PGA CHAMPIONSHIP UPDATE: Brooks Koepka claimed the 2023 PGA Championship major with a pulseless final round performance at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York.
Starting the day with a one-stroke lead, Koepka finished at nine-under par to beat Scottie Sheffler and Viktor Hovland by two strokes.
It was Koepka’s fifth major win and third PGA Championship after he won in 2018 and 2019.
Koepka burst off the blocks with three birdies in his first four holes to build a comfortable cushion but Hovland remained within striking distance for much of the day.
The turning point came at the 16th hole when Norway’s Hovland caught his shot thin out of the fairway bunker and his ball embedded in the lip of the bunker.
Hovland took a penalty drop and went on to make a double bogey, falling four shots adrift of Koepka after the American drained his birdie putt.
Koepka was clearly the best player all week, a pair of 66s in his middle two rounds underscoring his brilliance — his Saturday score was simply stunning given the wet and miserable conditions.
Koepka becomes the first golfer to win a major while playing on the LIV tour and his five major wins equals greats such as Seve Ballesteros, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Tom Watson.
FINAL SCORES
- 1 Brooks Koepka -9
- T2 Scottie Sheffler -7
- T2 Viktor Hovland -7
- T4 Cameron Davis -3
- T4 Bryson DeChambeau -3
- T4 Kurt Kitayama -3
- T7 Sepp Straka -2
- T7 Rory McIlroy -2
- T9 Cameron Smith -1
- T9 Justin Rose -1
- T9 Patrick Cantlay -1
- T12 Corey Conners E
- T12 Victor Perez E
- T12 Shane Lowry E
Australians
- T4 Cameron Davis -3
- T9 Cameron Smith -1
- T18 Min Woo Lee +1
- T29 Adam Scott +5
- T40 Lucas Herbert +6
- MC Jason Day
- MC David Micheluzzi
With the Masters run and done, it’s time to get excited again because the US PGA Championship is here.
Will the second major of 2023 be another Rahm-fest? Or will Brooks Koepka or Talor Gooch chalk one up for the LIV Tour?
The PGA Championship will be played at Oak Hill Country Club, starting Thursday May 18 and finishing Sunday May 21.
Here’s how it’s shaping up:
THE COURSE
Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York, is no stranger to holding big golf tournaments.
It has hosted the PGA Championship three times, most recently in 2013, as well as two US Opens and a Ryder Cup. But the East course that greets the field this year is almost unrecognisable from what it was a decade ago.
The layout has been faithfully restored to the vision of legendary architect Donald Ross, who designed the course more than a century ago.
Hundreds of mature trees have been removed from the property and should result in a more exciting tournament this year. Back in 2013, trees framed both the tees and approach shots and the course proved very one dimensional; if a player got out of position, chipping back on the fairway was often the only option.
However, the tree removal opens up the course and should present a more risk-versus-reward style of golf. Oak Hill’s greens, which are tiny in comparison to most PGA Tour venues, have also been replanted with Bentgrass — the same grass used at Augusta.
THE DEFENDING CHAMPION
If Justin Thomas succeeds in defending the title he won at Southern Hills last year he’ll join elite company.
Only Brooks Koepka (2018-2019) and Tiger Woods (1999-2000 and 2006-2007) have gone back-to-back in the PGA Championship’s stroke play era — and both Koepka and Woods were in the middle of a career-defining run when achieving the feat.
While Thomas isn’t exactly on a heater at the moment (he hasn’t won anywhere since Southern Hills last year), his two major wins have both come at the PGA Championship. Despite missing the cut at the Masters last month, you can’t write off JT at Oak Hill this year.
JON RAHM
What more can you say about Spanish superstar Jon Rahm?
He won the Masters in April, his second major title, and he’s already broken the season earnings record… with five months to go. He loves the game and its history, speaks like a statesman and uses words like ‘fealty’ in his second language.
The only flaw in Jon Rahm’s season thus far has been a severe case of hat hair when slipping on the green jacket at Augusta.
Can he be stopped at Oak Hill? He’s the only player with a live chance of winning the grand slam in 2023 and the way he’s going, it would be brave to gamble against such an outcome.
Whatever happens to Jon Rahm at Oak Hill, golf should feel very lucky to have him.
TALOR GOOCH
With the world rankings now officially useless, golf’s four majors are now the most accurate way of identifying the best players in the world.
And Oak Hill will give the world a chance to see how Talor Gooch stacks up.
The American has been on a red-hot tear, with a superb win at the LIV Adelaide tournament followed a week later by a playoff win over Sergio Garcia at LIV Singapore.
Gooch wasn’t one of LIV’s big-name signings but he is more than making a name for himself on the ‘Golf But Louder’ Tour.
