There have been long and hard moments over the past couple years when Brooks Koepka wondered whether he would ever get to experience the incredible week he just had on his way to winning the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club.
Ever since he won his last major championship at the 2019 PGA, there had been nothing but grimness for the 33-year-old from West Palm Beach, Florida, and no, banking a reported $100 million to defect from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf, and even winning two events on that controversial circuit, did not quell his concerns about where his golf career was headed.
He endured a torn patella tendon in August 2019, a hip injury in 2020, and a terribly serious knee injury that included a broken knee cap in March 2021 which, at the time, had him thinking he would never again return to the form he needed over these four days to slay the treacherous beast called the East Course.
Now, those doubts are a thing of the past. Koepka is back, and while it’s a shame we won’t get to see him play on the PGA Tour, there are always the majors, and that’s when he’s usually at his best anyway.
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“Yeah, this one is definitely special,” Koepka said after he raised the weighty Wanamaker Trophy above his head as a massive, sun-baked, golf-worshiping gallery roared its approval late Sunday afternoon. “I think this one is probably the most meaningful of them all with everything that’s gone on, all the crazy stuff over the last few years.”
He opened the tournament with a ho-hum 72, then got hot in the middle with back-to-back 4-under-par 66s which put him into the third-round lead, one shot ahead of Viktor Hovland.
And then, like the Koepka of old, he was a killer on the final day. He shot an excitingly volatile 67 that included seven birdies and four bogeys which made for an absolutely thrilling final round of action.
Well, at least through 15 holes. With the tournament heading for what could have been a truly spectacular finish, we were robbed of that thanks to what happened to poor Hovland on the 16th hole. Trailing Koepka by just one stroke, he drove into the bunker on the right, then plugged his second shot into the grass face and ultimately settled for a sickening double bogey that gave Koepka an insurmountable four-stroke lead, essentially securing his victory.
“Just didn’t get out of the bunker,” said a deeply disappointed Hovland, who finished in a second-place tie with world No. 2 player, Scottie Scheffler. “Plugged in the lip and tried to get a drop and made a double bogey.”
It was an appallingly terrible break, and what made it so incredible is that it mirrored exactly what happened to Corey Conners on Saturday. And when I say exactly, I mean exactly. Same spot in the bunker, same club trying to get out, same spot where the ball embedded, same double-bogey 6.
There will be 400 major championships played in the next 100 years, and we may never see a situation like that in terms of how uncannily similar the nightmare played out for both Hovland and Conners.
“I couldn’t see what was going on, but I had a pretty good idea,” said Koepka, who sure didn’t seem too sympathetic about it. “It was buried under the lip, which was unfortunate. Took a couple minutes to figure out the drop and just figure out what was going on.”
Perhaps it wouldn’t have mattered if Hovland had just parred the hole, but who knows how the final two holes would have played out if Koepka had only a two-stroke lead instead of a four-stroke cushion?
Alas, we’ll never know. But we do know is this. A fully healthy and focused Koepka makes him a threat to win any major championship he plays in. He flashed all of the talent and determination that had led to his previous four major championship victories in the span of 22 months from 2017-19 and his being the No. 1-ranked player in the official world golf ranking for 44 weeks.
“Brooks is a great player, and now he has five majors,” Hovland said. “I mean, that’s a hell of a record right there. It’s not easy going toe-to-toe with a guy like that. He is not going to give you anything, and I didn’t really feel like I gave him anything either until 16.”
Even as recently as the Masters, Koepka was wondering where his game was headed. He blew a four-shot lead late in the third round and then shot 75 on Sunday at Augusta which allowed Jon Rahm to win. Koepka said he learned a big lesson that day about mental preparation and attitude, and he said he applied those lessons this week.
“I don’t think I win today if that didn’t happen, right?” said Koepka, who became the first LIV player to win a major. “Definitely take it and keep using it going forward for each event, each major, any time I’m in contention, but I’m not going to share. I can’t give away all the secrets.”
Can’t blame him for that.
But he was willing to share how difficult it was to overcome his health issues and to get back to the top of the mountain.
“It’s tough, it’s very hard to explain,” he said. “You can’t fathom how difficult it is just to get going. I mean, it was a lot worse than I let on to you guys, let on to everybody. Maybe only five, six people really know the extent of it, and it was hard. Cold weather, it was achy. The swelling didn’t go down until maybe a couple months ago.
“A couple years ago, I was just lost. Didn’t know where my golf swing was; didn’t know physically if I was capable of getting back to where I was. I don’t know if I considered retiring, but I knew … if I couldn’t play the way I wanted to play, then I was definitely going to give it up. I mean, the thought definitely kind of crossed my mind.”
Suffice to say, those thoughts are gone.
Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana
