Brooks Koepka wins the PGA Championship; Tiger Woods second
Brooks Koepka is impossible to overlook now, winning the PGA Championship on Sunday with machine-like precision to go with his back-to-back US Open titles.
And it still felt - and sounded - like he was playing second billing to Tiger Woods.
With roars for Woods unheard anywhere this side of Augusta National, Koepka kept his cool and ran off two birdies on the back nine at Bellerive with Adam Scott tied for the lead and Woods one shot behind.
Koepka closed with a 4-under 66 for a two-shot victory, making him only the fifth player to win the US Open and PGA Championship in the same year.
Even with two bogeys, Woods shot 64 for his lowest final round in a major.
After wasting one chance to put it away, Koepka ran kept attacking flags and ran in birdie putts of 10 feet on No. 15 and 7 feet on No. 16 to end the drama. He tapped in for par on the final hole to set the PGA Championship scoring record at 264. It also tied the major championship record that Henrik Stenson set at Royal Troon two years ago in the British Open.
Koepka has won three of the last six majors he played, and two of three this year alone. He joined Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen as the only players to win the two US majors that rotate to different courses in the same year.
The 28-year-old Floridian also joined Jordan Spieth, Woods, Nicklaus and Tom Watson as the only players with three majors before turning 30 since World War II.
Scott was tied for the lead until Koepka’s birdies. Scott missed a 6-foot birdie putt on the par-5 17th that would have pulled him to within one shot - right after Koepka missed from the same range - and then made bogey on the 18th for a 67 to finish alone in third.
WEB.COM TOUR
Trevor Cone won the Ellie Mae Classic for his first Web.com Tour title, closing with a 6-under 64 for a fourstroke victory over Josh Teater.
Cone, the 25-year-old former Virginia Tech player who started the year with only conditional status on both Web.com and Mackenzie tours, finished at 23-under 257 at TPC Stonebrae. He opened with rounds of 64, 63 and 66 to take a one-stroke lead into the final round
Cone earned $108,000 to jump from 135th to 37th on the money list with $131,580. The top 25 next week after the regular-season ending Portland Open will earn PGA Tour cards. Teater finished with a 67. Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry missed the cut, shooting 71-86.
EUROPEAN TOUR
Spain’s Scott Fernandez and Pedro Oriol won the inaugural European Golf Team Championships, and Sweden’s Cajsa Persson and Linda Wessberg took the women’s crown.
Oriol and Fernandez beat Iceland’s Birgir Hafthorsson and Axel Boasson 2 up in the final.
In the women’s final Persson and Wessberg topped France’s Justine Dreher and Manon Molle in 20 holes.