LIV Golf’s Brooks Koepka takes the PGA Championship in a big win for the Saudi-backed league

Koepka, a player known for his killer instincts in major championships, had coughed up a two-stroke lead entering the final round and stunningly lost by four. He spent days reflecting, and ultimately discovered that his biggest problem was his mindset.

“If you have a lead and cough it up, that’s choking,” he said this week.

Koepka didn’t choke again Sunday. He’s a major champion once again.

At 9 – under par, Koepka prevailed in the PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y., where he tamed a golf course that gave the best golfers in the world fits all week. The win is Koepka’s third in this tournament and fifth major overall — but it’s a more notable first. Koepka is now the first player to win a major after leaving the PGA Tour for the Saudi-backed LIV Golf league.

The 33-year-old American finished two shots ahead of world No. 2 Scottie Scheffler, who surged up the leaderboard late Sunday after a poor third round, and Viktor Hovland, a top young player from Norway who was seeking his first major trophy. Koepka and Hovland, in the last pairing together, produced an exhilarating final round as they were within one shot of each other for much of the day, including on the back nine.

But Hovland’s dreams fell apart when a failed shot from a fairway bunker on the 16th led to a double bogey, while Koepka birdied — sending the lead from one to four strokes in an instant. That ended the drama on the final two holes, and even after Koepka bogeyed the 17th and Hovland birdied the 18th, it was a formality when Koepka tapped in his last putt for par on the final green: the PGA Championship was his.

The victory solidifies Koepka’s status as an all-time shark in majors, making him the 20th player with at least five such titles. It also reaffirms what he displayed over the first three rounds in the Masters: that after a couple of years when his relevance was diminished due to injury, Koepka is back and still one of the game’s pre-eminent forces in its biggest events — no matter what tour he plays on.

When Koepka won four majors — two U.S. Opens and two PGAs from 2017 to 2019 — he was perhaps the game’s most feared player. With robotic precision, he seemed to have a unique capacity to flip a switch in golf’s brightest spotlights. Half of his career PGA Tour victories were majors.

But over the next three years, he won just once on Tour while he dealt with various injuries that sapped his powers.

“Golf’s so crazy because when you have it, you feel like you’re never gonna lose it,” Koepka said on the recent “Full Swing” docuseries. “And when you don’t have it, you feel like you’re never gonna get it.”

His problems were easy for fans to see on the course, too. A player who had been routinely placing near or atop the leaderboard at the four majors had quickly become an afterthought in them. In 2022, he missed two cuts and finished in 55th in both of the others.

It’s also not difficult to connect his professional downturn and his decision to join LIV last year — especially because it isn’t something he really disputes. LIV, with the backing of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund, offered big-name golfers lucrative appearance fees to play in small, no-cut tournaments with record prize funds. For older players, or others struggling to win big-time prize money on the PGA Tour, LIV’s proposition of guaranteed cash was even more attractive.

Koepka, speaking at the Masters, conceded his decision to bolt to the upstart circuit would have been harder if he had been healthier at the time. “But I’m happy with the decision I made,” he added.

While Koepka prevailed Sunday, there were some nervy moments. After surging to a three-shot lead with three birdies in his first four holes, back-to-back bogeys shortly thereafter narrowed the gap. For much of the final day, his lead over Hovland was just one stroke while world No. 2 Scottie Scheffler got closer and closer on a star-studded leaderboard that included one notable outsider: club pro Michael Block, who finished in 15th place and received the loudest cheers of the tournament. And that was before the pro at Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club in Southern California recorded a hole-in-one that made the galleries delirious on Sunday.

Koepka, though, steeled himself at the exact right moments. When Hovland birdied the 13th to get within one stroke, Koepka faced a tricky par putt that he nailed to maintain the advantage. Then when Hovland birdied the next hole to take a brief share of the lead, Koepka responded seconds later with a birdie of his own to keep the lead.

Then Hovland’s late double bogey opened up the gap. Over the last couple holes, Koepka could just cruise to another Wanamaker Trophy.

The victory has out-size importance for Koepka, owing to his decision to join LIV. The upstart isn’t accredited by the Official World Golf Ranking, which is a primary pathway for gaining entry into majors. Because of that, Koepka and his colleagues are tumbling on that list.

But another way to gain exemptions is by winning a recent major. The championships typically award entry to the winners of the other majors from the prior five years.

That means Koepka won’t have to worry about receiving invitations for quite a while no matter what happens with the rankings. That’s because he’s a major champion once again.

-The Wall Street Journal