Koepka’s human in majors after all
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — Brooks Koepka has had a lot of memorable experiences during his remarkable run in the past 10 major championships, winning four of them along the way.
Sunday’s final round of the British Open wasn’t one of them.
Koepka, who finished tied for fourth, shot a finalround 74 and he did it while playing alongside J.B. Holmes, one of the notoriously slowest players in the sport. Holmes, who had a share of the 36-hole lead, posted a stunning finalround 87.
At one point, Koepka, clearly frustrated with Holmes’ pace of play, looked at a tournament official and pointed to his wrist, as if he had a watch on it.
“Yeah, I mean, there were some times where I thought it was slow,” Koepka said. “There’s a lot of slow guys out here. What I don’t understand when it’s your turn to hit, your glove is not on, then you start thinking about it, that’s where the problem lies. It’s not that [Holmes] takes that long. He doesn’t do anything until his turn. That’s the frustrating part. But he’s not the only one that does it out here.
“I mean, [Holmes] had a rough day. But J.B. is a slow player. I know it’s difficult with the wind, but I didn’t think he was that bad today. I thought he was all right. The European Tour does an unbelievable job with the pace of play, posting it in the locker rooms. The PGA [Tour] doesn’t do that.’’
With top-five finishes in all four majors this year, Koepka became just the fifth golfer to accomplish the feat, joining Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth.
That, however, was of little consolation to him.
“It was a great run for three [of the majors], and then this one, nothing you could do,” Koepka said. “As a whole, it’s awesome. That’s what I’m striving to do, play well in the big events. And I sort of did that. This week is disappointing, but the rest of them have been great. I’m not going to lie: I would have liked to have just made a few more [putts] and finished it off with a bunch of second places.”
For Lee Westwood, who finished tied for fourth, this was his 19th top 10 in a major championship. Only one player has more top 10s without a win in majors — Ed Dudley, who was born in 1901 and had 24. Harry Cooper, who was born in 1904, had 19.
Westwood, at age 46, was trying to become the oldest Open champion since Old Tom Morris in 1867.
On the plus side, his tie for fourth gets Westwood into the 2020 Masters, which he’s missed the past couple of years because he hasn’t qualified.
“It would be nice to play Augusta again,’’ he said. “I’ve missed it the last couple of years. Augusta is a very special place. I’ve played great there in the past; I had a chance to win it. I feel like I can get around there.’’
This marked the 11th time in the past 16 years a player has led a major by four or more shots entering the final round, and seven of 10 went on to win. One of them who didn’t was Shane Lowry in the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont, where he lost a four-shot lead to winner Dustin Johnson.
Since 1900, 26 players have entered the final round of the Open with a lead of four or more shots and 23 have gone on to win.