By Tod Leonard
Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, the site of one U.S. Open and two PGA Championships, will host the 2030 Presidents Cup, the PGA Tour announced on Wednesday.

“St. Louis is a passionate and iconic sports town and one which embraces teams and events such as the Presidents Cup with tremendous enthusiasm. The combination of St. Louis and Bellerive Country Club will make for a memorable experience for fans onsite and those watching around the world,” PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said in a statement.

The 2030 Presidents Cup will be the 18th edition of the event started in 1994 that pits a team from the United States against a squad of Internationals who hail from countries around the world outside of Europe. The Americans have won 11 matches, tied one and lost one (the lone defeat coming in 1998).

The Presidents Cup will be played in September 2022 at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, N.C., followed by matches at Royal Montreal Golf Club in 2024 and Medinah Country Club in 2026. A site for the 2028 event has not been determined.

Bellerive’s last major hosting was the 2018 PGA, memorable for Brooks Koepka’s victory as Tiger Woods contended on the back nine on Sunday. It hosted the 1992 PGA (won by Nick Price) and the 1965 U.S. Open in which Gary Player completed the career grand slam. Bellerive, which will celebrate its 125th anniversary next year, also has hosted the 2004 U.S. Senior Open, 2008 BMW Championship and the 2013 Senior PGA Championship.

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Side note: I might have to skip over a few parts of that book.

But my wardrobe efforts weren’t enough. And I can’t help thinking that not putting that shirt on before Thursday’s round made the difference. My bad, Tiger. Next time. In the meantime, I’m changed and showered and ready to discuss an unforgettable week. Let’s go.

WE’RE BUYING
Brooks Koepka: There’s really not much to say other than this guy has morphed into a major championship monster. With jaw-dropping power, laser-like irons (Good Lord, that bullet from 248 yards on No. 16 to seal the deal), and the actual unflappability that we mistakenly thought Dustin Johnson had, this guy is tough to beat on the biggest stages. And look how jacked he is.

Ross Kinnaird

At 28, an absurd three of Koepka’s four PGA Tour titles have come in majors. He’s won 15 percent of the majors he’s entered while just over 1 percent (ONE) of his regular tour starts. He’s also now won three of the past seven majors, really three of the past six when you factor in he skipped this year’s Masters with a wrist injury. That’s, dare we say, Tigeresque. Speaking of…

Tiger Woods: What a show. What an atmosphere. What a finish. Woods punctuated a Sunday 64 — his lowest-EVER final round in a major — by making his longest putt of the week and unleashing his most furious fist pump in a decade.

Montana Pritchard/PGA of America

Boy, did that look like it felt good to him. It certainly felt good to me. Until Woods’ run at Carnoustie, I didn’t quite realize how much I missed seeing this guy in contention at a major. But I had chills all of Sunday, and may have even teared up a bit when Woods summoned this shot under pressure.

That was pretty close.#PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/jcNcnX5mFI

— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) August 12, 2018

Simply magical. Thank you, Tiger, for taking us all back in time. That was a lot of fun.

Adam Scott: Lost in Brooks’ performance and Tigermania was how close this Aussie came to finally winning a second major. Scott has been open about the anchor ban and how it hurt his career and it’s difficult to argue otherwise, so it was good to see this good guy finally back in the hunt. We just hope the next time, he doesn’t have two putters in the bag, because that’s never a good sign.

Tiger Woods’ front nine: A three-under 32 in a final round of a major despite not hitting a single fairway and bogeying one of the two par 3s? We may never see the likes of it again. And that’s good, because I’m getting too old to handle a blender of emotions like that.

Nick Faldo compared Tiger to Seve, Gary McCord called him Houdini, and golf fans everywhere were left speechless. Again, thank you, Tiger, for taking us on the ultimate roller coaster ride.

WE’RE SELLING
The Golf Gods: Are you guys kidding with this?!

? pic.twitter.com/6KT59IWqAj

— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) August 12, 2018

And then this three holes later?!

That’s just brutal. pic.twitter.com/B8Xh8csyQT

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) August 12, 2018

Thanks a lot for denying us what everyone outside of Brooks Koepka, his mom, and maybe his girlfriend were rooting for.

Nike Dri-Fit polos: Sure, Tiger sweats a lot, but how many of these things did he go through at Bellerive? There are full-blown Broadway shows with fewer wardrobe changes. I remember getting my first Nike Dri-Fit shirt in middle school. Hasn’t the technology improved since then?

Rory McIlroy: “Every hole is a dogleg left. I’ve never seen anything like it!” Such were Brandel Chamblee’s words on last week’s Golf Digest Podcast — and they must have been music to McIlroy’s ears. And when heavy rains softened up the course before the tournament started, the Golf Channel analyst’s Rory-to-win prediction looked like even more of a lock. Instead, it’s now been more than four years since he won a major. And even Rory acknowledged after that he’s not even close.

