Koepka caps record week with title
ERIN, WIS. — Brooks Koepka traveled around the world to find his game. He found stardom right at home as the U.S. Open champion.
Koepka broke away from a tight pack with three straight birdies on the back nine Sunday at Erin Hills and closed with a 5-under 67 to win the U.S. Open for his first major championship. A par on the final hole tied Rory McIlroy’s record score to par at 16 under for a four-shot victory.
Not even the wind could stop the onslaught of low scores at Erin Hills.
And nothing could stop Koepka.
“What I’ve done this week is amazing,” Koepka.
Tied for the lead with six holes to play, Koepka made an 8-foot par putt on the 13th hole. As Brian Harman began to fade, Koepka poured it on with birdies over the next three holes, lightly pumping his fist after each one.
His reaction was subdued, just like his close friend and last year’s U.S. Open champion, Dustin Johnson. They spend time a lot of time together on the course, in the gym and at home, so Koepka has seen that U.S. Open trophy plenty at Johnson’s house in south Florida.
And now he gets to keep it for a year, with his name on it.
It capped quite a journey for the 27-year-old Floridian. Without a card on any tour when Koepka got out of Florida State, he filled his passport with
Canada’s Henderson wins Meijer Classic
Brooke Henderson made it a special Father’s Day. With father and coach Dave Henderson and other family members watching, the 19-year-old Canadian won the Meijer LPGA Classic on Sunday for her fourth LPGA Tour title, holding off Michelle
Louisville had an early five-run lead against Texas A&M and national player of the year Brendan McKay was on the mound. It should have been game over, right?
“We knew Texas A&M wasn’t going to fold,” coach Dan McDonnell said.
The Aggies didn’t. They pulled within a run in the sixth inning before Sam Bordner shut them down with three innings of no-hit relief, and the Cardinals went on to an 8-4 victory Sunday in the College World Series.
“It wasn’t the best game of the year, but we understand now — as we’ve seen two on TV and played in one — that these games aren’t always the cleanest,” McDonnell said. “There’s too much competition. Everybody is playing too hard. It’s not supposed to be smooth and easy.”
The Cardinals (53-10) used six singles and a walk to build a 5-0 lead in the second inning against Corbin Martin (7-4). Texas A&M chipped away against McKay (11-3) to make it 5-4 before Bordner entered and continued to flash his postseason dominance. The sophomore has given up no runs and one hit in his last 11 innings over four appearances.
“I think Sam’s been the X factor, a little under the radar,” McDonnell said. “When you’re in that first out-of-the-bullpen or middle relief role, it’s just not as sexy, and you don’t get as much attention. But clearly Wie and Lexi Thompson by two strokes in cool, windy conditions.
Henderson closed with a 66 on the Blythefield layout that was reduced to a par of 69 — the fifth hole was played as a par 3 instead of a par 5 — the final two rounds because of flooding. Wie finished with a 65, and Thompson had a 69.
FROM WIRE REPORT Sam’s been hot all year.”
With Bordner doing his thing, the Cardinals added two runs in the bottom of the sixth and another when Colby Fitch doubled in the eighth for his fourth RBI.
Louisville had gone 0-5 over its last three appearances in Omaha. The Aggies (41-22) have lost seven straight CWS games and face going two-and-out for the third straight time.
Florida tops TCU
Alex Faedo limited TCU to two singles and struck out 11 in seven innings, and Florida posted its first College World Series shutout since 1991 with a 3-0 win Sunday night.
Faedo, the Detroit Tigers’ first-round draft pick this month, retired 10 in a row before turning the game over to closer Michael Byrne to start the eighth.
Faedo (8-2) has been part of seven of the Gators’ nine shutouts this season. The shutout was Florida’s second in its 36 all-time CWS games and first in Omaha since a 5-0 win over Florida State 26 years ago.
Jared Janczak (9-1) took the loss, and Byrne earned his 17th save.
JJ Schwarz, Christian Hicks and Nelson Maldonado each drove in runs for the Gators (48-18), who will play Louisville in a Bracket 2 winners’ game Tuesday night. The Horned Frogs (47-17) play Texas A&M in an elimination game Tuesday.
FROM WIRE REPORTS
Some of the loudest cheers at the U.S. Open were reserved for a guy who never really challenged the leaders.
Wisconsin golf fans love home-state favorite
He had a pretty good final round, too, shooting a 3-under 69 to finish at 5 under for the tournament. His best finish in 20 U.S. Open appearances came in the first Open to be held in Wisconsin.
There was one last ovation as he walked off the 18th green after putting for par.
“It was really cool. Yeah, I don’t get those very often,” Stricker said. “And to play well today on top of it was extra special.”
Stricker was rolling down the back end of the back nine, with three birdies between the 14th and 17th holes. He came up short at the par-4-15th , when a 23-foot putt stopped right on the edge of the cup. Stricker tapped in for par.
