The Crushers captain shot a seven-under 63 on Saturday to launch himself up to eight-under overall and in T-4 on the leaderboard. That has him lurking just four strokes behind his old rival Koepka.

The pair underwent a back-and-forth verbal feud in 2021, but have since buried the hatchet — as evidenced by the pat on the back as DeChambeau gave Koepka  after the latter’s press conference on Saturday evening in Jeddah.

“It was about shooting low today, as low as I could,” DeChambeau said after that pat on the back. “I knew Brooks and a few others were going to play well, and I needed to get it deep today.  I did that, but I would have liked to have finish off with a birdie or two coming in, have a better chance. But being four back as it is, this golf course, you can definitely do it.”

The Crushers are the trending team at the minute, coming off a win in Chicago and leading at 22-under ahead of the final round in Jeddah ahead of next week’s Team Championship final in Miami, and are second in the standings behind last year’s winners, the 4 Aces. DeChambeau has a simple plan to claim the crown this year.

“I just want the boys [Paul. Casey, Anirban Lahiri and Charles Howell III] to keep playing the way they are,” he said. “They’re a special bunch of guys, and they know how to get the job done when it matters.

“This year is going to be a lot different than last year, I believe, if we bring this form into next week. Very excited for the guys and seeing what we can do next week in Miami.”

DeChambeau was very clear on team-before-individual success.

“It’s about the team,” he insisted. “I definitely want to win the team championship [in Jeddah] and be first in the points list going to Miami. We’re that good of a team, and my boys have worked really hard this year. If we play well tomorrow, we definitely deserve to be up in that No. 1 spot. I’m definitely focused on that, focused on playing well tomorrow individually for the Crushers, and just going to give it my all.”

A win over Koepka probably wouldn’t go amiss either, though …

Main image: Bryson DeChambeau. LIV Golf

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The Ryder Cup is less than three months away and it’s still unclear if LIV Golf members will be allowed to compete for the United States team. Which is why eyebrows were raised on Monday when discovering Brooks Koepka was practising at Royal Liverpool with a certain influential person on the matter.

The person in question was American Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson. The two-time major winner has said as recently as May that “no decisions have been made” regarding what to do with LIV Golf players. “As far as personally making decisions, no,” Johnson said at the time.

But Koepka is currently third on the United States team rankings, with the top six automatically qualifying for the team. Speaking to the media on Tuesday ahead of this week’s Open Championship, the reigning PGA champ explained his Monday round with Johnson was unplanned.

“Walked on the first tee right behind Scottie [Scheffler]. He didn’t have a tee time, neither did I and neither did Zach and neither did Cam [Smith],” Koepka said. “There was a good little wait, so we all played.” When asked if the Ryder Cup came up at all, Koepka replied in the affirmative. “Yeah, it was fun. We got to talk about it a little bit, just what’s going on, I guess how the team is shaping up. It’s kind of interesting.

“Yeah, it was just hearing his perspective and all the stuff he’s got to do,” Koepka later added. “The PGA of America does a really good job in easing it for him, and just kind of talking about the preparation for it, what our team is going to do, where are we going to be, and just a little bit more about the shuffle of guys and the stuff they have kind of behind the scenes stats, stuff like that. It’s quite interesting just hearing about it all.”

There’s currently an odd LIV dynamic heading into the Ryder Cup. Most LIV members with European ties surrendered their DP World Tour memberships, thus disqualifying them from playing in the biennial event. However, American LIV players have a separate prerequisite for United States Ryder Cup eligibility, with their PGA of America membership allowing them to compete despite being suspended by the PGA Tour. At least, that’s the current belief, as the US Ryder Cup team has not stated with authority that LIV members will definitely be allowed to compete.

Complicating matters is the recently announced joint venture between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund — LIV Golf’s financial backer — which has ended the litigious battles between the entities and hopes to return unification to the sport.