LIV would love to have another current major champion to join Open champion Cam Smith on the roster.
Will the previously unheralded Talor Gooch be the man who delivers it?
CLUB PROS
The PGA Championship is the only major that doesn’t include any amateur golfers in the field but it does have its own quirk: club pro qualifiers.
Every year, 20 club pros earn their spot into the major via a qualifying tournament held two weeks’ prior.
And that’s the reason the PGA Championship always has a few players in the field that even the most avid golf fan would fail to recognise.
This year’s qualifying tournament was held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Braden Shattuck came out on top. Shattuck is teaching pro from Pennsylvania and is lucky to still be playing the game after severely injuring his back in a car accident four years ago.
Fellow qualifiers Michael Block, Wyatt Worthington II and Colin Inglis might sound vaguely familiar to eagle-eyed fans because the trio competed in last year’s PGA Championship at Southern Hills.
But JJ Killeen is probably the most recognisable name out of the 20 qualifiers who will tee it up at Oak Hill this year.
Killeen is now a club pro and course developer in Texas but he won almost US$1.3 million on the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour during his career.
He made 36 starts on the PGA Tour, the last of which came at last year’s Bryon Nelson.
But the ultimate measure of success for Killeen and the other club pro qualifiers this week will be making it to the weekend.
MITO PEREIRA
Oh Mito, oh Mito, oh Mito! The Chilean had last year’s PGA Championship in his grasp but kicked it away on the 72 nd hole on Sunday in the most crushing way imaginable.
Teeing off on the final hole with a one-stroke lead, Pereira knew he was in trouble as soon as the ball left the face of his driver. His shot leaked right, ran out of fairway and found the creek running down the side of the 18 th, a monster 500-yard par 4 that played as the toughest hole all week.
Taking a drop out of the creek, Mito needed to get it up and down from 190 yards to win his first major but his odds diminished when his approach shot flew the green. Needing to chip-in to win, his ball flirted with the pin before running off the back of the green. He went on to two-putt for double bogey to miss the playoff by one and walked off the final green dazed and confused.
Mito joined the LIV Tour this year and is one of the most talented up-and-comers. But how long will the scar tissue of his Southern Hills debacle remain?
RORY MCILROY
Sometimes you just need a holiday. At least, that’s what Rory McIlroy thought after the Masters.
After missing the cut in another bout of Augusta frustration, Rory withdrew from the RBC Heritage tournament the following week.
Complicating matters was the fact the tournament was one of the PGA Tour’s new elevated events, which are designed to bring together the leading players in a no-cut tournament — kind of like a LIV-lite event.
Skipping one elevated event is permitted; the problem was Rory had already missed the Tournament of Champions earlier in the year.
The no-show is estimated to cost Rory US$3million of his $12million PIP (Player Impact Payment), a slush fund designed to reward the top who remained loyal to the PGA tour.
You get the feeling Rory won’t miss out his money, given the leadership role he has taken on for the PGA Tour in the LIV dustup.
Rory’s reset after the Masters didn’t translate into results immediately, finishing tied 47 th in his comeback in the Wells Fargo at Quail Hollow.
It’s been nine years since Rory won the last of his four majors. It defies belief but a win at Oak Hill might be the career reset Rory has been looking for.
PHIL MICKELSON
With Tiger Woods a non-starter at Oak Hill after having more ankle surgery, Phil Mickelson is the leading hope for the veterans playing the PGA Championship.
Lefty’s status as a legitimate contender at every major he plays was highlighted with his runner-up finish at Augusta, where he shot a scintillating 64 in the final round.
Phil became the oldest major champion in the game when he won the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island — a performance that ranks as one of the best in the history of the game
And his game has looked better since Augusta, chalking up his best results of the year with a 15 th and 16thfinish in Adelaide and Singapore, respectively prior to his final tune-up at LIV Tuscon.
With Woods out of the picture indefinitely, can Phil chalk up another win at Oak Hill and further enhance his legacy?
WHAT HAPPENED TO JASON DUFNER?
Ten years ago, Jason Dufner won the US PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club to claim the first and only major of his career.
And he did it in style, shooting a total of 10-under to set a new scoring record at Oak Hill.
A decade later and the 45-year-old is finding the game harder. A lot harder.
Once ranked sixth in the world, Dufner is currently 686 th and hasn’t had a top 10 finish in four years.
Last year, Dufner made the cut just twice in 25 starts and was on the verge of toppling out of the top 1000 in the world before a top 30 finish at the Phoenix Open in February.
It’s a reminder that professional golfers need to cash in at their peak because the game tends to turn on most extraordinarily quickly.