Rickie Fowler’s 20s: In the blink of an eye (At least, that’s how it feels), Rickie is no longer a “young gun.” When he tees it up at his next major he’ll still be searching for his first Big Bne, only now he’ll be 30. Yep, this guy will turn the big 3-Oh in December:

Jamie Squire

He’ll have plenty more chances to win majors — Heck, Phil Mickelson didn’t win one until he was 33 — but with his position after 54 holes and the way Bellerive was set up, he squandered a pretty good one.

That freaking Jeep commercial: I gave TNT a hard time (rightfully so) for their Friday telecast, specifically an hour window where nearly as many commercials (30) as full shots (33) were shown. In that block of time this darn ad (“CAN I GET A CONNECTION?”) aired four times alone. But it also appeared repeatedly during CBS’ coverage, so much to the point that it drew comparisons to that awful OMEGA “HALL OF FAME” commercial a couple years and a full breakdown from our own Chris Powers. My wife didn’t get all the fuss and said “What kind of animal doesn’t like One Republic?” Apparently, the kind you married.

ON TAP
The final major of the season has come and gone, but this week’s Wyndham Championship is still MAJOR—for those trying to keep their PGA Tour cards and get into the FedEx Cup. There’s also a Golf Digest major on the line as I will try to defend my title in the Editor’s Putter this Friday. THIS IS MAJOR!

Random tournament fact: Actually, for the first time, TWO Golf Digest MAJORS will be decided at the same time. In addition to individual stroke play for the Editor’s Putter, there will be a two-man best ball going on for the third annual Trainwreck event. Now this is the type of forward-thinking that could really spice the PGA up.

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK

— I will defend my title with the way I’ve been playing: 1 MILLION-to-1 odds
— This week’s PGA Tour finish will be as exciting as last week’s: 1 BILLION-to-1 odds
— That brutal “Connection” song will be in my head until Christmas: LOCK (SIGH)

PHOTO OF THE WEEK
Tiger on No. 9 on Sunday:

Richard Heathcote

What a freaking scene. What a freaking birdie. Absolutely electric stuff.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

TIGER’S COMIN’ Y’ALL!

He has arrived. ? #PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/8ePVbgxNZm

— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) August 12, 2018

Now that’s an entrance.

THIS WEEK IN DUSTIN JOHNSON-PAULINA GRETZKY BROOKS KOEPKA-JENA SIMS PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION

Icon Sportswire

“Hey, Brooks! Look! It’s me!”

Icon Sportswire

That’s more like it. Moments later, Jena also got a big hug from Big Cat, which led to this instant-classic tweet from Club Pro Guy:

She’s a yacht ride invite from leaving Brooks right here. pic.twitter.com/6q4XTcxyhf

— Club Pro Guy (@ClubProGuy) August 12, 2018

THIS WEEK IN TOUR PROS ARE JUST LIKE US!

Shankopotumus!

Rory! Shankapotomus! #ThisIsMajor pic.twitter.com/sIavhwX6aF

— Alex Myers (@AlexMyers3) August 11, 2018

I wish I’d seen Rory do this before I bet on him to win. Whoops.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“You know, I remember the loudest roar I think I’ve heard was when I was hitting my putt on 8. I don’t know, did he birdie 9? Yeah, he birdied 9. When he made that putt, and I was over it, and everybody’s roaring, I’m like, all right, just make this one and try to get through that. But I mean, the roars — the crowd was unbelievable with the amount of people that were out here is incredible.” — Brooks Koepka. *But I mean, the roars. . . * Yep, they’re back. And they’re amazing.

ARCHIVE QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Once in a great while, a player comes along who hits a golf ball the way it was meant to be hit. Powerful, piercing, the perfect trajectory. Of the young players out there, one I’ve seen has that special ball flight: Brooks Koepka. Adam and I were paired with him at the Open Championship last year, and from his first tee shot on, I thought, This kid is special. Obviously he’s searching to find the other parts of the puzzle, but I haven’t seen a ball flight like that since Tiger, and before that, Johnny Miller.” —Steve Williams in a Golf Digest interview from the May 2015 issue. Steve Williams absolutely nailed it.

THIS AND THAT
PGA Championship final-round TV ratings were up 69 percent from last year. Gee, wonder why. . . . Thorbjorn Oleson says British Airways lost two of his sets of golf clubs and five suitcases in a 10-day span. That’s awful, but maybe pack a little lighter next time. . . . LPGA player Emily Tubert entered her first-ever long drive contest and won. Don’t give Brooks any ideas. . . . And finally, check out the incredibly timed fortune I got with my Chinese take-out on Saturday night:

A clear omen of what was to come on Sunday at Bellerive. Or not. What in the world does that even mean? I don’t live on a mountain and Bellerive wasn’t built on one. Should we warn Tiger to stay away from a future tournament played in the mountains? Or is that where he’ll finally tear the field to shreds again? I’m so confused.