“Yeah, that would have been nice to get. But can’t complain the way I finished it off,” Stricker said.
He’s not slowing down either.
After turning 50 this year, Stricker gets to play in the PGA Tour Champions event that he will host in Madison next weekend, the American Family Insurance Championship. He’s not sure if his wife,
will repeat as his caddie next week, though.
“She’s hurting, I don’t know if she’ll be able to caddie next week,” he said. “But she did well. We had a lot of fun together again.” stamps from the most unlikely outposts in golf while playing the minor leagues on the European Tour — Kazakhstan and Kenya, Portugal and India and throughout Europe.
It was at the U.S. Open three years ago when Koepka tied for fourth that helped earn a PGA Tour card, and he powered his way from obscurity to his first PGA Tour victory in Phoenix, his first Ryder Cup team last fall and now a major championship.
Harman’s chances ended with two straight bogeys, and a bogey on the par-5 18th hole gave him a 72 and a tie for second with Hideki Matsuyama of Japan, who closed with a 66. Matsuyama didn’t need to stick around very long. Koepka simply couldn’t miss.
Koepka, who finished at 16-under 272, became the seventh straight first-time winner of a major championship, and it was the first time since 1998-2000
Fowler leads OSU alums
Former Oklahoma State golfer shot an even-par 72 on the final day at Erin Hills to finish 10 under for the tournament. He tied for fifth place in the U.S. Open with and Fellow Cowboy
shot a 1-under-par 71 for his best round of the U.S. Open. He finished 1 over for the tournament and tied for the 35th-best score. Former OSU golfer
shot a 3-over-par 75, an improvement from his Saturday performance.
Dougherty placed 64th, while Midwest City native that Americans won their national championship three straight years.
Tommy Fleetwood, who played alongside Koepka and closed with a 72 to finish fourth, played the Challenge Tour a year before Koepka arrived.
“It gives you a good grounding,” Fleetwood said. “Obviously, Brooks dealt with it amazingly. He came and kicked everyone’s (behind) over there, didn’t he? But he’s proven for a long time how good he is. Now he’s done it in a major.”
had his worst round of the tournament, shooting an 8-over-par 80, to finish 66th.
Spieth shines
This is more like it for
at a major. He shot a 69 to finish at 1 over for the tournament.
Spieth was well off the lead, but seemed to be feeling much better with his game after shooting 76 in the third round. It was an especially good day for Spieth considering how the wind picked up at Erin Hills.
“Yeah, no doubt. I thought it was a fantastic round of golf, given what we were
It was only fitting that Koepka left Erin Hills with yet another record matched or broken.
McIlroy finished at 16-under 268 when he won on rain-softened Congressional in the 2011 U.S. Open. But the low scoring went much deeper than that. Only six players had ever reached double digits under par in the previous 116 times at the U.S. Open. McIlroy and Tiger Woods (12 under at Pebble Beach in 2000) had been the only players to finish there. dealing with to start the day,” the fifth-ranked player in the world said.
When asked to rate his confidence level, Spieth assigned himself a “B,” though he graded himself at an “A” with his putter .
“I feel really good about just about everything else,” Spieth said. “I’ve just got to get on the greens and have that cup start to look a bit bigger.”
Amateur hour
was the low amateur, shooting a 73 to finish at 1 under.
This has been quite the confidence-building experience for the 20 year-old who plays at Texas. He was the only amateur to qualify out of the tough Columbus, Ohio, sectional.
His sister, served as his caddie at Erin Hills.
“Being an amateur in the U.S. Open is very cool,” Scheffler said.
Cameron Champ, the only other amateur to make the cut, shot a 76 to finish at even par.
Hail the king
The 18th hole at Erin Hills had a special flag for the final round of the U.S. Open.
The flag commemorated the late win at the 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills. It featured a silhouette of Palmer in mid-stride, tossing his visor in the air. Palmer shot a 65 after going into the final round trailing by seven shots. FROM STAFF AND
WIRE REPORTS
This week alone, nine players reached at least 10 under and seven finished there.
Xander Schauffele, a rookie on the PGA Tour playing in his first U.S. Open, birdied his last hole for a 69 to tie for fifth at 10-under 268 along with Bill Haas (69) and Rickie Fowler (72), who was poised at yet another major to win only to fall back. Fowler started one shot out of the lead at the Masters this year and shot 76. He was only two behind when he made the turn, but bogeys on the 12th and 15th holes — and no birdies until No. 18 — ended his hopes.
Justin Thomas, coming off a 9-under 63 that matched the major championship scoring record and was the first 9-under round at a U.S. Open, went out in 39 and closed with a 75 to tie for ninth.
The week ended with 31 players under par, breaking the U.S. Open record of 28 players at Medinah in 1990. There were 133 sub-par rounds, nine more than the previous record in that 1990 U.S. Open.