Brooks Koepka’s Wife Jena Sims Named ‘Sports Illustrated’ Swimsuit Rookie

Jena Sims just shared some big career news. The actress and model, who is married to golf star Brooks Koepka, was named one of the 2024 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue rookies on Friday. Sims announced the news on Instagram and shared a video showing that shows her excitement. 

“Thank YOU for the votes, the support, the reshares, even the hate,” Sims, 34, wrote in the Instagram post. “It all counted. WE DID IT BABY!!! Beyond honored to be named one of the first rookies for the 60th anniversary issue of [Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue] alongside my fellow Swim Search winners.”

Per Sports Illustrated (via PEOPLE), the casting crew selects 12 finalists to move on to the next round from thousands of submissions. Of the 12 finalists, seven were selected to walk in the annual Swim Week runway show in July, and Sims was eight months pregnant. On Thursday, the seven models who walked in the show were named as SI‘s, 2024 rookie class. The other rookies who made the cut with Sims include Penny Lane, Brittney Nicole, Berkleigh Wright, Achieng Agutu, Nina Cash and Sharina Gutierrez. 

Sims and Koepka met at the 2015 Masters and got married in June 2022. The couple welcomed a son, Crew, in July. In an interview with Golf Digest in 2019, Sims talked about the time she first met Koepka. “We met at the 2015 Masters. And that’s so special because I’m from Georgia, so it’s perfect,” Sims said. “We were on Hole 7, which I don’t even remember, but he’s like, ‘Oh, I remember what you were wearing, where we were standing, everything.’ It was cool. We hadn’t dated since then. We were just friends at that point.”

Sims also talked about winning Miss Georgia Teen USA in 2007. “I just realized that was 10 years ago I was in Miss Teen USA, so that kind of ages me a little bit,” she said. “But really, that catapulted my entertainment career—and it’s always been a dream of mine to model and act. That was actually the last year it was televised, and that was my first live TV experience. And that kind of led to more modeling and acting from there. It all got me into the business and even networking with people. It was the best on-the-job experience I could ask for.”