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER
How does Brooks only have one regular PGA Tour title?
How many ice baths is Tiger taking this week?
Seriously, what the heck does that fortune mean?

The post Tiger Woods turns heads, Brooks Koepka’s ridiculous major stat, and the new bane of golf fans’ existence appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers
Before Tiger Woods flashed glimpses of his former self at the Hero World Challenge in December, he urged everyone he’d be taking it slow in this latest comeback. Eight months later, the oddsmakers have listed him at 5/1 to win a 15th major in 2019, and 12/1 that it happens at Augusta. Life moves fast.

RELATED: Tiger Woods didn’t win the PGA. It just felt like he did

This time a year ago, it was impossible to even fathom Woods contending in another tournament again, let alone a major. The last time he had played competitively prior to this season, he walked off the course with back pain at the Dubai Desert Classic, the latest setback in a series of setbacks that seemed to signal the end was near.

According to Nick Faldo, Woods admitted he was not only nearing that precipice, but he had crossed it at the Masters Champions dinner. Faldo shared this anecdote on Monday on the Dan Patrick Show when discussing Woods’ impressive Sunday performance at Bellerive:

“What he’s been able to do is, it’s unbelievable, remarkable,” Faldo told Patrick. “To go from a frozen back—I know he whispered to another Masters champion two Masters dinners ago ‘I’m done. I won’t play golf again,’ and here we are, 18 months later…”

Like all of us, Patrick was curious as to who Woods whispered to, and asked Faldo if it was him.

“No, I won’t mention the name, but he’s a Masters champion. He said ‘I’m done, my back is done.’ He was in agony, he was in pain, the pain down his legs, there was nothing enjoyable. He couldn’t move.”

It’s not the first time a past champion has alluded to an ominous Champions Dinner regarding Woods. Jack Nicklaus told GOLF.com that he and Woods spoke about how much pain he was in at Augusta, and that it wouldn’t be going away anytime soon.

After that dinner, Woods underwent is fourth back surgery on April 20, 2017, and it was hardly smooth sailing after that. A month later, Woods was arrested for driving under the influence, a scary incident that made returning to golf the least of his priorities. Somehow, just over a year later, Woods finished inside the top six in the final two majors of 2018.

Faldo, who wasn’t as bullish on Woods’ latest comeback back in April, saying he was still “a long way off’ from competing with the best, couldn’t help but praise him for how far he’s come.

“To turn this around, to get this spine fusion, it’s absolutely amazing. So, great on him and obviously great for golf.”

RELATED: No double duty for Tiger Woods at Ryder Cup if he makes team, according to Jim Furyk

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By Coleman Bentley
Sometimes life gets in the way of sports. It’s a harsh reality, but one we all eventually have to face while standing in a “BACK 2 SCHOOL!!” aisle staring blankly at Post-it notes until the world melts away. Things get even more complex when your life is sports, however. Just ask Rafael Nadal, who had to deal with a pesky Rogers Cup final interrupting Tiger’s epic performance at Bellerive on Sunday.

“I’ve got to check on Tiger!” ?

When you’ve got the #RogersCup final at 4pm but you’re also a massive golf fan! @RafaelNadal @TigerWoods pic.twitter.com/B1Kbr6lWCm

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) August 13, 2018

Following his victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-2, 7-6 (come on, there was no way that was going three sets with El Tigre making a charge), Rafa, like every poor golf sap on earth—including the whole of the UK, where the PGA Championship WASN’T EVEN TELEVISED—immediately began swiping through his phone to track his buddy’s progress. “What’s Tiger doing?” he then asked crowd, who, let’s be honest, we’re also keeping one eye on the leaderboard as well.

Interestingly enough, Rafa’s career arc isn’t all that different from Tiger’s: Periods of almost unthinkable dominance interrupted by devastating injury. Perhaps that explains why the best athlete in tennis would rather be watching Tiger contend 800 miles away than win himself. Or perhaps it’s just a testament to the sheer animal magnetism of the Big Cat on the prowl. Either way, it’s good to see we’re not alone. See honey, we told you so.

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By Joel Beall
Shane Lowry had a solid run at this year’s PGA Championship, his eight-under score good enough for a T-12 finish. Unfortunately, it’s a standing that could have been better had Lowry received, in his estimation, a better ruling at Bellerive’s 16th hole on Sunday.

Lowry was 10 under, in line for a top-five finish, when he came to the 247-yard par 3. The Irishman sent his shot right of the green, the ball coming to rest behind a TV tower. Somewhat surprisingly, rules officials could not decide what drop, if any, Lowry was entitled to, and Lowry ultimately decided to play his shot from the original position. He had to punch into further rough, leading to a bogey on the hole, and followed with a bogey on the relatively-easy par-5 17th.

Speaking to the Irish Times, Lowry aired his feelings on the situation.

“I think the referee didn’t have the balls to make a decision there and, if he did, I would have had an easier shot,” Lowry told the Times. “If you put (European Tour official) John Paramor or any of the good referees out there and he would have given me full relief. But he wasn’t giving me full relief, he was telling me to drop it in the tree basically.

“I ended up making a good four; if I’d made double I wouldn’t have been too happy with him. It is what it is. It took so long I felt I was getting in Justin’s way, he ended up making bogey as well.”

“Justin” being Justin Thomas, who was still contending for the championship at the time. Thomas played out of turn, and some construed it as a sign of Thomas’ displeasure with Lowry. However, Thomas quickly squelched any rumors of the kind.

“It had nothing to do with Shane,” Thomas said. “The rules officials were having a hard time coming up with a ruling. They were kind of looking at each other and saying, well, what do we do and Shane’s like, look, just tell me if I get a drop or not. And I’m a quick player and that’s why I went. I didn’t have the best of lies so I think the less I thought about it, the better. But, yeah, it was just one of those things, he wanted to make sure he got the right ruling because he was still in a position to finish really high in this tournament.”

The ruling could effect Lowry’s PGA Tour status for 2019. Lowry’s currently 139th in the FedEx Cup, and with Lowry’s exemption from the 2015 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational over, he’ll need a strong showing at the Wyndham Championship to retain his tour card.

The post Shane Lowry calls out rules officials: They “didn’t have the balls” for PGA Championship ruling appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Alex Myers
You may have predicted a big week for Brooks Koepka at Bellerive Country Club. Heck, you may have even picked him to win the 100th PGA Championship. But you’d also still have nothing on Steve Williams.

A “My Shot” interview with Tiger Woods’ ex-caddie appeared in the May 2015 issue of Golf Digest, and as our Mike O’Malley pointed out on Monday, Williams gave quite a prescient statement when discussing the budding PGA Tour player. We said player and not star, because, at the time, Koepka had just one PGA Tour title (In addition to several worldwide wins as a pro) and was ranked outside the top 20. Williams, however, saw Hall-of-Fame potential in the powerful golfer.

You should read the entire interview with Williams, who had moved on to looping for Adam Scott by then, but here’s the money quote:

“ONCE IN A GREAT WHILE, a player comes along who hits a golf ball the way it was meant to be hit. Powerful, piercing, the perfect trajectory. Of the young players out there, one I’ve seen has that special ball flight: Brooks Koepka. Adam and I were paired with him at the Open Championship last year, and from his first tee shot on, I thought, This kid is special. Obviously, he’s searching to find the other parts of the puzzle, but I haven’t seen a ball flight like that since Tiger, and before that, Johnny Miller.”

Tiger. Johnny. Brooks. That’s some high praise right there.

A little more than three years later, Koepka has three major titles to his resume and is up to No. 2 in the Official World Golf Ranking. And with each big trophy that he hoists, Stevie is looking smarter and smarter.

The post Tiger Woods’ ex-caddy Steve Williams predicted Brooks Koepka’s greatness long ago with this money quote appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Haas instead chose Phil Mickelson, J.B. Holmes and his son, Bill, who eventually won the deciding match.

Koepka’s reaction? “Disappointing,” he said back then with a shrug of his shoulders. “But it just gives me more incentive to make sure I make the Ryder Cup team next year.”

That response is a pretty good microcosm of who Koepka is—on and off the golf course. About the only time anyone has seen a burst of emotion from him was last year at Erin Hills when he climbed into a golf cart for the long ride from the 18th green to the scoring area and it hit him that he’d just won the U.S. Open. He buried his head in his hands, overcome by the moment.

That, however, is an outlier.

Koepka’s reaction to most things in life may have been best summed up by the moment Sunday when his mother came to greet him as he walked off the 18th green, having just become the fifth man in golf history to win the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship in the same year.

RELATED: Brooks Koepka’s latest response to his critics? Just another major title

The CBS crew spent most of 20 minutes telling the world that Koepka didn’t know that Denise Jakows had flown in to watch the final round. One might have thought that Jakows hadn’t seen her son in years as opposed to merely having flown up from Florida. When Koepka saw his mom, he hugged her and said matter-of-factly, “How are you?”

Nick Faldo, whose dry sense of humour is often the saving grace of CBS’s golf coverage, noticed. “So, what’s for dinner?” he said.

It is that nonchalant approach that has allowed Koepka to hold up in the crucible to win three of the last six majors he’s played in. He has now made serious golf history twice this year, becoming only the second man since Ben Hogan (Curtis Strange 1988, 1989) to win back-to-back U.S. Opens and now joining Hogan, Gene Sarazen, Jack Nicklaus and Woods as the only men to win the U.S. Open and the PGA in the same year.

Given the way Koepka’s year started, what he accomplished is even more remarkable. He missed the Masters because of a torn tendon in his left wrist and had only played in five tournaments post-injury when he arrived at Shinnecock.

Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images

He was five over par through 27 holes at the U.S. Open and a lot closer to the cut line (eight over par as it turned out) than the lead. But he shot 31 on the back nine on Friday and stayed calm all day Sunday to beat Tommy Fleetwood by a shot and his pal Dustin Johnson by two.

He was equally calm at Bellerive on Sunday, chased by a bevy of major champions, among them Woods, who played superbly to shoot 64. The reaction to his play was so over the top from the crowds, that CBS’s Peter Kostis even acknowledged it as Koepka and Adam Scott walked up the 18th fairway.

“These two have played in relative privacy most of the day,” he said.

RELATED: Tiger Woods didn’t win the PGA. If just felt like he did

Scott, who needed an exemption from the PGA of America just to get into the championship, was the only player who actually caught Koepka on Sunday—briefly—but his Achilles heel, the putter, caught up with him down the stretch and he bogeyed 18 to finish third.

There was a good deal of the old Woods on display Sunday. He didn’t hit a fairway on the front nine but still managed to turn in two under par and, at one point, did close to within a shot of Koepka.

If being chased by Woods and the constant roars he was hearing ahead of him bothered Koepka, he certainly didn’t show it. He calmly—the word is actually redundant because Koepka’s always calm—birdied 15 and 16 and didn’t even need to birdie the par-5 17th to coast to his two-shot victory.

Montana Pritchard/PGA of America

There was also some of the new Woods to be seen Sunday. He stepped to the 17th tee knowing he needed a birdie to have any realistic chance to catch Koepka. He promptly sprayed his tee shot right and had to work to make par. That’s been a pattern all year with Woods: Just when it appears he might break through and win, there’s a wayward shot or a couple of short missed putts.

That’s the second biggest difference between OT (Old Tiger) and NT (New Tiger). When OT sensed a chance to win, he pounced. NT—at least so far—retreats. His birdie on 18 sent the announcers and fans into paroxysms of joy, but it had little meaning. Sure, it was fun to see, but Koepka was on 17 by then and the Woods birdie closed the margin from three shots to two shots. All it did, ultimately, was allow him to jump the fading Scott for second place.

The biggest difference between OT and NT? He seems to understand now that second place doesn’t suck when you’re 42, you’ve been through seven surgeries and you’ve wondered if you’d ever be competitive again.

He clearly enjoyed the breathless reactions of the fans and actually waited for Koepka outside the scoring area to give him a congratulatory hug. OT would have been en route to the airport or wheels up by then. NT is clearly enjoying what he’s accomplished this year—even if he hasn’t yet been handed a trophy on a Sunday.

What’s more, Woods absolutely earned a spot on Jim Furyk’s Ryder Cup team. His second-place finish at Bellerive moved Woods into 11th place in the final U.S. points standings—and all those points came this year. He and Phil Mickelson—who fell to 10th after missing the cut—are locks to be two of Furyk’s captain’s picks three weeks from now.

Matt Kuchar, who finished 13th, is highly likely to be taken, too, because of his experience and popularity among the players. The only question is the fourth pick. Furyk’s made it clear he wants experience playing on the road, but with seven of the eight qualifiers on points having played in the past (only Justin Thomas is a Ryder Cup rookie), plus Woods, Mickelson and Kuchar, that might give him the luxury of taking birdie-machine Tony Finau over less spectacular but more experienced Zach Johnson. How those two play in the first two FedEx Cup playoff events might decide who gets the last slot.

This was a PGA filled with storylines—many overlooked. Stewart Cink, who has been largely invisible the last several years while his wife, Lisa, has been fighting (and beating) breast cancer, finished tied for fourth, his first top-10 finish in a major since his victory over Tom Watson in the 2009 Open Championship.

Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Thomas had a chance to match Koepka, by defending a major championship, deep into Sunday before fading to a tie for sixth, which left him tied with British Open champ Francesco Molinari, who was the leader in the clubhouse for player-of-the-year honors until Koepka nailed that title down with his victory.

If there were still an official PGA Tour comeback player-of-the-year, no doubt it would belong to Woods. In 2007, when his friend Steve Stricker won the honor for a second straight year, Woods said to him, “You’ve now done something I’ll never do.”

That was when Woods was still dominating the sport and the notion that he would ever need to make a “comeback” never crossed his—or anyone else’s—mind. Now though, if he were to win a major next year, perhaps he might match Stricker?

You never know. If the year in golf to date proves anything, it’s just that. You never know.

