Koepka avoids windswept collapse
His 7-stroke lead was cut to one before he sealed up second straight title.
Brooks FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — Koepka took his place in PGA Championship history with a victory, minus the style points.
In a raging wind that turned Bethpage Black into a beast, Koepka lost all but one shot of his record seven-shot lead Sunday. He lost the brutal Long Island crowd, which began chanting “D J!” for Dustin Johnson as Koepka was on his way to a fourth straight bogey.
But he delivered the key shots over the closing stretch as Johnson faded with two straight bogeys, closed with a 4-over 74 for a twoshot victory and joined Tiger Woods as the only back-to-back winners of the PGA Championship since it went to stroke play in 1958.
Koepka said at the start of the week that majors are sometimes the easiest to win.
This one should have been. It wasn’t.
His 74 was the highest final round by a PGA champion in 15 years.
“I’m just glad I don’t have to play any more holes,” Koepka said. “That was a stressful round of golf. I’m glad to have this thing back in my hands.”
Koepka appeared to wrap it up with a gap wedge from 156 yards to 2 feet on the 10th hole for a birdie, as Johnson made his first bogey of the round up ahead on the 11th. That restored the lead to six shots, and the coronation was on.
And then it all changed in a New York minute.
Koepka missed three straight fairways and made three straight bogeys, and he needed a 6-foot putt on No. 11 kept it from being worse. The wind was so fickle that it died as he hit 7-iron to the par-3 14th that sailed over the green, leading to a fourth straight bogey.
The crowd sensed a collapse, and began chanting, “D J! D J! D J!” as Koepka was playing the hole. Ahead of him, Johnson made birdie on the 15th — the toughest hole at Bethpage Black all week — and the lead was down to one.
That was as close as Johnson got.