Though he’s third in the US rankings, this will be Koepka’s last chance to earn automatic points, while his PGA Tour counterparts have until the end of the second FedEx Cup playoff event, the BMW Championship, to qualify. Captain Johnson will then have six wildcard picks at his disposal, which he will name following the Tour Championship. Three US players from the 2021 Ryder Cup — Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau — are current LIV Golf members, as is former US assistant captain Phil Mickelson. Five European players from the 2021 squad left for LIV Golf in Sergio Garcia, Paul Casey, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Bernd Wiesberger.

Koepka has been a part of three Ryder Cups, including wins in 2016 and 2021. He is 6-5-1 in 12 matches.

The 44th Ryder Cup begins on September 29 in Rome. The Americans are the defending champs, but have not won the cup on foreign soil since 1993.

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Paired up to start the US Open, perhaps Brooks Koepka’s recent strong showings at majors have rubbed off on Rory McIlroy. The Northern Irishman, with a fifth major title within reach, looked cool, calm and collected entering Los Angeles Country Club before his final round on Sunday.

?️ "I'm kind of a big deal."

Rory McIlroy jokes with Brooks Koepka on arrival of the final day of the US Open. ? pic.twitter.com/IFTsBCEU2A

— Sky Sports Golf (@SkySportsGolf) June 18, 2023

“Kind of a big deal,” McIlroy states to Koepka’s delight. And we have to wonder if this is an Anchorman reference or an off-the-cuff remark from McIlroy. Just one shot back of the leaders, this is the perfect one-liner to start his day. Very cinematic, which makes sense for the location.

In the second-to-last group paired with Scottie Scheffler, a loose McIlroy was a scary sight for Rickie Fowler and Wyndham Clark. It’s also nice to see the former PGA Tour-LIV Golf rivals leaving the past in the past. A good line is a good line and Koepka already has two US Open trophies, so a nice paycheck and a round of golf, even if he doesn’t like the course, isn’t the worst way to spend a Sunday.

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Brooks Koepka left no doubt about that on Sunday, closing out the PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club for his fifth major title and third in the PGA. He also made history as the first player to win a major championship as a member of LIV Golf with his two-stroke victory over Scottie Scheffler and Viktor Hovland.

Koepka, who closed with a three-under 67 to post nine-under 271 on Oak Hill’s East Course, became the second LIV player to currently hold one of the four major titles. Cam Smith is the other, winning last year’s Open Championship at St Andrews the week before he left the PGA Tour for the new circuit.

Koepka’s victory is a huge development for the league, but Koepka wasn’t thinking big picture when he was asked if his win validated LIV Golf, even after it was suggested by his rival, Bryson DeChambeau that it did. In the immediate aftermath, he was looking inward, which he had a perfect right to do.

“Yeah, I definitely think it helps LIV, but I’m more interested in my own self right now, to be honest with you,” said Koepka, who didn’t reveal whether he had yet heard from LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman. “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.”

Captain @BKoepka secured the win#PGAChampionship SMASHED
????? https://t.co/0OnE5zREfF

— Smash GC (@SmashGC) May 21, 2023

Well, that answer wasn’t going to hold, so he was asked about the pride he felt on behalf of his LIV peers. Again, Koepka wasn’t interested in furthering the cause or that narrative.

“Look at it, I think I was the first guy to win two LIV events. To win a major is always a big deal no matter where you’re playing,” the 33-year-old Floridian said. “All it does, I just think, I guess, validates it for myself. I guess maybe if anybody doubted it from Augusta or whatever, any doubts anybody on TV might have or whatever, I’m back, I’m here.”

Team golf resumes this week for LIV in Washington, DC. For Koepka, the PGA was all his, and he clearly didn’t feel like sharing.

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“I thought it was interesting,” Koepka said during an Instagram Q&A with Smash, his LIV Golf team. “Obviously, when you do something like that, it never shows the full picture … a lot of stuff wasn’t seen, but it is what it is.”

