims discussed the idea over an intimate Valentine’s Day dinner at their Florida home.
“It was like a proper date night, we were having wine together, Crew was asleep, and [Brooks] was straight across from me and he was like, ‘I think I want Crew to caddie for me this year at the Par 3,’ and I was like, ‘Are you kidding?!’ and I was like, ‘Is this going to be his face reveal?’ And we both talked it out and we ordered his caddie jumpsuit that night I think,” Sims said.
Though Sims and Koepka have long supported one another, they’ve become even greater teammates following Crew’s birth.
The infant spent 20 days in the NICU [Neonatal intensive care unit] at Jupiter Medical Center before his release in August.
Forever thankful to those NICU heroes, Sims has teamed up with the Little Words Project — a jewelry company that provides “wearable affirmations” — to launch the limited edition “On in 2” bracelet, “a play on the famous golf-term that means go for it,” per the press release.
Sims is donating her full commission of sales to the NICU of the Children’s Hospital of Georgia.
“Crew was in a level 2 NICU, and visiting this level 4 was an eye opener,” Sims posted Monday in an Instagram Story. “I hope we raise so much for them, they deserve it.”
Now settled in as a family of four — which includes the couple’s beloved dog, Cove — Sims is in awe of seeing Koepka as a dad, and how they’ve adjusted to parenthood.
“It is so, so touching, Crew just lights up when he sees Brooks,” Sims said.
“We’re really good as a team, I can tell when he’s struggling, he can tell when I’m struggling… It’s been great, I’m thankful we had him when there wasn’t much golf happening so we got so much time to really figure it out.”
