LIV rebel Brooks Koepka bounced once more from his self-confessed “choke” on the Masters to win his fifth Essential title at a dramatic USPGA Championship.
And he handed Ryder Cup bosses a big dilemma alongside along with his two shot victory from Scottie Scheffler, with a gallant Viktor Hovland in third – cursing a lethal error, when he blasted his ball from the sand into the face of a bunker on the sixteenth.
Brooks Koepka celebrates profitable on the 18th inexperienced in the middle of the final spherical of the 2023 PGA ChampionshipCredit score rating: Getty
Koepka holds aloft the Wanamaker trophy after profitable the PGA Championship golf matchCredit score rating: AP
Koepka and runner-up Viktor Hovland shake fingers on the 18th inexperienced after the American winsCredit score rating: Getty
It’s Koepka’s fifth Essential titleCredit score rating: Getty
Koepka has now handed Zach Johnson a Ryder Cup alternative dilemmaCredit score rating: AP
Zach Johnson and his advisers now ought to decide whether or not or not Koepka should get certainly one of many American captain’s six picks for Rome in September.
The USA Ryder Cup workforce is the accountability of the PGA of America, not the PGA Tour. So their ban on the LIV golfers doesn’t apply to the4 Ryder Cup.
And the PGA of America prime brass received’t take too kindly if their champion golfer is kicking his heels at dwelling whereas Zach Johnson’s workforce bids for a main victory on European soil for thirty years.
Significantly when he has moreover accomplished runner-up on the Masters, the place he admitted he stayed up all night time time cursing himself for his safety-first technique inside the final spherical.
That allowed world No 1 Jon Rahm to wipe out Koepka’s two shot lead and snatch the inexperienced jacket from his grasp.
Whereas he’s at it, Zach Johnson should ponder giving 46 yr earlier PGA Expert Michael Block – the unlikely cult hero of this gripping Essential championship – one amongst his six wild enjoying playing cards as successfully.
Block, who teed off alongside Rory McIlroy merely six pictures off the lead, earned crucial roar of the week with a surprising hole in a single on the 151 yards fifteenth hole.
His ball didn’t even contact the edges as a result of it slam-dunked into the outlet, with a disbelieving Block turning to McIlroy to ask: “Has it gone in? Straight in. Truly!”.
Block was the one certainly one of many 20 PGA professionals who licensed for this event by their very personal nationwide championship to make the decrease at Oak Hill.
He captured the hearts and imaginations of golf followers in all places with the swashbuckling technique that seen him reel off three successive 70s, on a course having fun with brutally highly effective.
Block often earns his residing by giving £120 an hour courses at Arroyo Trabuco, most people course in California the place he has been the highest expert for the ultimate 19 years.
Sky Sports activities actions commentator Brad Faxon summed up his enchantment, saying: “Merely hear these crowds, They merely love him. They’re all contemplating he’s a working class man, an identical to us.
“He might stand for president correct now, and win by a landslide.”
And that was BEFORE his ace!
McIlroy hit a niche in a single on the fifteenthCredit score rating: EPA
Jon Rahm in movement on the ninth inside the final sphericalCredit score rating: Reuters
That Blockbuster almost overshadowed a superb duel for the title between Koepka and Hovland.
After missing out at Augusta, Koepka vowed: “I’ll on no account make the an identical mistake as soon as extra, I don’t ideas getting beat – nonetheless not as soon as I’m having fun with to not lose, comparatively than having fun with to win.”
There was no-pussy-footing this time, as he turned his one shot lead right into a 3 shot profit with a hat-trick of bogeys from the second hole.
At that stage it appeared like ti would present a stroll in the park for Koepka, who has overcome recurring knee points – and an £80millon change to LIV – to recapture the form that launched him 4 Majors in quick succession from 2017-20019.
Nevertheless having fun with confederate Hovland, 25, refused to be intimidated. He made back-to-back birdies of his private at 4 and 5 to cut the deficit to 2, and was only one behind sooner than that cruel blow on the sixteenth, which value him a double bogey.
One of the simplest ways his ball didn’t clear the lip of the bunker was an precise duplicate of the future suffered by Corey Conners when he was essential the match 24 hours earlier.
He did the an identical issue, from the an identical bunker!
Nevertheless take nothing away from Koepka, whose . He really is a Essential-winning machine, and in this mood he might strengthen his Ryder Cup place when he tees it up on the US Open and the Open inside the subsequent two months.
McIlroy’s private bid for a fifth Essential on no account really purchased going, and by the highest he appeared happy useful the limelight to his new pal, Block, who earned a cool £230,000 for a share of fifteenth place – his largest payday by a country mile..
McIlroy’s closing 69 gave him a share of seventh place, whereas Justin Rose’s one over par 71 dropped him proper right into a tie for ninth place.
McIlroy accomplished on 69 and obtained right here seventhCredit score rating: EPA
Justin Rose’s one over par 71 dropped proper right into a tie for ninth placeCredit score rating: Getty