But those same fans will certainly find Koepka’s comments about a couple of his highly publicised relationships with other tour pros even more interesting. Let’s start with that big feud with Bryson DeChambeau.

In case you don’t remember, the two US Open champs traded subtle — and not-so-subtle — verbal jabs over a two-plus-year period that included the hardest eyeroll in golf history. With both dealing with injuries and the shifting landscape of pro golf, this rivalry — which even included a made-for-TV match — has simmered down, though, something that Koepka confirmed.

“Believe it or not, we squashed it,” Koepka said. “We’re good. I actually talk to him quite frequently because of what’s going on here at LIV. Pretty much on an every-other-day basis. So we’ve got a good open line of communication. We’ve figured it all out and we’re good.”

Apparently, guaranteed contracts cures all. And same is the case with Brooks and Dustin Johnson. At one point, the two stars comprised golf’s most powerful bromance, but they haven’t seemed as close since a rumoured “scuffle” at the 2018 Ryder Cup in Paris. Koepka addressed that as well:

“Yeah, this one makes me laugh,” Koepka says in the video. “We were just horsing around, messing around. We were in the European team room. We were just having fun. We actually went out in Paris later that night so if there was a scuffle it wasn’t too bad. Just horsing around, it’s what guys do. But we still play a lot of golf when we’re back home hanging out with each other. So no issue, and he’d say the same thing.”

There you go, folks. Just horsing around. Because that’s what guys do.

Anyway, Brooks, Bryson, and DJ are all getting the 2023 LIV season under way at Mayakoba. And if you’re disappointed about a lack of tension between them, well, there still promises to be plenty of drama between the LIV and PGA Tour guys at the majors this year.

The post Brooks Koepka addresses rumoured Ryder Cup ‘scuffle’ with Dustin Johnson and current status with Bryson DeChambeau appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Shane Ryan
Let’s put aside all moral and ethical concerns, just for a second, and judge the feud between Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau like we’d judge a boxing match. Do that, and it’s a unanimous decision: Koepka won. Definitively, emphatically and completely, Koepka won.

The condensed story of what happened here is that the two golfers disliked each other from the start, DeChambeau pissed Koepka off after they reached an uneasy truce, and Koepka unleashed the dogs of war. Once he did, it was never a fair fight. The end result is that even as DeChambeau continues to find success on the course—which is pretty impressive under the circumstances, by the way—he’s being ritually bullied to the point of frustration and rage. In fact, if this were a real boxing match, you wouldn’t even need judges; there’s no need to deliberate over a TKO.

There’s a popular meme taken from “The Simpsons,” and it depicts a horrified boy pointing a finger at an unseen spectacle (it’s Homer Simpson dressed as Krusty the Clown beating up a hamburglar, but that’s not important right now) and shouting “Stop! Stop! He’s already dead!” That’s where we are with the Koepka-DeChambeau feud; Koepka made his point, and he made it unmistakably. It’s incumbent on him now to realize that he can stop the fight without losing face, and to realize that every moment he remains silent and allows the abuse of DeChambeau to continue without even an attempt at intervention is a moment that is unnecessarily cruel.

I want to be abundantly clear on one point, which is that I’m not sure we can blame Koepka for reacting the way he did initially. Repeat: Initially. (For a recap of the complicated feud, go here.) There’s no law that says he has to like DeChambeau, and let’s be honest, from where Brooks and others sit, there’s a lot about Bryson not to like—how he blames his equipment; his, ahem, controversial opinions on public health matters; his recent refusal to talk to the press; and on and on. With Koepka, part of what makes him such a great competitor is that it’s not in his nature to take an insult on the chin. Until this past June, he was more or less just holding his ground.

Then came Koepka’s post promoting Michelob Ultra in which he implicitly encouraged fans to heckle DeChambeau, and the whole episode crossed a competitive line. It emboldened and enabled the worst people in a golf gallery, and made every round for Bryson DeChambeau a battle with far more than the golf course.

