PITTSFORD, N.Y. (AP) — Confidence was never an issue for Brooks Koepka until the injuries piled up, the doubts crept in and he began to wonder if he still belonged among golf’s elite.
Koepka answered every question at the PGA Championship with a performance that ranks among his best. His fifth major title was the sweetest of them all. No doubt about that, either.
“It feels damned good. Yeah, this one is definitely special,” Koepka said. “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.”
One knee injury kept him from the Masters, another from the Presidents Cup in Australia. Two years ago, he tried to pop his knee back into place and shattered his knee cap. And then last summer, uncertain about his future, he decided to leave the PGA Tour for the guaranteed Saudi riches of LIV Golf, bringing a mixture of criticism and skepticism.
And there he was Sunday at Oak Hill, looking good as new, dominant as ever, against the best collection of golfers in the world on a punishing golf course.
Koepka ran off three quick birdies early, never lost the lead amid a gritty fight from Viktor Hovland, and closed with a 3-under 67 for a two-shot victory.
He held up his index finger as he posed next to the Wanamaker Trophy, but he may as well have held up all five.
With three PGAs and two U.S. Opens, he became the 20th player with five or more majors. He won his third Wanamaker Trophy — only Jack Nicklaus and Walter Hagen with five and Tiger Woods with four have won the PGA Championship more times — and captured his first major in what felt like four years.
And to think that over the last few years, Koepka was so wounded he felt he couldn’t compete, a decision that might have led to him leaving the PGA Tour for Saudi-funded LIV Golf in a shocking move last June after the U.S. Open.
In the Netflix series “Full Swing” that began aired earlier this year, he was quoted as saying his confidence had given way to doubt. “I’m going to be honest with you, I can’t compete with these guys week in and week out.”
Give him good health and a clear head, and good luck taking down Koepka in the majors. He now has won five of his last 22 majors, a rate exceeded only by Woods, Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Nick Faldo and Ben Hogan in the last 75 years.
He is the first player from LIV Golf to win a major, and it hits back at the notion that 54-hole events and guaranteed money would take the edge off the rival league’s best players.
“I definitely think it helps LIV, but I’m more interested in my own self right now, to be honest with you,” Koepka said. “Yeah, it’s a huge thing for LIV, but at the same time I’m out here competing as an individual at the PGA Championship. I’m just happy to take this home for the third time.”
Koepka is in pretty heady company just about everywhere he looks. His five majors are as many as Seve Ballesteros and Byron Nelson. Among active players, only Woods (15) and Phil Mickelson (6) have more.
“I’m not even sure I dream of it as a kid, that I’d win that many,” he said.
Koepka left little doubt about his place in the game with his two-shot win over hard-luck Hovland (68) and Scottie Scheffler, who closed with a 65 and returned to No. 1 in the world.