The post PGA Championship 2018: Making sense of Sunday at Bellerive in a season of ‘you never know’ appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Sam Weinman
Two competing narratives emerged from the build-up and then aftermath of the 100th PGA Championship. Going in it was how uninspired a venue Bellerive Country Club was for a major championship. The other was how riveting the final round there ended up being. This leads to an inevitable but perhaps still uncomfortable question: do we place disproportionate importance on the golf course itself when assessing majors?

Certainly it’s not to suggest that all courses are created equal, and those of us who play the game would almost certainly choose to play a great golf course over one that’s rather forgettable. But as it relates to the actual entertainment value of major competition, Bellerive at least invites a reassessment of the course’s role in the finished product. Hence this point/counterpoint between Alex Myers and myself.

Don’t be ridiculous, of course the golf course matters: As the great philosopher/celebrity golfer Yogi Berra once said, I felt like I had déjà vu all over again while watching the 100th PGA Championship. A week after the PGA Tour went to the homogenous Firestone Country Club for the final time, it took on the equally bland Bellerive Country Club for the first time in a decade. And I was surprised to learn Bellerive isn’t French for “dogleg left.” While the St. Louis course produced a star-studded leader board and a fantastic finish — two things that are easily the most essential to a memorable tournament — the track itself was forgotten as soon as Brooks Koepka put on his cape and flew away. Whereas a great course forges an added layer of connection with golf fans through recognizable holes — and helps build buzz before and during an event (Unlike, “Did you see where Brooks hit his tee shot on… um… that par 4?”) — I’m not sure that even fans who watched all four days could pinpoint any specific holes other than “that one they made drivable a couple rounds and almost got several fans killed.” That was No. 11, by the way. I had to look it up myself. — Alex Myers

Montana Pritchard/PGA of America

You golf course snobs are missing the point: Here’s a dirty little secret about major championship golf: the golf course itself is almost irrelevant. Now, to be clear, this is not to say we prefer bad courses over good ones. Given the choice between splattering Cypress Point or some tired dusty muny on our 54-inch flatscreens, we all know what we’re going to choose. What we are saying, however, is that major championships are ultimately defined by the drama they produce, and we’re willing to overlook all kinds of architectural deficiencies provided the storylines that unfold there are sufficiently compelling. Take plain old Bellerive, which by any objective measure was the weakest of the four major championship courses this season, yet by some random confluence of events, still delivered the best major of the season. If you could guarantee a tournament like this one every time, I’d go back there every year if we could. — Sam Weinman

The post Do major championship venues REALLY matter? With Bellerive fresh in our minds, two editors debate appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

When he tapped in instead, Nick Faldo cried “no, no, no, no!” on the CBS telecast—not one of the great victory calls, it’s fair to say. The applause from the gallery was a little tepid, a little confused. Koepka, who usually looks like the stoic kind of superman you’d put on a military propaganda poster, wore an expression that was at least 15 percent sheepish. History will not remember how the 2018 PGA Championship literally ended, but for those of us witnessing it live, there was a definite disturbance in the sacramental rites. They invented the word “anti-climactic” for moments like these.

The reason I call it “perfect” stems from the narrative that has built up around Koepka. It’s impossible to know how a narrative forms, any more than it’s possible to determine the origin of a larger-than-average ocean wave. It began somewhere, surely, but nobody really notices until it begins to crest. And the narrative was this: Koepka, winner of two straight U.S. Opens, is under-loved. He’s a little dull, a little aloof. We the golf fans don’t feel much of anything for him.

RELATED: Brooks Koepka’s latest response to his critics? Just another major title

All the usual ripples began to spread as the wave reared up. Predictable questions, accusations, counter-accusations. Was this alleged indifference justified, since Koepka doesn’t have the same captivating qualities, especially the gift of gab, as contemporaries such as Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy? Or should fans be more appreciative of his fearsome game, his equanimity under pressure, and his relentless march to greatness? If so, was this the media’s fault, for pre-judging him and dedicating the bulk of their coverage to Tiger and Phil and Jordan/Rory/Justin/Rickie? Was it the public’s fault, since the media simply takes their lead? Or did the blame lie with Koepka himself, for his blasé approach to the sport and his insistence that he never watches and doesn’t consider himself a “nerd”?

Sam Greenwood/Getty Images
Koepka’s stoicism makes him appear both unflappable and unemotional.

As for the why, you can’t do better than Joel Beall’s essay on the confluence of skill and star power, and why Koepka hasn’t managed to occupy that exalted space.

