San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Who will strut Sunday?
PEBBLE BEACH — Brooks Koepka marches down fairways with an unmistakable strut. His body language offers a perpetual, none-too-subtle reminder of his recent supremacy at golf’s most prestigious events.
And now, as all the jostling gives way to the cauldron of U.S. Open Sunday, he lurks once again.
Koepka will return to Pebble Beach with a realistic chance to scrawl his name in the game’s rich history. Ben Hogan never won three consecutive U.S. Opens. Nor did Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods. Koepka could do it Sunday.
This will take some work and he will need some help. Koepka shot 68 on Saturday at Pebble Beach, leaving him at 7-under-par for the week and four strokes off Gary Woodland’s torrid pace. Woodland (69) heads to the final round
at 11-under, one shot ahead of Justin Rose (68).
Louis Oosthuizen (70) and Chez Reavie (68) joined Koepka at 7-under, with Rory McIlroy (70) another stroke back at 6-under.
Not to spook Woodland, but the five players closest to him own 10 major titles among them: Rose (one), Koepka (four), Reavie (none), Oosthuizen (one) and McIlroy (four). Koepka counts as the most imposing member of this group, because he’s won three majors in the past 12 months alone.
“Obviously, whatever I’m doing is working,” Koepka said, in a tone more matterof-fact than flowing with bravado. “I feel as confident as ever right now.”
There’s ample reason for Koepka to carry himself this way on the game’s biggest stages. He hits the ball a country mile, deftly recovers from wayward shots and shows striking touch around the greens.
Only two years ago, he was a younger version of Woodland — powerful, athletic and major-less. Then he won the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills. One year later, he won the ’18 Open at Shinnecock Hills. Koepka followed up by taking the PGA Championship last August and the PGA again last month.
So now he stands on the brink of a rare achievement. Koepka could become only the second player to win three consecutive U.S. Opens, and the first since Scotland’s Willie Anderson in 1903-0405.
Put it this way: Koepka is chewing up majors with such force, he’s evoking lofty, almost
sacrilegious comparisons.
“Brooks has obviously played phenomenal,” Woodland said. “I don’t know if anybody has done what he’s been doing since Tiger (Woods) did it.” Woodland hasn’t won in 30 previous major starts — and he has only three PGA Tour victories in 244 starts — but he played like a time-tested impresario Saturday. He saved pars with Tiger-like ferocity and strolled along with Koepka-like presence, as if he’s been here before and knows he can close the deal. Even if he really doesn’t know.
Woodland, 35, did gain valuable final-round, bigatmosphere experience at last year’s PGA in St. Louis. He played alongside Woods, who shot 64 and sparked predictable bedlam in the gallery while nearly chasing down Koepka. Woodland shot 69 and tied for sixth.
He hopes that wild and crazy ride will help him Sunday, when he and Rose tee off in the final pairing at 2:30 — with Koepka and Reavie right in front of them.
“If I play my game, the way I’ve been playing, the guys behind me are going to have to do something really, really special,” Woodland said. “Even if I haven’t done it as much as I’d like, I know what it takes to win.”
Woodland brings a certain toughness from his basketball days. He earned all-state honors in high school, outside Topeka, Kan., and spent one year playing college hoops at Division II Washburn University before transferring to Kansas to focus on golf.
At Shawnee Heights High, he once took a charge and ended up with a collapsed trachea, leaving the court on a stretcher. By Woodland’s recollection, the injury happened on a Tuesday and he came back to score 20+ points on Friday.
“Basketball taught me a lot,” he said. “If I’m not shooting well, I can pass or play defense. I can take that to golf. If I’m not driving the ball, I can rely on something else to get me through.” Woodland got through Saturday’s round with several impressive par saves. Most notably, he holed a chip shot on No. 12 and made a 43-foot putt on No. 14. He’s made only two bogeys through 54 holes.
Koepka similarly salvaged par on No. 15, after hitting his approach shot into thick rough and blasting his next shot across the green and onto the fringe. He drained the putt from 33 feet, then broke into a wry, can-youbelieve-that smile as the crowd roared.
Those roars will rise Sunday if Koepka finds a way to hoist the U.S. Open trophy one more time.