Koepka faces daunting run at three-peat
The list of golfers who failed to win the same major back-to-back-to-back is more notable than the six men who did.
Sure, Walter Hagen won the PGA Championship four straight times (192427) when it was match play. Willie Anderson is the only player to win three straight U.S. Opens (1903-05).
And the British Open saw “Young” Tom Morris win four straight years (186872), and Jamie Anderson (1877-79), Bob Ferguson (1880-82) and Peter Thompson (1954-56) win three each.
Bonus points if you knew any of the last four.
But Jack Nicklaus? Nope. Tiger Woods? Nah. Arnold Palmer or Ben Hogan or Harry Vardon? No, no and, well, no.
That’s why the biggest challenge facing Brooks Koepka as he goes for a third straight PGA Championship this week at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco is more about history than his troublesome left knee and recent form.
It’s rare.
“I just want to play good golf. It’s simple,” Koepka said when he went to the Bay Area in February to preview a PGA Championship that was supposed to be held in May before the COVID-19 pandemic upended golf ’s calendar.
“You start thinking about all the things that could happen, that’s when nerve, everything else kind of creeps in. Just stay in the moment and keep plugging along.”
Koepka already has had one crack at a three-peat and showed why he can’t be overlooked. Trying to become the first player in more than a century to win the U.S. Open three straight times, he chased Gary Woodland all the way to the finish line at Pebble Beach and finished second.
Then it was all about Anderson, the only player to win three straight U.S. Opens. Now it’s about Hagen, who won the PGA Championship four straight time.
“Walter Hagen is a name every golf fan knows,” Koepka said. “To even have a chance to put my name with his would be incredible and it would be super special. … Two-time defending, it’s a different feeling, and one you want to win this year.”