ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Brooks Koepka is king of New York once again.
After seeming to blame Augusta’s Sunday slip on playing too defensively, Koepka turned back the clock and showed his famous moxie, birdieing three of the first four holes at Oak Hill. The fast start saw Koepka pull away from playing partner Hovland and Canadian Corey Conners, who both started the day just one shot back.
Koepka made seven birdies on the day versus four bogeys and followed up back-to-back 66s with a three-under-par 67 in the final round to finish at nine-under, two strokes clear of Viktor Hovland (68) and Scottie Scheffler (65).
His aggressive strategy seemed to pair nicely with a more receptive golf course. After two days of fast and firm conditions, and one day of torrential rain, the sun was shining on Sunday, and the rough-laden, tree-lined brute of a course had let its guard down a little.
Publicly battling injuries, and privately battling a crisis of confidence, Koepka left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf last year. Feeling better at last month’s Masters, the 33-year-old admitted that had he been healthy and playing better, the decision to leave the PGA Tour would have been more difficult.
LIV supporters have been waiting for this day, and are no doubt gleefully celebrating what they surely see as a validation of their tour. Koepka did not speak to Greg Norman in the short time between his win and press conference, but agreed it was an important win for LIV Golf; even if, in the moment, he didn’t seem to care much.
Earlier this year, Koepka revealed a much more vulnerable side of himself on the Netflix docu-series Full Swing. Battling a slow and painful recovery from knee and wrist injuries, the once-seemingly unflappable competitor with a reputation as golf’s Terminator admitted he didn’t think he could compete with the world’s best players week-in-and-week-out on the PGA Tour. The athletic bluster of his past suddenly appearing to be something of an act, he said in one episode that he, and every athlete, is one person on the field but another off it.
Adversity for Koepka certainly seemed new to many golf fans, but truth is, the golfer had a long and winding past before becoming the man we thought we knew. Koepka’s origin story is not that of a can’t-miss prodigy such as Rory McIlroy, who famously as a child would tell anyone who would listen that he would one day be the world’s best golfer.
Growing up, Koepka never won a Florida junior golf tour event, and was an unknown on the national junior circuit once he got there. It was more of the same as college approached and Brooks wasn’t heavily recruited. Koepka’s path to the PGA Tour went through the European Challenge Tour, where he was playing tournaments in Kenya and Kazakhstan while McIlroy — just one year older — was winning his second of four majors.
“I try not to think of it right now,” Koepka said of his place among golf greats. “I mean, I do care about it. … But right now I’m trying to collect as many of these things as I can. We’ll see how it goes.”
After the dust had settled on Sunday, the gap between the three men at the top and Koepka’s next nearest chasers was significant. Bryson Dechambeau (70), Cam Davis (65), and Kurt Kitayama (65) finished tied for fourth at three-under, six shots back of the champion. McIlroy and Sepp Straka another shot further back at two-under. Just 11 men finished the week under par.
After three great days at Oak Hill, Corey Conners stumbled badly on Sunday, shooting a five-over 75 to fall into a tie for 12th at even par. Canada’s top golfer held the lead nearly all day Saturday, before making a double bogey after plugging his ball in the face of the bunker at the par-4 15th hole in his third round and making a double bogey, giving Koepka the lead.
A day later, and somewhat unbelievably, Hovland’s Sunday chase effectively ended on the same hole, with the same mistake, in the same sand trap.
“Just didn’t get out of the bunker,” Hovland said after his round. “Plugged in the lip and tried to get a drop and made a double bogey.”
“A challenging day, I was a little bit off,” Conners said after his round. “It wasn’t meant to be.”
If Koepka is the King of New York, Michael Block is the Ace of Oak Hill after the 46-year-old hoodie-wearing man-of-the-people turned an improbable week into an impossible one, making a hole-in-one at the 151-yard par-3 15th. Playing partner McIlroy had to tell him it went in after Block jarred his iron shot directly into the cup.
At day’s end, Block had followed three consecutive even-par 70s with a final round one-over 71. An amazing up-and-down at the final hole managed to keep him in a tie for 15th, earning the Southern California teaching pro a spot in the field at next year’s championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Kentucky.
“I didn’t cry when I had my kids. I cried (today), for some reason,” Block said. “If you love golf, you know. … It’s everything to me. Obviously I love my family and everything else and my job and everything, but golf is my life.”
Rochester will always have Block’s magic week, and golf history now has five-time major champion Brooks Koepka.
