PITTSFORD, NY – Six weeks ago on Sunday, Brooks Koepka couldn’t sleep. He had to brood and hunt demons. After all—the horrible knee injury, the agony of unfulfilled ambition, the taunts and the ridiculous professional golf chasm he embodied—he’d carved out a lead at the Masters tournament, and then he’d fizzled out. Actually collapsed.
Ultimately, he vowed, he recalled at Oak Hill Country Club over the weekend, “never to think the way I thought going into the finals.” On Sunday night, Koepka found his justification: a two-stroke win at the PGA Championship that earned him his first major tournament trophy since 2019. It was Koepka’s fifth major win of his career, drawing him level with the likes of Seve Ballesteros and Byron Nelson.
He also became the first member of LIV Golf, the year-long breakaway league funded by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, to win a major title since joining the golf club. And while Koepka’s triumph at Oak Hill may do little to mitigate some of LIV’s criticisms—its ties to a repressive government, its controversial intentions, its gleefully instigating a financial arms race in an age-old sport—it finally settled the argument over if men who play a few 54-hole tournaments can win the greatest 72-hole tournaments.
The notion that Koepka’s fighting days were over, which seemed a bit off-putting after the Masters at Augusta National, was silenced with a three-under par score of 67 on Sunday. But this is a 33-year-old player whose results in the 2022 big season looked like this: missed cut, tie for 55th place, solo 55th, missed cut. It was easy to forget that in 2021 the order went like this: missed cut, tie for second, tie for fourth, tie for sixth.
Late last year it began to dawn on him that his recovery was almost complete and he might finally be relevant again. Around January, he said, he was sure of it.
“He’s healthy again,” said Cameron Smith, who won the British Open last summer and joined LIV later in the year. “I think that also comes with a little bit of inner confidence to be out there and just be able to get the job done.”
It didn’t look like it as of Thursday, when the prospect of Koepka surviving a swarm of stars seemed more impossible than even unlikely. He had opened his tournament with a two-over-par score of 72 and, by his own admission, was unable to hit the ball the way he wanted. He couldn’t remember, he said, when he hit so badly the last time.
But he wasn’t that far behind, as the tournament, the first major tournament to be played at Oak Hill since the sweeping effort to recreate some of the daunting tests that characterize Donald J. Ross-designed golf courses, proved to be one of the most fearsome PGA championships in recent memory for decades, often reminiscent of the rigors of the 2008 competition in Oakland Hills, Michigan. Of the 156 players who started last week, only 11 underperformed – a change from 2013 when the PGA Championship was held at Oak Hill and 21 players were in the red.
The miser came despite the dangerously rough and humiliating bunkers of the course, which was more accommodating on Sunday than before. Smith, Cam Davis, Kurt Kitayama and Sepp Straka all hit 65s on Sunday, taking them way up the leaderboard. Patrick Cantlay, who made one of the tournament’s rare eagles, signed a 66. Michael Block, who works full-time as the head pro at Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club southeast of Los Angeles, had a hole-in-one at number 15, the first PGA Championship ace by a club pro since 1996.
But on Sunday the focus was mostly on Koepka; Viktor Hovland, the rising Norwegian talent; and Scottie Scheffler, the No. 2 player in the official world golf rankings. Koepka, whose reputation has dwindled due to his lucrative ties to the LIV, whose tournaments are not recognized in the ranking system, entered Sunday at No. 44. (The PGA of America, which organized this tournament, is distinct from the PGA Tour, LIV’s rival.) .)
Koepka entered the first tee a shot ahead and quickly doubled his lead when he birdied the second hole. For the first three days he had played the hole to par, always hitting the green in two but contenting himself with long putts. On Sunday, when the pin was on the front right of the green, it took him less than 5 feet.
His birdie putt on the third hole required even less after hitting the longest drive of the tournament on hole Vista, increasing his lead to three shots.
The sixth hole, which posed a threat to so many players throughout the tournament, was upon us. A par 4 challenge that finished the field averaging 4.52 shots Koepka had weathered well enough on Thursday, Friday and Saturday: par on each of the first three rounds. On Sunday, however, his shot shot right into thick grass in so-called native territory. He took a drop and then hit it onto the green about 191 yards from the hole, where he eventually bogeyed away. Although Koepka followed with another bogey, Hovland also stumbled in 7th place.
At the turn, Koepka led Hovland by a single stroke. Scheffler, a clear sensation since his Masters win last year, and Bryson DeChambeau, the 2020 US Open winner, have been behind the lead on three occasions.
Koepka responded in an enticing tone: Birdie, bogey, birdie. Hovland had a chance for a birdie on the 12th, but his shot from almost 15 feet was just to the left of the cup. With six holes left to play, Koepka’s lead was two strokes again. Two holes later it was only one.
But in almost every major golf championship there comes a moment when a man’s victory seems inevitable. It may not be entirely clear mathematically, but almost everyone knows that the tournament is over before it’s over.
The setting for this moment on Sunday was the 16th hole. It hadn’t been the most hellish thing at Oak Hill. However, Hovland will remember it.
His shot landed in the bunker, he swung his 9 iron. Less than 175 yards from the hole, he swung and threw his ball—not onto the green, but into the edge of the bunker. His fourth shot hit the green. A bogey putt went wide, giving him a double bogey. Koepka birdied in the twilight of his quest for his third PGA championship win, giving him a four-shot lead.
“It’s not easy to compete with a guy like that,” Hovland said of his duel with Koepka. “He won’t give you anything, and I didn’t really feel like I gave him anything until I was 16.”
Shortly thereafter, Scheffler made a birdie putt on the 18th green to block Koepka’s path. Koepka himself limited it with a bogey in 17th place.
He reached the 18th tee, still with two shots to go. He hadn’t bogeyed the hole and played 497 yards all week on Sunday. His shot flew 318 yards and bounced onto the fairway, the towering stands in the distance and the stands packed with spectators anxious to see if Koepka was actually back after everything that had happened.
He hit the green with the next shot and the applause rose as he marched up the steep incline. He knelt down. He approached the ball, stabilized and punched it forward. According to the tournament organizers, the ball stopped almost 3 inches.
Of course, there would be one last hiccup.
He tried again. The ball fell into the cup.
In fact, after all, Koepka was back.