Koepka looks to put great finish on great year

The majors are done for the year. Brooks Koepka is not.

Koepka is one week removed from winning the PGA Championship which, to go along with his second straight U.S. Open title, gives him a sensational season by anyone’s standards. Tiger Woods called Koepka a lock to win PGA Tour player of the year.

Koepka doesn’t believe that’s the case. And a look at his Fedex Cup playoff record is all the motivation he needs.

In three years of being eligible for the PGA Tour’s post-season, Koepka has one top-10 finish. He has started inside the top 20 each of the last three years and has yet to improve his standing when the four playoff events were over. One year, he didn’t make it beyond the third playoff event.

“Sitting back and reflecting on it, how cool is it to be player of the year? It would be such an honour,” Koepka said Wednesday. “But I need to finish it off. I want to come out in the playoffs and actually perform, and hopefully, leave it where there is no option.”

It starts Thursday at The Northern Trust on a course that might remind him of Bellerive, where Koepka set the PGA Championship scoring record at 264.

Ridgewood Country Club is plenty long at 7,385 yards for a par 71. The rough is thicker than usual because of recent rain, which also means the course is extremely soft. Dustin Johnson, the world’s No. 1 player and the top seed in the Fedex Cup, rarely hit a shot from the fairway without splotches of mud on his golf ball.