As for the trajectory of the argument itself, well …

Golf narratives, once formed, rarely die before Sunday, and Koepka and his swing coach Claude Harmon III ensured that this one would only gain momentum with a story by Golf Channel’s Ryan Lavner that hit social media on Friday night. It was a fascinating look at Team Koepka, but the fascination mostly came from the fact that Koepka and Harmon seem to catalog every perceived media slight he’s ever received. And I don’t mean the word “catalog” metaphorically—read these four paragraphs of the story, and tell me it doesn’t sound like there’s an actual list somewhere:

At last year’s U.S. Open, Koepka shot 68 in the first round and again didn’t receive a media request. An hour later, as they were leaving the course, Harmon received a call saying that a TV reporter wanted to interview Koepka. “We waited there for 10 minutes!” Harmon said. “You guys weren’t interested!” Three days later, Koepka won.

Before this year’s PGA, he was summoned to the media tent for a pre-tournament news conference. The interview room here holds about a hundred people. Tiger Woods’ press gathering was standing room only; Koepka’s attracted nine PGA officials and 13 reporters.

Late Thursday afternoon, Koepka stood around his bag, waiting for a PGA media official to tap him on the shoulder and direct him to the interview area. But the request never came. Surprised, he headed to the range, hit a few balls and left.

After the first round of the U.S. Open, the defending champion didn’t make the notables page on the leader board. (“To not be looked at as the favorite but still defending was quite an interesting feeling, I guess you could say.”) After the first round here at PGA, there were a few TV segments on the club pros’ play, but no highlights of Koepka’s round.

That’s an almost Michael Jordan-level of grudge-holding! And it doesn’t even count the story’s first line, in which Koepka, with a seeming chip on his shoulder, spends his Friday morning predicting that the reluctant media will be forced to interview him after he shoots a low number. It’s a strange way to frame your own experience within a tournament, isn’t it?

Sam Greenwood/Getty Images
Where Koepka impresses everyone is with the way he can overpower a golf course.

In any case, it answered an implied question underlying the whole “Koepka is unloved” narrative, which is: Does Koepka care? Emphatically, decisively, yes he does.

In September 1986, after Ivan Lendl won the U.S. Open, Sports Illustrated ran a particularly brutal cover featuring a picture of Lendl and the words “The Champion That Nobody Cares About.” Lendl was a lot like Koepka—an impressive physical specimen, great under pressure and a consummate winner. That ’86 U.S. Open was his fourth of eight eventual grand slams victories, and like Koepka, he had a very direct, flatline personality that contrasted with peers such as John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors. To complete the comparison, he was bothered enough by SI’s treatment that he still refused to speak with the magazine 11 years later.

RELATED: 15 things you need to know about Brooks Koepka

Lendl was probably the original unloved star, playing as he did in the burgeoning era of mass media, and he’s the best analogue to Koepka. But there have been others, even in golf. Vijay Singh comes to mind—he won three majors in his career, 34 total PGA Tour events and spent 32 weeks as the World’s No. 1. And to say that he didn’t quite move the needle like Tiger Woods would be a comical understatement. It wasn’t even close, and that was partly because of Tiger and partly because of Vijay. Phil Mickelson spent the bulk of his career in Tiger’s shadow, but nobody would call him unloved. Vijay? Vijay was unloved, and that was down to Vijay.

Which brings us to the big question: What does the public owe to someone who is, undeniably, a great champion? Do they deserve our love, regardless of how we feel?

And the answer is: It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if we owe Koepka love, or if we don’t. It doesn’t matter if the fault lies with the public, the media, or the golfer and his team. The answer is irrelevant, because we’re not truly confronting a question of right or wrong here, but a question of human nature.

In medieval England, the vast majority of the king’s subjects had no idea what the king looked like—not even in a painting. They certainly never saw the man speak, and they didn’t know his personality. Even so, they summoned strong emotions of love and hate for their monarch. If that was true then, it’s true now—however naively, we believe we can put together an accurate character assessment of a public figure on very little evidence. We label people on the basis of nothing but photographs, videos, and calculated publicity campaigns. We hardly see the real person, but we think it doesn’t matter.

Koepka celebrated his victory with girl friend Jena Sims (left) and his mom, Denise Jakows.

Such intuitive groupthink works on Brooks Koepka, too, and clearly it doesn’t amount to love. At least not in the way that Rory is loved, and Jordan is loved, and Tiger is loved. And like the phenomenon of a narrative wave, analyzing why this is true would require delving into the psychoanalytical depths of time and evolution and human judgment. When you emerged from that darkness, with horrific visions haunting your mind, you would be irrevocably insane, and unlikely to provide much insight on Brooks Koepka.

What we can say definitively is this: No matter what degree of love Koepka does or does not deserve for his achievements, there has never been a human in history who has won another person’s love by demanding it. We can conquer so much by force, but not that. And rather than wasting our energy figuring out what we should do, or why we won’t do it, it’s better to resign ourselves to the vagaries of human attachment and remember that quite often, these things change with time.

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There was no ambiguity about it, or lack of context, Sunday night at Bellerive Country Club. Just the same blunt force that he applies to one of his drives.

