Koepka starts fast, coasts to easy victory
Brooks Koepka turned his finalround duel with Rory McIlroy into a runaway for his first World Golf Championships title.
Koepka had three birdies in a fourhole stretch on the front nine to take the lead and never trailed the rest of the way, closing with a 5-under 65 for a three-shot victory in the FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis.
With his third victory of the season, Koepka wraps up the regular-season points title a week early and claims a $2 million bonus from the Wyndham Rewards program. He is assured to going into the FedEx Cup playoffs as the No. 1 seed.
Koepka finished at 16-under 264 and earned $1.745 million.
McIlroy, in his first final-round pairing with Koepka, didn’t make a birdie until the 14th hole on the TPC Southwind and closed with a 71 to tie for fourth.
Webb Simpson had a 64 to finish second. Marc Leishman (67) was another shot back.
PGA Tour: Collin Morikawa birdied his last three holes Sunday to win the Barracuda Championship, making him the second recent college alumni to win on the PGA Tour this summer.
Morikawa closed with seven birdies against no bogeys in the modified Stableford scoring system, giving him 14 points at Montreaux Golf and Country Club in Reno, Nevada.
The Cal graduate finished with 47 points for a three-point victory over Troy Merritt.
Champions Tour: Bernhard Langer closed with a 4-under 66 in the rain at Royal Lytham & St. Annes to win the Senior British Open and extend his record with 11 senior majors.
Langer, who started the final round three shots behind Paul Broadhurst, ran off six birdies through 14 holes to seize control with a four-shot lead, and a pair of late bogeys didn’t cost him. The 61year-old German finished at 6-under 274 for a record fourth Senior British Open title.
Heavy rain delayed the final round by nearly six hours.
Broadhurst, trying to win this major for the second time in four years, closed with a 71 to finish alone in second, two shots behind.
Madison’s Jerry Kelly had a 74 and was well off the pace.
LPGA Tour: Jin Young Ko won her second major title of the season at the Evian Championship and returned to No. 1 in the women’s world ranking.
Ko closed with a 4-under 67 in the rain and seized control when Hyo Joo Kim took a triple bogey from the bunker on the 14th hole. Ko won by two shots over Kim (73), American rookie Jennifer Kupcho (66) and Shanshan Feng (68).
Ko won the ANA Inspiration, the LPGA Tour’s first major of the year.
Kim, who won the Evian five years ago, had the lead until her tee shot plugged in front of the face of a bunker. Her next shot rolled back into her footprint in the sand, and she three-putted after getting on the green.
Ko finished at 15-under 268 and earned $615,000 to move ahead of U.S. Women’s Open champion Jeongeun Lee6 on the LPGA Tour money list.