A worthy golf champion
For the second major in a row, Tiger Woods came tantalisingly close to victory, only to fall at the last hurdle, said Rick Broadbent in The Times. But the US PGA Championship got “the worthiest of winners”. In the face of enormous pressure, Brooks Koepka prevailed on Sunday to triumph by two shots. The 28-year-old American is now one of only five players – Woods and Jack Nicklaus among them – to win the US Open and the US PGA in the same year. And his achievement is all the more impressive because it was only in May that he made his comeback from a partially torn wrist tendon. In an era when no single golfer has been able to dominate, Koepka has claimed three of the past six majors he has played.
Woods may have fallen short of winning a 15th major, said Ewan Murray in The Guardian. But “the finest golfer of all time” did enough to suggest that he will, one day, be a champion again. He finished second, with a total of 266 shots – the lowest of his major championship career. On Sunday, his “battling qualities” came to the fore: following a bogey on the 14th, “his approach from 164 yards dropped at blow-in range”. For Rory Mcilroy, this was “yet another major season to forget”, said James Corrigan in The Daily Telegraph. Four years have passed since he last won a major; here, he finished joint 50th. Mcilroy “clearly needs a break” – and after that, he must “return to the drawing board”.