Keopka win shows it’s now almost impossible to pick the winner of a Major

BROOKS Keopka’s victory at Erin Hills on Sunday in the 2017 US Open again proved that it is now literally impossible to predict the winner of any major tournament as he became the eighth first-time winner of a major in a row.

The last time a previous major winner won a major title was when Jordan Spieth, then reigning Masters champion, won the US Open in 2015 at Chambers Bay. The eight majors played since then have all produced first time winners in Zach Johnson, Jason Day, Danny Willet, Dustin Johnson, Henrik Stenson, Jimmy Walker, Sergio Garcia and Brooks Koepka.

Once upon a time there were maybe ten to fifteen players with a chance of lifting a major title but in this ever-changing game, literally everyone who tees it up is now in with a chance as there are no dominant figures in the game anymore.

‘The game of golf is a great leveller’ is a saying I heard my late father mention on more than one occasion and how true it is.

Meanwhile, I bet Rory McIlroy must now be regretting his comments in an interview prior to the action at Erin Hills because they came back to bite him on the backside.

Prior to playing round one, the current world number three said: “We have 60 yards from right line to left line and you’ve got 156 of the best players in the world here. If we can’t hit it within that avenue, you might as well pack your bags and go home. It’s a US Open, it’s supposed to be a tough test. These are the widest fairways we’ve ever played in a US Open. Even the first and second cut is another ten yards on top of that, so if you’ve got 50 or 60 yards to hit into and you’re complaining about the fescue that’s wider than that, I don’t think that’s the issue,” he added.

It seems that the golfing gods didn’t like his comments and what happened?

Rory couldn’t hit a fairway to save his life, shot 78 and 71 to miss the cut and packed his bags for home.

The great Listowel man Brian McMahon had a famous saying: “Walk easy when your jug is full”. Perhaps Rory should take that one on board.