Like everything else Koepka has attempted in this feud, it worked. I noticed the sadistic nature of the attacks from the gallery for the first time in Memphis, and Memphis is also when I first realized that the “Brooksy!” routine wasn’t trivial or good-natured. It can certainly read that way in print, which is why it’s so difficult to explain to those who haven’t seen it in person how ugly it feels out on the course. That’s part of the problem with this whole feud—the natural reaction to hearing all this is to wonder why calling someone “Brooksy” matters. On the surface, it’s not profane, it’s not personal, and it’s not even an insult. But when you see the mob in the flesh, and when you hear the cascading shouts for hours on end, the intent becomes clear, and the intent is to harass and humiliate. They’re yelling “Brooksy” because they don’t like him. More importantly, they want him to know they don’t like him. The word itself is just a messenger, but the message it carries is potent. With dozens of fans peppering him on every hole, it’s a brutal spectacle.

It’s also effective. DeChambeau was visibly upset during his final round in Memphis, staring daggers at fans and finally yelling back at a woman who joined the fray. He swore angrily to his manager in the aftermath, ostensibly about the unlucky breaks of his round, but the origins of his rage were abundantly clear. At The Northern Trust in New Jersey, undercover cops roamed the crowds, by turns lecturing and booting fans who shouted abuse, but it made no difference. There was silence on the far reaches of the course, where the gallery was too sparse to shout at him anonymously, but in the thick crowds nearer the entrance, entire sections of fans in the stadiums abused him en masse. And Sunday at Caves Valley, the rancour of the fans and the constant heckling broke him down to the extent that ESPN’s Kevin Van Valkenburg witnessed him confront a fan in an encounter that seemed to be on the verge of real physical aggression.

The word ‘Brooksy’ itself is just a messenger, but the message it carries is potent. With dozens of fans peppering DeChambeau on every hole, it’s a brutal spectacle.

On Tuesday at a press conference ahead of the Tour Championship, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan addressed the matter, stating that the tour would be updating its fan code-of-conduct policy so that anyone engaging in “unsafe, disruptive or harassing behaviour” could be removed from a tournament. Asked specifically if shouting “Brooksy” was such behaviour, Monahan said yes it was.

“And the reason I say yes is that what we are all using is the word ‘respect,’ and to me, when you hear ‘Brooksy’ yelled or you hear any expression yelled, the question is, is that respectful or disrespectful?” Monahan said. “That has been going on for an extended period of time. To me, at this point, it’s disrespectful, and that’s the kind of behaviour that we’re not going to tolerate going forward.”

We need to be realistic and admit that it’s gotten so bad that the tour, or Koepka himself, might not be able to change anything at this point. Even if Koepka came out tomorrow and released a video asking all his fans to ease up on DeChambeau, who’s to say they’d listen? I think it would make a positive difference, but there’s an obvious glee on the part of the hecklers that goes beyond the control of one person. We should also note, in the interest of fairness, that Koepka is not solely to blame for the subset of fans who don’t like DeChambeau. To walk with DeChambeau on the 18th hole at Caves Valley (the first time) this past Sunday was to see an atmosphere that was heavily pro-Cantlay. It didn’t reach Ryder Cup levels of partisanship, but it was strangely one-sided for a “neutral” PGA Tour clash between two Americans, particularly when the favoured American isn’t really known as a beloved figure. The fans were delighted at every Cantlay highlight, including a bogey putt at 17 that earned a louder cheer than any bogey putt I can remember, and they were almost equally delighted at DeChambeau’s failures. There is something about DeChambeau that rubs galleries the wrong way. It transcends Koepka, and there’s no use denying it.

