Major breakthrough for Koepka
27-year-old from Florida caps record week with 4-shot win for 1st major
ERIN, Wis. — Brooks Koepka travelled around the world to find his game. He found stardom right at home as the U.S. Open champion.
Koepka broke away from a tight pack with three straight birdies on the back nine Sunday at Erin Hills and closed with a 5-under 67 to win the U.S. Open for his first major championship. A par on the final hole tied Rory McIlroy’s record score to par at 16 under for a four-shot victory.
“What I’ve done this week is amazing,” Koepka.
Tied for the lead with six holes to play, Koepka made an eight-foot par putt on the 13th hole. As Brian Harman began to fade, Koepka poured it on with birdies over the next three holes, lightly pumping his fist after each one.
His reaction was subdued, just like his close friend and last year’s U.S. Open champion, Dustin Johnson. They spend time a lot of time together on the course, in the gym and at home, so Koepka has seen that U.S. Open trophy plenty at Johnson’s house in south Florida.
And now he gets to keep it for a year, with his name on it.
It capped quite a journey for the 27-yearold Floridian. Without a card on any tour when Koepka got out of Florida State, he filled his passport with stamps from the most unlikely outposts in golf while playing the minor leagues on the European Tour — Kazakhstan and Kenya, Portugal and India and throughout Europe.
It was at the U.S. Open three years ago when Koepka tied for fourth that helped earn a PGA Tour card, and he powered his way from obscurity to his first PGA Tour victory in Phoenix, his first Ryder Cup team last fall and now a major championship.
Harman’s bogey on the par-5 18th hole gave him a 72 and a tie for second with Hideki Matsuyama of Japan, who closed with a 66. Tommy Fleetwood closed with a 72 to finish fourth.
Koepka, who finished at 16-under 272, became the seventh straight first-time winner of a major championship, and it was the first time since 1998-2000 that Americans won their national championship three straight years.
Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford stuggled to an 8-over 80 to finish the tournament 9-over 297.