Brooks Koepka wins PGA Championship
Return from injury capped by two titles in the same season
With Tiger Woods hot on his heels, Koepka won the third major championship of his career and his second this year.
ST. LOUIS — Brooks Koepka is one of the longest hitters in golf, but most weeks he is a distracted driver, with his focus fading in and out like a radio signal on a tree-lined mountain road.
But four weeks a year, during the majors, Koepka has no problem locking in his sense of direction.
“I can really tune in in the majors, and I have no idea why,” Koepka said. “They really get my attention.”
On Sunday at the 100th PGA Championship, Koepka easily could have lost his focus. He was being chased by a hard-charging Tiger Woods, who had the fullthroated support of the fans
crammed like packing peanuts into the 200-acre parcel of property that is Bellerive Country Club. Koepka, 28, also faced pressure from the other player in his final twosome — Adam Scott, 38, who dueled him down the stretch as if paying homage to the PGA Championship’s earlier incarnation as a match-play event.
But Koepka never wavered, closing with a 4-under-par 66 to win his second major tournament of the year and the third of his career.
Keeping it close
Koepka, the two-time reigning U.S. Open champion, finished two strokes ahead of Woods, whose 64 equaled the low round of the day. Scott, the 2013 Masters champion, shot a 67 and finished three strokes off the lead in his pursuit of a second major title. Koepka’s 72-hole total of 16-under 264 bettered by one stroke the tournament’s absolute scoring record, set in 2001 by David Toms.
“It was kind of the first time Tiger’s been in contention and I’ve been in contention at the same time, so the fans definitely let you know what he was doing,” Koepka said. “And I was playing with Scotty, so I knew what I was up against. And Scotty played unbelievably well, and so did Tiger. They definitely made me question it there for a bit or think about it, for sure.”
Koepka might have entertained a few doubts, but they never threw him off course. How fine was Koepka’s focus? On the first and eighth holes, Koepka stepped up and sank birdie putts as thunderous roars shook the course after birdie strikes by Woods, who played one hole ahead of the final pair.
Woods did not hit a fairway on the front nine, yet managed to make the turn at 3 under, with four birdies and a bogey. He birdied four of his last seven holes, including the 18th on a perfectly struck 19-foot putt, to seal his lowest finishing round in 80 major starts.
“I had to go get it, and I tried,” said Woods, who had a large contingent of media members and recognizable faces following him inside the ropes, including swimmer Michael Phelps, the 28-time Olympic medalist, and Missouri Gov. Mike Parson.
It was Woods’ best showing in a major since his runner-up finish to Y.E. Yang at the 2009 PGA Championship — though he did hold the final-day lead briefly at last month’s British Open on his way to a tie for sixth.
Woods’ second-place finish Sunday came in his 14th official start since he returned in January from a last-resort lumbar fusion surgery.
The operation, in April 2017, was his fourth lowerback procedure since April 2014 and, as he recovered last summer, his competitive future was uncertain.
Overcoming adversity
At this time a year ago, Woods had not been cleared to take full swings. His main goal then was not to resume his pursuit of Jack Nicklaus’ 18 major championships or Sam Snead’s 82 PGA Tour victories but to live a painfree life.
Asked Sunday if he was surprised to have contended in two majors this year, Woods, who used to say that he entered every major
expecting to win, replied: “I didn’t even know if I was going to play golf again. So, yeah.”
Koepka, the first player since Woods in 2000 to win the U.S. Open and PGA Championship in the same year, had his own physical setback to overcome. At the end of last year, he suffered a wrist injury that kept him out of the Masters in April. The PGA Championship was his 12th individual strokeplay start of the tour’s 2017-18 season.
“To think where I was four months ago, to come out here and play as well as I did, it’s really incredible,” Koepka said. “I’m so excited for myself and my caddie and my team.”