But it doesn’t have to be this bad. Koepka could step up, make a public statement, and attempt to put an end to a sad episode in professional golf. He could step up because no matter how much you may dislike a fellow competitor, and no matter how good your reasons are, it’s wrong to allow him to be psychologically abused by galleries. Nobody is lining up to canonize Bryson DeChambeau, and in fact Koepka may not suffer very much if he remains silent. Still, he has an opportunity to do the right thing. It may go against his competitive instincts, it may be hard, and it may not resonate with the attack dogs, but it will be noticed and appreciated in the right places. He’s already won the fight; now it’s time to extend a hand and lift his rival off the canvas.

The post It’s time for Brooks Koepka to call off the dogs appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Brian Wacker
One man’s pleasure is another man’s pain. That was certainly true for Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka as they were swallowed by the masses on the 18th hole Sunday at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course, where the throng of fans tried to get as close as possible to Mickelson as the 50-year-old secured his improbable and history victory at the 103rd PGA Championship.

But Koepka found little jubilation in the swarm that enveloped the duo; rather it was a painful trudge.

“Yeah it would have been cool if I didn’t have a knee injury and got dinged a few times in the knee in that crowd because no one really gave a sh-t, personally,” he said. “But if I was fine, yeah, it would have been cool. Yeah, it’s cool for Phil. But getting dinged a few times isn’t exactly my idea of fun.

“[I was] trying to protect my knee. I don’t think anybody really understands until you actually you’re coming out of surgery how—even when I was doing rehab and there’s five people kind of standing by your knee, you get a little skittish.”

Koepka added that his caddie, Ricky Elliott, got “drilled in the face” as he tried to work his way through the crowd. Then Koepka said he got dinged by the bag because Elliott at one point had to stop quickly and unexpectedly. As for the knee? “It feels like sh-t right now,” Koepka said.

Gather around, folks.

A major champion will soon be crowned. #PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/7WuWjHLxKT

— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) May 23, 2021

Perhaps just as painful was the outcome.

One back at the start of the day, Koepka quickly grabbed the lead with a birdie to Mickelson’s bogey on the opening hole. But a few minutes later, Koepka found himself in trouble off the tee on the par-5 second, was forced to lay up, airmailed the green with his third then duffed his fourth. A double bogey later, and the lead was again Mickelson’s. Back and forth they went in an exhilarating front nine before Mickelson seized the lead for good with a birdie on the seventh.

While Mickelson accelerated, though, Koepka stumbled.

Seeking a third Wanamaker Trophy in the past four years, Koepka, who underwent surgery in March after he dislocated his kneecap and sustained ligament damage, hit just half his fairways, struggled mightily with his putting and made three bogeys in a four-hole stretch to open his back nine. That included one on the par-5 11th, where his second shot came up well short in a sandy area and his third also failed to reach the green. Then he missed a five-footer for par.

“Just how bad I putted the last two days,” said Koepka when asked what was hardest to stomach. “Three days, actually. It felt like tap-ins I was missing. Never felt comfortable, and you’re not going to win if you do that.”

Jamie Squire
Phil Mickelson soaks up the scene with the sea of fans swarming the 18th—while Brooks Koepka certainly did not.

He also said his surgically repaired knee was not an issue in the final round and that he was able to push off it all week.

Still, he will now have time to rest it. The year’s next major, the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, is a month away and it’s unclear whether Koepka will play before then.

“Yeah, [I’ll] take some time off, relax a little bit and start practicing again,” he said. “Keep doing rehab. Keep doing everything I’m doing and hopefully come out and play well.”

The post Brooks Koepka definitely didn’t enjoy the sea of fans on the 18th hole as much as you did appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Brian Wacker
The Masters without fans looks and feels different. And it hurts, too, at least for the best major championship performer of the last few years.

Brooks Koepka, who has often talked about finding it hard to get motivated during the week-to-week grind of the PGA Tour season, seems to be struggling this week on focusing without spectators lining the fairways and greens of Augusta National.

