Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)

Brooks Koepka kept his seven-stroke lead at the PGA Championsh­ip.

Says he has no doubt he will claim consecutiv­e PGA titles

- By Doug Ferguson

OLD BETHPAGE, N.Y. — Brooks Koepka is on the cusp of some elite company at the PGA Championsh­ip — in the record book, not on the leaderboar­d.

He is all alone on Bethpage Black, the public course he has turned into his private playground.

Koepka wasn’t at his best, particular­ly with his putter on the toughest scoring day of the championsh­ip, and he still kept everyone far enough behind to make the final round feel more like a victory lap.

With an even-par 70 that featured a pair of three-putt bogeys, he kept a seven-shot lead and earned another entry in the record book with the largest lead since the PGA Championsh­ip switched to stroke play in 1958.

No one has ever lost a seven-shot lead in the final round at any major, or even a PGA Tour event.

That leaves Koepka 18 holes away from joining Tiger Woods as the only back-to-back winners of the PGA in stroke play. He is one round away from becoming the first player to hold back-to-back major titles at the same time. Not since Hal Sutton in 1983 has anyone led from start to finish in the PGA Championsh­ip.

And a third straight year winning a major? Woods and Phil

Mickelson are the only players to have done that over the last 30 years. Tom Watson, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer are the only others to win majors in three straight years dating to 1960.

Asked if there was any doubt he would win, Koepka said flatly, “No.”

He is unflappabl­e in speech and on the golf course. Koepka has never bothered to check his heart rate at rest, but he figures it wouldn’t be much different from standing on the first tee of a major championsh­ip with a big lead and thousands of rowdy New York fans witnessing a master performanc­e.

“Every time I set up to a golf shot, I feel like I know what the ball is going to do,” Koepka said. “And if I don’t, then I guess I’d be nervous. … I’m trying my butt off, and from there, sometimes you need a little bit of luck. But I’d say I’m pretty flatlined most of the time, as you can tell.”

He has all but flattened the strongest field in golf.

Koepka was at 12-under 198, the first time this week he did not set or tie a scoring record.

“I think we’re all playing for second,” said Luke List, one of four players tied for second.

Dustin Johnson tried to make a run with six birdies, only to stall with five bogeys in his round of 69. No bogey was more damaging than the 18th. A drive into the fairway would have given the world’s No. 1 player a reasonable shot at birdie. Instead, he sent it right into a bunker, came up well short into the native grass, left the next one in the bunker and had to scramble to limit the damage.

Varner birdied the 18th to cap off a bogey-free 67 and lead the group at 5-under 205 that includes Jazz Janewattan­anond (67) and List, who holed two shots from off the green for a 69.

 ?? Seth Wenig The Associated Press ?? Even-keel Brooks Koepka finishes putting on No. 2 during the third round of the PGA Championsh­ip on Saturday at Bethpage Black in Old Bethpage, N.Y. Koepka holds a commanding sevenshot lead entering Sunday’s final round.
Seth Wenig The Associated Press Even-keel Brooks Koepka finishes putting on No. 2 during the third round of the PGA Championsh­ip on Saturday at Bethpage Black in Old Bethpage, N.Y. Koepka holds a commanding sevenshot lead entering Sunday’s final round.

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