PGA Championship Leaderboard
In hindsight, Oak Hill GC came out a winner, Brooks Koepka came out the champion.
The difficult tree lined, undulating, tight course, in the posh suburbs of Rochester gave up only 9 strokes to par over 72 holes. Only 11 players broke par. At par 70, it played to 73.11 over the first 3 rounds, and 70.6 on Sunday.
" It's really hard to play 4 rounds under par, and if you do you are usually holding a trophy at the end. If I had done that, that's where I would be this afternoon, instead of going home with second.'' the words of Scottie Scheffler 67 68 73 65 -7.
Those words could have been echoed by many others, including Corey Conners who was T2 going into the final round 67 68 70 -5 but after 3 bogey's on his front 9 and 4 more coming home, his final round +5 75 dropped him 10 spots to a T12 E.
Brooks Koepka opened with a ho hum +2 72, but when the going was at it's toughest on Friday and Saturday he was 7 shots better than the field each day with 66, 66 to pave the way for his 5th major title. 72 66 66 67 -9.
However the brillance of the 25 year old Norweigan Viktor Hovland, who I've been broadcasting and writing about since he was a teen, made it a match over the final 18 holes.
Koepka was running away after 3 birdies in his first 4 holes, But the Norweigan kept it close with birdies to the American's bogey's until the pivotal 16th. His drive found the same fairway bunker that Connors made a double out of on Saturday.
His 9 iron came out thin and buried in the sod face of the bunker. The resulting double bogey 6 to Koepka's birdie 3 was the turning point.
Prize Money
$17,000,000 2nd highest major, US Open was $17.5
Brooks Koepka wins, 72 66 66 67 -9 worth $3,150,000 another major (5th) for the LIV renegade who also led the Masters after 3 rounds in April, before faltering on Sunday, letting Jon Rahm in.
Hovland 68 67 70 68 -7 and Scottie Scheffler 67 68 73 65 -7 both T2. $1,540,000 each.
Canadians
Corey Conners T12, 67 68 70 75 E $365,000
Taylor Pendrith T29, 70 69 74 72 +5 $90,136
Adam Hadwin T40, 70 73 73 70 +6 $46,900
Adam SSvensson T40 70 70 73 73 +6 $46,900
Notables
Rory McIlroy T7 71 69 69 69 -2 $555,000
"I'll look back on this week as proud of how I hung in there, and I guess my attitude and sticking to it, not having my best stuff" He hit only 7 fairways through 2 rounds but improved with 16 over the weekend.
Cam Davis T4 71 70 71 65 -3 $720,000 (notable 65 on Sunday)
Kirt Kityama T4 70 71 71 65 -3 $720,000 (notable 65 on Sunday)
Bryson DeChambeau T4 66 71 71 70 -3 $720,000
Michael Block T15 70 70 70 71 +1 $288,333
(Tied for the highest finish by a Touring Pro at -15 the 46 year old Californian topped his week by dunking an ace at the par 3 15th. He is guaranteed a spot in the 2024 PGA Championship.)
Kazuki Higa 76th in last place, 72 73 77 78 +20 $25,000
Schedules
PGA Tour May 25-28 Charles Schwab Challenge, Colonial Club, Texas
Adam Svensson, Nick Taylor in the field
DP World Tour May 25 -28 KLM Open, Holland
Bryan Angus
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