Brooks Koepka held off challenges from Tiger Woods and Adam Scott to take the US PGA title as huge crowd at Bellerive cheered Tiger through a rollercoaster final round
A slam of the driver into turf entailed Tiger Woods knew this was the end, even if it may, in fact, be another beginning. He swung said club through the air in a subsequent fit of pique. At the 71 st pit of the 100 th US PGA Championship, his errant ball buried in foliage, Woods’s frustrations were echoed throughout golf, which was denied the finest tale of all. Although it was epic fun while it lasted, it was over.
Woods did more than enough during this major to suggest he will take delivery of a 15 th major. Even if he does not win another of golf’s big four , nobody can now reasonably claim he cannot. A Bellerive total of 266 shots is the lowest of Woods’s major career.
This mattered little to the man himself, whose competitive instinct means falling short will never be acceptable. Woods has returned from personal, physical and professional distress to run so close here. A staggering 3,710 days had passed since he claimed his 14 th major, virtually on one leg, at Torrey Pines.
Brooks Koepka is the Missouri Tiger Slayer. The 28 -year-old builds great play of the fact that golf does not excite him, which make one wonder what on earth he would achieve if invigorated. In the space of 14 months Koepka has claimed three majors: the US Open twice, plus the US PGA. For all Woods’s brilliance when carding 64 on day four, at no stage did he tie Koepka.
The subtle significance here is that in Woods’s pomp he could intimidate opponents in a way he could not with Koepka. Woods signed off with a birdie- well, “hes to”- to pinch second place from Adam Scott by a stroke. When strolling from the final green he was hailed in a manner befitting a triumphant Roman gladiator.
Rounds of 69, 63, 66 and 66 were sufficient for Koepka, at 16 under par, to upstage Timbers by two. This was a US PGA scoring record. Koepka is merely the fifth human to win the US Open and US PGA in the same season. The identity of the others highlights how difficult such an outcome is; Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods.
Woods’s front nine of 32 was remarkable because he failed to find a single fairway from the tee. Spectators required crash helmet as balls flew wildly left and right. It is, however, an unfortunate platitude at this level that shots played significantly off line can end up in better postures than narrow misses due to the trampling down of grass by galleries.
The marquee moment arrived at the 9th, minutes after Woods had what has become a customary change of shirt. He hit an approach from this public territory to within 17 ft of the beaker. As his birdie putt fell, a roaring resounded around Bellerive; it may well have done likewise throughout St Louis.