Only three golfers have won four or more PGA Championships. Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Walter Hagen. After a victory at LIV Singapore on Sunday, Brooks Koepka looks ready to take a rip at turning that three-man club into four.
Koepka, who said earlier in the week that his time from December to the Masters felt like a waste, went out and shot a 3-under 68 in the finale of LIV Singapore to get by Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman by two and Talor Gooch by three to secure his fourth career LIV Golf victory.
A low-key impressive part of Koepka’s career is his ability to win all over the world.
He has now won professional events in the following countries.
- Italy
- Spain
- Turkey
- Singapore
- Saudi Arabia
- United States
- Scotland
- Japan
Of course the more impressive part of Koepka’s career is the fact that he has five major championships and is now hunting for a sixth, which would tie him with Nick Faldo and get him within one of Arnold Palmer. Three of those — Bellerive in 2018, Bethpage in 2019 and Oak Hill in 2023 — have been PGAs, and he’s one of the favorites (though at 20-1, not nearly short enough) to repeat like he did in 2019.
Perhaps most intriguing about his victory this week is how much he seemed to be searching at the start.
“I can’t find the hole at all, to be honest with you,” he said in a press conference earlier in the week when he was asked about his putting. “Something we’ve just been putting some work into, so trying to find some answers.”
“Ball doesn’t go in the hole …” he added. “I don’t know how else to simply put it. I feel like I’m hitting good putts, they just keep burning lips. Eventually it starts to wear on you after a while. All you can do is hit a good putt and see where it goes from there. Hopefully they start falling soon.”
They fell plenty over the next three rounds as Koepka opened with 66-64 on a golf course he felt he could take advantage of with his ball-striking and then closed it out with that Sunday 68 that included just one bogey. It was a masterclass in how to win a professional golf tournament.
“I feel good,” he said to open his press conference. “I feel a lot better than I did last week. It was rounding the corner for me. Like I said earlier I think in one of the press conferences, I felt like the results weren’t there. It was improving but the results weren’t there. It’s nice to see some results and the hard work paying off.”
He added that this result actually started to disclose itself a week ago at LIV Adelaide where he finished T9.
“Just ball-striking I think was starting to round the corner,” he said. “I was starting to see it come out of the right window. If I don’t see it come out of the right window I kind of struggle. But it was nice to see it start where I wanted it and the ball was moving in the right direction. I kind of didn’t know if it was going to fade or draw for about a month there. But I just got into bad habits. It’s all the same thing. We’ve just got to go back to the basics with me.”
Now Koepka will turn his attention to Valhalla and a PGA Championship he’ll attempt to win for the fourth time. Finding his form before this tournament is something he is accustomed to doing. His three victories have all been preceded by a top five finish in his most recent start. And while he doesn’t necessarily believe that a player must find form going into an event like that, it also doesn’t hurt.
“I still have the same expectations every time I go tee it up and that’s to win,” he said of Valhalla. “Those are my expectations, what I want to do. One result doesn’t mean anything really in the scheme of things. For two weeks, a lot can change. Yeah, it does help, but at the same time, I’ve seen guys miss cuts and then go win and then win and then not compete the week after. It’s all ebbs and flows.”
Ripper GC won its second consecutive team event at 32 under by three shots over the Fireballs and the Cleeks.