“It is a little bit tougher sometimes with no fans to really get in there and grind it out,” the four-time major champion said on Friday afternoon following rounds of 70 and 69. “I mean, I’m not going to quit, but just putting it in some stupid places sometimes where it’s like, That’s the one spot you know you can’t miss it, and I put it there.”

Among the “stupid errors” and “sloppy” mistakes were a missed par putt from five feet at the 10th during his opening round, which he completed on Friday morning. Then another in the second round when Koepka’s putt from the fringe on the par-3 sixth scooted five feet past the hole, and he missed the one coming back.

“Not very good,” Koepka said when asked how he felt about his position going into the weekend. “It could have been so much better. I was super sloppy.”

Still, the winner of the 2017 and ’18 U.S. Open and 2018 and ’19 PGA Championship probably being a bit hard on himself.

Koepka, who missed two months because of injuries to his left knee and hip, entered this week coming off a tie for fifth at last week’s Houston Open, where he closed with a pair of 65s. This week, in his return to the Masters after tying for second last year, he got off to a slow start, playing his first 14 holes in two over. But he rebounded with an eagle at the 15th and added two more birdies after that to shoot 70.

In the second round, Koepka’s 69 would have been even better if not for the bad break of his pitch shot on the third hole clanging off the flagstick, rolling off the green and back to the bottom of the hill. He went on to make bogey.

“It’s one of those things where I just need to clean that stuff up,” he said. “No bogeys.”

Nonetheless, he goes into Saturday just four strokes off the lead with the second round still to be completed.

Koepka has the best total score relative to par in majors since 2016 at 73 under, which is 70 strokes better than the next-best player during that span, Dustin Johnson, who shares the overnight Masters lead with three others.

“Just need to clean [the stupid mistakes] up for the weekend,” said Koepka, “and I’ll be fine.”

More from Friday at the 2020 Masters
• Tiger Woods loses momentum, but holds on to his green jacket chances
• Abraham Ancer continues to prove that he’s a big-time player, he’s just missing one thing
• Bryson DeChambeau in danger of missing cut after disastrous third hole
• Jon Rahm hilariously (perhaps inadvertently) burns Bryson DeChambeau with two simple words
• Rory McIlroy had about as terrible a Friday morning as you could imagine at Augusta National
• Why these five guys are going to have an especially restless Friday night in Augusta
• Brooks Koepka’s play has been ‘super sloppy’ and he can still win
• Alert! Augusta National legend Jeff Knox has been called into action earlier than usual this week!
• Justin Thomas broke his odd Masters curse
• Bernhard Langer keeps building on the sneakiest good record in Masters history
• Bryson DeChambeau lost his ball in Augusta’s second cut, which we all figured was impossible
• Why you shouldn’t be surprised about Rory McIlroy’s up-and-down start at Augusta
• What you think about Dustin Johnson says more about you than him
• Who needs a driver at Augusta? Danny Willett cracks his, uses 3-wood off tee and shoots career low
• How the 36-hole cut is determined at Augusta National
• Bernhard Langer has become the oldest golfer to make the cut in the Masters

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By Christopher Powers
At one point on Sunday afternoon, it looked like a seven-man playoff was not only possible, it was likely going to happen. The CBS crew even took the time to prepare viewers by breaking down the playoff format. Apparently, Collin Morikawa had zero interest in such a thing.

Instead of messing around, Morikawa slammed the door shut in a manner that would suggest he’d been on the PGA Tour for a decade-plus, already with multiple majors to his name. In reality, he’s 23 years old, and this week’s 2020 PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park was just his second appearance in a major championship. He showed nerves of steel, shooting a final-round six-under-par 64 that included two incredibly clutch shots when he needed them most.

Here are our five takeaways from an absolutely wild first major of 2020.