“I don’t care what anybody else says,” he said matter-of-factly after bench-pressing his third major championship in the last 14 months and second in the last two. “I try to acknowledge all the fans as much as I can. But there’s always going to be people that hate you. You’ve just got to move on with it and use that as motivation.”

Koepka’s shoulders are as broad as the Show Me State, and the chip they carried as big as the Gateway Arch. It’s that motivation that is the Creatine to his vast talents. His victory at the PGA Championship was as impressive as one of his gym sessions—Sunday of this year’s U.S. Open he threw up 225 pounds 14 times the morning before the final round, then beat Shinnecock into submission with the type of nuanced golf that belies his bulging biceps.

At Bellerive, a squelchy, longish, hit-splat-and-repeat venue that felt more like a run-of-the-mill PGA Tour course than a classically creative major-championship track, Koepka bludgeoned the dull Midwestern quagmire into submission, eschewing irons for one driver after another as he attacked it with impunity both off the tee and into its large, soft greens en route to a two-stroke victory. Making it all the more impressive was the platoon of challengers that he held off on the final day, including Tiger Woods and Adam Scott.

Playing two groups ahead of Koepka, Woods turned back the clock not quite far enough again, charging to within one of the lead on multiple occasions, each roar louder than the last. He went out in 32, getting up-and-down for birdie from a greenside bunker on the par-5 eighth then sticking his approach from 172 yards out of thick rough to 10 feet on the ninth for another to close out the side.

Andy Lyons

“You could hear a different roar like every 30 seconds,” Koepka said. “It’s pretty obvious when Tiger makes a birdie. I think everybody at the golf course cheers for him.”

As if they don’t for Koepka? Not that any of it seems to bother the 28-year-old Hercules.

“I remember the loudest roar I think I’ve heard was when I was hitting my putt on 8,” he said. “When [Tiger] made that putt [on 9], and I was over it, and everybody’s roaring, I’m like, all right, just make this one and try to get through that.”

Koepka did, cooly rolling in a five-footer of his own to stretch the lead back to two. It was the second of three straight birdies as he went on to stiff his own approach on the ninth, putting it to seven feet despite having driven into a fairway bunker.

RELATED: 15 things you need to know about Brooks Koepka

There were other contenders, too, including Koepka’s boyhood idol and playing partner for the day, Scott, as well as defending PGA champion, Justin Thomas. All wilted at one point or another.

Koepka doesn’t do wilting. He does lifting, weights and major trophies.

With Scott having battled back gallantly with five birdies in a six-hole stretch around the turn, including one on the par-3 13th, the Aussie was breathing down Koepka’s neck and tied for the lead. More than just a bash bro, though, Koepka’s response was a thing of beauty as he flagged his wedge on 15 then smoked a 4-iron from 247 yards to six feet on the par-3 16th. Birdies on both, game over.

Koepka didn’t even bother marking his final tap-in two holes later to finish off the victory — another sign of indifference — despite Scott motioning for him to so he could have the stage to himself. Instead, he brushed it in and gave a mild tip of the cap to the crowd despite the achievement. In his 100th career start on the PGA Tour, Koepka won the tournament’s 100th championship with a PGA record 16-under 264 total that included a pair of 66s on the weekend (and a record-tying 63 in the second round), doing so largely on the strength of shots like the ones he hit late on Sunday.

“It was a laser,” caddie Ricky Elliott said of the shot on 16. “He had to push the button. He had to make a couple of birdies to give himself that cushion to come down the last few holes.

“The wedge on 15 was really good after having missed a few putts. But the shot he hit into 16 I couldn’t believe it. We just needed it in the middle of the green and to two-putt it, and he goes, ‘Give me the 4-iron’ and he pitched it 10 yards short [of the pin] and it ran up to the hole. I can’t answer what was going through his head.”

With Koepka, it’s usually not much. Except maybe the haters.

“I have a lot of self belief,” he said. “I knew, even today, when everybody was making that charge, if I just hung in there, made one more shot, one good shot at a time, kept it rolling, I knew I was going to have a chance to kind of separate myself maybe a little bit.”

Sam Greenwood

With three wins in his last six majors he has certainly done that.

“When you win a major you’re in a different category,” said his swing coach Claude Harmon. “When you win two majors you’re in a different category. And when you win three majors you’re in a different league. He always saw himself as someone who could be that player. He doesn’t get asked a lot of questions and we joke about it. He’s the reigning U.S. Open champion, shoots one under on Thursday and doesn’t get asked one question [by reporters]. If you think that goes unnoticed, it doesn’t.”

It won’t go without recognition now. Koepka’s latest triumph puts him in rare air and will almost certainly give him Player of the Year honors, both from his peers and the writers who cover him. He already has a Hall of Fame resume. Does he feel like he’ll finally get the respect and appreciation he so badly covets?

“I hope so,” Koepka said.

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