ROCHESTER, NY. Since winning his first major championship in 2017 at the U.S. Open there has been no finer player in golf’s most covered events than Brooks Koepka.
Since his victory at Erin Hills, the 33-year-old has played in 22 majors counting this week’s event. The Floridian has won four. The last coming in 2019 when defending his PGA Championship title at Bethpage Black.
In addition to the wins, he has been runner-up four times, the last coming this past April at The Masters when he led by two shots after 54 holes but then was outplayed by world ranked number one Jon Rahm.
Koepka goes into today’s final round at the 105th PGA Championship with the lead again in a major. This margin is a single shot over Viktor Hovland and Corey Connors.
A win at Oak Hill would mark his 5th major championship title and 3rd Wannamaker Trophy. With the exception of Tiger Woods (15) and Phil Mickelson (6) no one actively playing has more than four. A 5th major would tie him with Seve Ballesteros, Peter Thomson, James Braid, Byron Nelson and John Henry Taylor.
Brooks 👏 Koepka 👏 Low round for the second-straight day. Solo leader by one stroke heading into Sunday. #PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/vRhiuXOQ9n
— Golf Central (@GolfCentral) May 20, 2023
Having the lead going into the final in back-to-back majors is no small accomplishment but Koepka is well aware his failure at Augusta this past April still resonates and needs resolution. A win at Oak Hill would most certainly push that failure into the background.
Koepka’s start at Oak Hill was a slow one, scoring a two-over-par 72 on Thursday; but back-to-back rounds of 66, tying the low 18-hole score for the championship, have now pushed him to the top of the leaderboard.
His play the last two rounds was aided by inward nine scores of 31 and 32 respectively. More impressive was dealing with varying weather conditions throughout the 3rd round as intermittent showers were a constant irritant along with temperatures rising up and down throughout the day. The only blemish on his card came at the demanding par-4 7th where a pulled tee shot into the left rough resulted in a lone bogey on the day’s play.
Koepka did not provide any post round specifics detailing his mindset when at this year’s Masters but was emphatic in stating such a situation would not repeat itself.
The return of Koepka to top form was uncertain given a rash of nagging injuries and returning to competitive golf way too soon. There was even self-expressed doubt in being able to return to the form he had displayed in golf’s most important events.
Koepka left the PGA TOUR in June 2022 to play on the newly formed LIV Golf Invitational Series. His play coming into 2023 has shown a return to form with wins in October 2022 and in April of this year in Orlando just prior to The Masters.
Closing out a major championship is a challenge unlike any other in golf. Tiger Woods won 14 of 15 major titles by never relinquishing a final round lead. The challenge for Koepka is now being able to reaffirm his stranglehold as the game’s most feared player in the most sought after championships.
Brooks Koepka has developed a reputation that when the game’s biggest events are played, he is the golfer best able to play at a level that surpasses all others. Was this past Masters an outlier to what he has demonstrated previously?
“Learning what I learned at Augusta kind of helped today (Saturday), he said. “Like I said, I won’t do it again the rest of my career.”
Today’s final round at Oak Hill has plenty at stake.
And no one knows that better than Brooks.
A win would surely solidify King Koepka is alive and well in major championship play.