Collin Morikawa is a STAR
Honestly, he already was, but those final five holes put him into superstar territory. We always have to be careful of crowning everyone “THE” guy every other week, but this guy is definitely one of “THE” guys right now. He’s already one of the three or four best iron players in the world, and he’s already becoming a prolific winner on tour. He now has three wins since last July, including one at Muirfield Village and another in a major championship. If not for a bricked three-footer at Colonial, he might have three wins this season, which would make him a lock for PGA Tour Player of the Year. He might still be a lock. We know how much majors play a factor in winning that award [unless you’re name is Brooks], and he just got the only one that counts toward this season. So, yeah, he’s probably a lock.

But it’s not just the wins. It’s that unbelievably silky swing, an even silkier smile, and, perhaps the most silky thing of all, his demeanour. At 23, he carries himself a 15-year veteran with multiple majors and 20 tour wins to his name. A big question following that missed shorty at Colonial was how long it would take him to bounce back. After two out-of-character starts, including the only missed cut of his career, he won the Workday and then seized a major a month later. How’s that for a response? We’ve played the “this kid is going to be good for a LONG time” card before with so many players, and it doesn’t always work out that way. That’s not going to be the case with Morikawa. Mark it down.

Darren Carroll/PGA of America

If not now, when, DJ?
I wrote yesterday that it was time for DJ to get it done, almost suggesting he had to get it done. Did he? Will Dustin’s life change in any way after this latest close call? Nope. He’ll forget this all by tomorrow and be the exact same person next time he tees it up. He’ll win many more tournaments, and for his sake, I hope a few more majors. His 21 PGA Tour victories [plus off-course earnings] have made him so rich that he’s been afforded the choice to literally not give a crap.

But deep down, you have to wonder if he’s thinking what we’re all thinking: If not today, at the 2020 PGA Championship, where he held the 54-hole lead and was one under on his round through 13 holes with a huge birdie or eagle opportunity ahead at the 16th hole, then when? Like I wrote yesterday, he should have four majors, at minimum, and I could make an argument for eight. After today, I could make an argument for nine. I’ll defend this man to the death. I truly believe he has the talent and ability to have nine. He has one. We’ve reached a DEFCON 5 level of “what-if” with Johnson now. It’s depressing.

Not great, Bob Brooks
Social media is a very toxic place, one Brooks Koepka should probably stay away from for about two to four weeks, or however long until this all blows over. If he starts scrolling on his phone, he’s not going to like what he sees.

And you know what? He asked for it. Actually, he practically begged for it. If you’re going to talk the game Koepka talks, you simply have to back it up, even if you’ve already backed it up four times in your career. But after his comments on Saturday evening about DJ only having one major, Koepka’s previoius four major titles became irrelevant. We live in a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately world, and the critics were not going to accept anything less than a fifth major and a PGA three-peat from Koepka on Sunday.

What they got instead was a round that was dead before it even started. Koepka bogeyed the par-4 second after an absolutely woeful approach shot and went full Houdini on the broadcast after that. Four-over 74 was the finaly tally, the equivalent of a quarterback guaranteeing victory and going out and throwing four interceptions in a blowout loss. Just a brutal look for ol’ bombastic Brooks. That said, we should expect a full, swift recovery at Winged Foot in September. If “mad Brooks” is a real thing, he going to be pissed the hell off that week.

Christian Petersen/PGA of America

Who’s next?
Assuming Morikawa doesn’t win all the majors going forward, who is the next man up? For all the talk of needing experience on a major championship Sunday, Scottie Scheffler and Morikawa both showed that could be overrated. Scheffler, who was in the final group, shot a two-under 68 with just one bogey. It wasn’t a 64, but that’s still pretty damn good for a 24-year-old in his fourth career major start. Surprisingly, he hasn’t won on tour yet, but there is little doubt that day is coming soon.

What about Cameron Champ? Early on, it looked like this was going to be his day and not Morikawa’s. The long-hitting 25-year-old was holing all the putts you need to hole to win a major on Sunday, but a round-killing double bogey at the ninth hole crushed all of his momentum. He was never able to recover, shooting an even-par 70 and finishing five back. But man, for all of yesterday and much of today, Champ showed he’s more than ready to win one of the four big ones.

