Brooks Koepka Wins PGA Championship in Historic Fashion
By Liam McKeone
It got uncomfortably close at the end, but Brooks Koepka recovered in the last four holes and held off Dustin Johnson en route to a PGA Championship victory. It was already a historic weekend for Koepka, who set a course record with a 63 on Thursday and the lowest two-round score in Bethpage Black history with a 128 between Thursday and Friday’s rounds. But this victory will put Koepka in exclusive company.
After taking the PGA Championship, Koepka becomes the only golfer in history to win both the U.S. Open and PGA Championship in consecutive years. He’s won four of the last eight majors he’s played in, an insane statistic that won’t be forgotten anytime soon. Tiger Woods’ disappointing play after an emotional Masters victory has become an afterthought in the wake of Koepka’s stellar performance.
He finished his final round with a score of 74, putting him at -8 for the duration of the tournament. He held a seven-shot lead coming into the final round, but ran into some trouble after the turn and let Johnson get within two strokes. But he steadied himself out and, aided by a pair of bogeys from Johnson, finished strong over the last four holes. This performance puts Koepka firmly into the highest tier of golfers in today’s game.
If Koepka can put together a similarly strong performance during the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach next month, he’ll set himself up to win five of his last ten majors. One could make a strong case that it would be one of the most dominant runs in the history of golf. He shows up when it matters, and he did it again at Bethpage Black, even in the tough conditions that Sunday presented. Outside of his late struggles, it was an outstanding wire-to-wire performance that made for an excellent weekend of golf. At the end of it all, he’s a big-time player who made the shots when he absolutely had to, and it brought him another major championship.