When his tee shot found the penalty area on the difficult par-4 6th, Koepka did well to just drop one before dropping another on the next.Īll his hard work had temporarily been erased, and the added cushion he had built over Hovland suddenly evaporated. Kick-starting his day with three consecutive birdies on holes 2-4, Koepka saw his overnight lead balloon to three. "To be with those group of names is absolutely incredible, something, I'll be honest, I'm not even sure if I dreamed of it as a kid winning this many."ĭespite what the final score may suggest, Koepka's fifth major came with its fair share of adversity - not only in the years leading up to it but just last month at the 2023 Masters (where he stood as the 54-hole leader only to finish second) and Sunday within the final round of the PGA Championship itself. "I look back on where we were two years ago, everything that's gone on, I'm just so happy right now that I'm kind of at a loss for words," Koepka said after hoisting the Wanamaker Trophy. It all confirms what many already believed: Koepka is one of the great major championship competitors ever. To start 2023 with a pair of top-two finishes at the Masters and PGA, there's no question that Koepka has returned to form. While Koepka had seven top-10 finishes across the 13 majors he played since that 2019 PGA victory, he finished no better than 55th with two missed cuts in last season's four majors. Opens - standing alongside Woods, Nicklaus, Gene Sarazen and Walter Hagen - and the 20th in history with at least five major titles on their mantle. He also becomes the fifth player to win as many PGAs and at least two U.S. Koepka scored consecutive 4-under 66s to storm to the top of the star-studded field over the weekend, adding a 67 on Sunday to join Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the third golfer to win three or more PGA Championships in the stroke-play era. It marks a return to form for one of the game's brightest stars, who had been plagued over the last three years by knee injuries that led him to question whether he had a future atop the sport he once dominated. The victory is first for Koepka (-9) at a major since the 2019 PGA Championship. Four years removed from capturing his last major championship, Koepka stood victorious at one of the sport's premier tournaments winning the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club by two strokes over Viktor Hovland and Scottie Scheffler. Returning to the summit is almost unheard of, but don't tell that to Brooks Koepka. Scaling the mountaintop once is difficult staying there is nearly impossible.
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