Koepka finds second wind, defends title
FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — His place in PGA Championship history finally secure, Brooks Koepka draped both arms around the top of the Wanamaker Trophy and let out a deep sigh.
The stress was more than he wanted. The satisfaction was more than he imagined.
Koepka lost all but one shot of his record sevenshot lead Sunday. Then he lost the Long Island crowd, which chanted “D.J.!” as Koepka was on his way to a fourth straight bogey to allow Dustin Johnson to pull one shot back of Koepka.
“It’s New York,” Koepka said. “What do you expect when you’re half-choking it away?”
Motivated by the crowd turning on him, Koepka delivered the key shots over the closing stretch as Johnson faded with two straight bogeys. Kopeka closed with a 4-over-par 74 for a two-shot victory and joined Tiger Woods as the only back-to
back winners of the PGA Championship since it went to stroke play in 1958.
That gives him four of the past eight majors in which he played and makes him the first player to hold two back-to-back majors at the same time. He won his second straight U.S. Open last summer 60 miles down the road at Shinnecock Hills before a far less rowdy crowd.
When his 6-foot par putt fell on the last hole, Koepka thrust his muscular right arm in the air and hugged his caddie.
“Today was definitely the most satisfying out of all of them for how stressful that round was — how stressful D.J. made that,” Koepka said. “I know for a fact that was the most excited I’ve ever been in my life there on 18.”
It didn’t help that a raging wind that gusted up to 25 mph turned Bethpage Black into a beast, with Johnson (69) the only player out of the last 12 groups to shoot par or better. Koepka’s 74 was the highest final round by a PGA champion since Vijay Singh (4-over 76) won in a playoff at Whistling Straits in 2004.
“I’m just glad I don’t have to play any more holes,” Koepka said. “That was a stressful round of golf.”
Koepka appeared to wrap up the title 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 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.
Four holes later, Koepka walked off the 15th tee with a one-shot lead. He looked to his left to see Johnson facing a 7-foot par putt on the 16th hole — the most difficult hole at Bethpage Black on Sunday because it was into the wind — to stay one shot off the lead. The groan of the crowd told him Johnson had missed.
“I felt like as long as I had the lead, I was fine,” Koepka said.
Winning four of his past eight majors is a stretch not seen since Woods won seven of 11 when he took the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black.
Next up is the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, where Koepka will defend his title for the second time.
No one will doubt whether Koepka is capable, the way he is playing.