Matthew Wolff? Yeah, him too. For a brief period he was sitting pretty in the clubhouse at 10 under thanks to a five-under 65, which should have been a 63, as Wolff missed two birdie putts inside of seven feet. Of course, that still wouldn’t have been enough, but it would have been a hell of an effort. Something tells me we weren’t overselling the Morikawa-Wolff-Viktor Hovland takeover last summer.

As for the rest, there’s no question Bryson DeChambeau will get there, and I’d say the same for Tony Finau if he had another PGA Tour win or two. But for now, he’s just a guy who lives in the top 10 and needs to breakthrough if he wants to turn everyone into a believer.

The post Collin Morikawa is already a star and three other takeaways from a wild PGA appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Brian Wacker
Brooks Koepka perused the leaderboard on Saturday night in San Francisco as he prepared for his PGA Championship three-peat and made a blunt assessment about leader Dustin Johnson’s record in majors. Koepka, who trailed Johnson, the 54-hole leader, by two strokes going into the final round, not-so-subtly pointed out that Johnson had “only” won one major title amid what has been a career of major chances.

A day later, karma paid a visit to Koepka at TPC Harding Park and his bid for a historic victory died a quick death. But when the final round was over Johnson indeed remained stuck on that singular major triumph, lending more than a bit of credence to the dagger.

Sunday marked the fourth time that the 36-year-old led going into the final round of a major championship, and it was the fourth time that he failed to close the deal.

For Johnson, who shot a two-under 68 on a Sunday primed for red numbers to finish three strokes back of winner Collin Morikawa, it was his third runner-up in his last eight major starts, along with a T-3. But they don’t hand out trophies for almost winning.

Credit belongs to Morikawa, of course. The 23-year-old playing in his first major as a pro fired a studly 64 on Sunday that included a chip-in for birdie on the 14th hole and the shot of the tournament, a towering driver that landed seven feet from the hole on the reachable par-4 16th to set up a decisive eagle.

Still, Johnson had been in the lead for most of the afternoon and had his chances deep into the final day. So where did it go wrong … again?

There were a handful of curious missteps that stood out.

At the 176-yard par-3 third, he three-putted from 56 feet, missing a five-footer for par and made bogey. That was just the beginning.

Two holes later and just 115 yards from the flag, he managed to hit his wedge to just 30 feet. On the seventh, he didn’t do much better landing just outside 20 feet from the hole from a similar distance. Instead of stretching his lead, he made par on both.

Darren Carroll/PGA of America

Then, at the par-5 10th—the easiest hole on the golf course—Johnson was just inside 200 yards in the first cut on the left side of the fairway and missed in the one spot he couldn’t, left of the green and in a bunker. That left him impossibly short-sided and the best he could manage was hitting to 20 feet and two-putting.

The final blow came four holes later when Johnson drove into the right rough, tugged his next shot into another bunker and hit a lousy shot from there, leaving himself 35 feet from the hole on his way to a two-putt bogey.

Another opportunity missed.

For all of Johnson’s prowess—he has 22 career victories, the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont among them, and has won at least once in each of his 13 seasons on the PGA Tour, including the Travelers Championship in June—he remains something of an enigma when it comes to major success.

Sunday wasn’t only his latest chance, it was one of many.

At the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, he led by three going into the final round but imploded with an 82; that same year he infamously lost the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits when he grounded his club in a bunker.

The following year at the Open Championship, he trailed by two late on Sunday but hit his tee shot on the par-5 14th out of bounds. And in 2015 at the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay, he three-putted from 15 feet on the 72nd hole to hand the victory to Jordan Spieth.

Sunday, Johnson was outplayed by Morikawa and didn’t stop to talk after his round. It was understandable. So too would it be if this one actually stung for a little while.

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