Former PGA champions have lifetime invites, which means Dufner qualifies to compete at Oak Hill.
While it’s not easy to witness the likeable Dufner struggling so severely, one player this week is going to ride their hot hand to a major victory this week — just like Dufner did 10 years ago.
JASON DAY
It’s been a long time coming but 2015 PGA Championship winner Jason Day is finally enjoying a renaissance in 2023.
Injuries and issues with vertigo have plagued the Aussie but five top 10 finishes since January have put Day back in the conversation.
Day’s career had been on the skids since mid-2020, when playing golf became a mental and physical battle, and he admits he considered throwing in the towel after losing all confidence in both his body and swing.
But after losing his mother to lung cancer last year, he decided to push on and recommitted to finding his swing, and form, again.
A promising week at the Masters was undone in the final round when he dropped from eighth to 39 th after shooting an 8-over 80, however, he later confirmed his vertigo returned just before he teed off on Sunday.
Day hasn’t won since 2018 but now that he’s fit again and entering the prime of his career, you get the feeling Day will have a few more chances to win an elusive second major. If the vertigo stays away, Oak Hill may provide the perfect opportunity.
BROOKS KOEPKA
Big, bad Brooks is back to his best and as a two-time winner of the PGA Championship, looks well placed to add another to his haul at Oak Hill.
A LIV win in Orlando kickstarted Brooks’ season and he franked the form with a strong showing at the Masters when he led into the final round before being outgunned by the Jon Rahm express down the stretch.
But it wasn’t a case of Brooksie just using his extreme power to short circuit Augusta. He showed rare touch and class on and around the greens and if he can keeping rolling it so purely on the greens, it’ll make those par-saver putts that win majors much less stressful.
Koepka, who recently announced his wife Jena is pregnant with their first child, seems to be able to find an extra gear in majors.
Four of his first six wins in the US came in majors and if Big Bad Brooksie gets a sniff, only probably Jon Rahm will stop him.
CAM SMITH
This time last year Cam Smith had already won the Tournament of Champions and the Player’s Championship on the PGA Tour.
But it’s been a much more leisurely build-up for the laconic Queenslander, partly due to the fact his LIV Tour has only played five tournaments this year.
Smith never really got going at the Masters but still managed one of the highlights of the week with a ridiculous three wood out of a bunker to set up an eagle.
He found something in the final two rounds of LIV Adelaide and kept it going in Singapore, finishing tied third and sixth, respectively.
Whether Cam is the kind of player who needs regular competition to find his best is up for debate, but of the five Aussies in the field at Oak Hill he’s probably going to be in it for the longest.
THE AUSSIES
Cam Smith, Adam Scott, Lucas Herbert, Min Woo Lee and Jason Day make up the Australian contingent at the PGA Championship at Oak Hill.
But it’s Lucas Herbert who looms as a potential PGA Championship dark horse after winning a play-off in Japan a couple of weeks ago.
It was his third win on the DP World Tour and while consistency isn’t the Victorian’s strong suit — his game tends to blow hot and cold — his winning strike-rate is incredibly impressive.
In March, he finished dead last at the Player’s Championship then turned it around at the Dell Match Play when making the quarter finals before winning in Japan.
Majors are a different level of pressure but Lucas finished tied 13 th at the PGA Championship last year and tied 15th at the Open Championship.
His game is trending in the right direction for major success.
PGA CHAMPIONSHIP REWIND
Tigermania was in full flight when the PGA Championship hit Oak Hill in 2003.
However, it was a couple of journeymen pros who ended up providing the fireworks.
One was Shaun Micheel; the other, Chad Campbell.
The pair played in the final pairing and were separated by just a shot or two for most of the day.
On the penultimate hole of the tournament Micheel dropped a shot and went to the final hole, a 482-yard par 4, holding a one-stroke lead.
Campbell teed off first and piped his drive straight down the middle. Micheel’s drive wasn’t as good and was lucky not to end up in the left rough after receiving a favourable bounce back into the fairway.
With 175 yards remaining Micheel pulled out his seven iron, took a deep breath and proceeded to hit one of the best clutch shots in the history of major golf.
As soon as he hit it, his caddie yelled “be right”. Micheel stared his ball down and watched it just clear the fringe before hop once and finish a couple of inches from the hole.
Campbell would make par and watch as Micheel tapped in for birdie to win his first major.
It would be the only win of his 401-start career.
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Written by Jamie Martin Jamie Martin is currently locked in a battle to keep his handicap hovering around the mid-single digits. Despite his obvious short-game shortcomings, Jamie enjoys playing and writing about every aspect of golf and is often seen making practice swings in a mirror. |