During the press conference before the 2019 PGA Championship at Bethpage Black, defending champion Brooks Koepka made a bold statement. He claimed that major championships are easier to win. This was certainly a confident statement but Brooks was not just all talk. He walked the walk to back it up and boy, did he ever.
As with previous PGA Championships, tradition had the three current major champions paired together in the first two rounds. Along with Brooks Koepka, reigning Masters Champion Tiger Woods and Open Champion, Francesco Molinari were also in the group. Brooks shot rounds of 7-under 63 and 5-under 65 after two days of golf while shooting even par in his third round. After 54 holes, Brooks would hold a 7-shot lead, the largest 54-hole advantage in tournament history.
However, the final round would be a different story. Although Brooks shot even par on the front nine of the final round, he would make four straight bogeys from hole 11 to 14. Meanwhile, Dustin Johnson had shot a front nine score of 3-under and with another birdie on the 15th hole, Brooks’ lead was down to one. Unfortunately, DJ failed to carry the momentum of his birdie and bogeyed the next two holes to finish the tournament at 6-under. And despite making another bogey on the 17th hole, Brooks Koepka managed to hold on and win his fourth career major title.
This marks the third victory in Brooks’ last five major starts and four in his last eight major appearances. Brooks first broke through at the 2017 US Open at Erin Hills and defended his title at the 2018 US Open at Shinnecock Hills. His dominance at major championships continued when he out-dueled Tiger Woods at last year’s PGA Championship. And now, with him successfully defending this title as well, Brooks has become the number one player in the world!
Source: PGA.com
