Brooks Koepka finished with a 4-over 74 Sunday to win the PGA Championship by two strokes over Dustin Johnson. Koepka claimed his fourth major title with the victory.
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No, Tiger and Phil aren’t in their prime. Ian O’Connor has a response to that: Who cares? A winner-take-all, $10 million grudge match is good for them, golf and us.
GREENSBORO, N.C. — The rounds are starting to repeat for Byeong Hun An: No bogeys, a bunch of birdies and more time atop the Wyndham Championship leaderboard. An shot a 4-under 66 on Saturday for a one-stroke lead after three rounds at the PGA TOUR’s final event before the FedExCup Playoffs. An, who was at 17-under 193, has held or shared the lead after each of the first three rounds and has yet to play a hole worse than par. The 27-year-old South Korean with three international victories has put himself in position to claim his first win on TOUR. “It feels similar to yesterday, to be fair,” An said. “I had some nice shots here and there, but scrambled well today. Another bogey-free (round). I’m quite happy with it — a 66 out here, and I have a lead.” Former Wyndham winner Webb Simpson and Brice Garnett were tied for second, with Simpson shooting a 65 and Garnett a 66. Ryan Armour was 15 under following a 65. “One shot is basically nothing,” An said. “It’s not that big of a lead. It’s just one shot.” Overall, it was yet another low-scoring day at Sedgefield Country Club. For a while midway through An’s round, six players were tied for the lead at 13 under. “I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody shot 8, 9, 10 under, a guy who’s within striking distance,” Simpson said. “I’ve got to keep the pedal down, and if I don’t shoot a low one, I’m not going to win.” An started to get some separation from the crowd with three birdies in the four-hole span from Nos. 5-8, moving to 16 under. Then came his best shot of the day, a 50-foot birdie putt on the par-4 14th. He closed with four straight pars. Simpson — a native North Carolinian who named his daughter Wyndham after his first career victory came here in 2011 — strung together three birdies around a bogey midway through his back nine to move to 16 under. If nothing else, he’s in good position to claim his fifth top-10 finish in six years at this tournament. Garnett made the turn at 15 under following back-to-back birdies, then rolled in a 30-foot birdie putt on the 17th to pull even with Simpson and saved par on the 18th after rolling his third shot from a greenside bunker to within 3 feet from the flagstick. “I was just trying to get the putt (on 17) somewhere around the hole,” Garnett said. “Fortunately, the putt had some eyes and drifted in. Huge momentum going into tomorrow.” Armour climbed into contention with six birdies in a 10-hole stretch midway through his round that put him two strokes back. And Viktor Hovland finished his season-best round with a birdie on the 18th after landing his 150-yard approach shot some 3 feet from the flagstick. He was tied for fifth with J.T. Poston and Paul Casey at 14 under. After winning the U.S. Amateur last year, Hovland turned pro two months ago after tying for 12th at the U.S. Open. “I just try to tell myself that I don’t have anything to lose,” Hovland said. “I’ll be on the Korn Ferry Tour no matter what happens kind of unless I play really well tomorrow, and to be in the spot where I am right now after college, that’s a pretty good spot to be in.” It wasn’t a low-scoring day for everyone, though: Jordan Spieth had three double-bogeys and a bogey during a birdie-free 77 that left him at 2 under for the tournament. It came two days after he flirted with a career-best round, putting just 23 times during his first-round 64. “I putted my (butt) off for two days to be able to be where I was at, and you can’t exactly fix your ball striking in a day,” Spieth said. “It’s just too much to try and force it. So this extra day could serve me really well through the playoffs.”
SOUTHPORT, England – News and notes from Thursday’s first round at The Open Championship. Jordan Spieth and Brooks Koepka were early clubhouse leaders after 5-unders 65 at Royal Birkdale. Rust? What rust? It’s four weeks later. It’s a different course, a different country, heck, even a different continent. Last month had wide fairways; this week, the fairways are tight. And yet, Brooks Koepka turned Thursday into essentially his fifth round at Erin Hills. After tying the all-time lowest winning score at the U.S. Open (16 under) in mid-June, Koepka kept the hot hand with an opening 65 that included a hole-out for eagle from a bad lie in a greenside bunker at the 17th. Though he didn’t swing a club for more than two weeks after winning his first major, Koepka picked up right where we last saw him when he shot 67 on the final day at Erin Hills. “Just fun to get back playing again,â€� Koepka said. “… After taking four weeks off, it’s kind of nice to get back inside the ropes and finally get those competitive juices flowing.â€� Success after a lengthy layoff is nothing new for Koepka. Prior to his first PGA TOUR victory at the 2015 Waste Management Phoenix Open, he had taken nearly a month off. Instead of getting rusty, he finds the downtime necessary to stay fresh and avoid the week-to-week mental grind. “If I start playing four or five weeks in a row, everything just seems to get nonchalant,â€� he said. “… You get to be in the routine and get used to it. And it just doesn’t seem like I’m fully ready to play. If you take some time off and kind of recharge mentally, physically, I feel like I’m in really good shape right now, even with that time off mentally.â€� So what did he do during this most recent break? He went to Las Vegas with a few friends – and evidently had a great time, since he deftly avoided providing details. (“It was funâ€� was as much as he wanted to offer.) He returned home on July 1, missing the gym more than missing his clubs. It wasn’t until the next week that he got back on the course, playing a fun match with his manager Blake Smith. He gave Smith 13 strokes – and his manager needed just 10 to win. If Koepka maintains his current major form, getting strokes may be the only way the rest of the field can beat him. In his last 12 major starts, he has five top-10 finishes (including his win) and five other top-25 finishes. “Look at all the majors that I’ve played … the record has been pretty good,â€� Koepka said. “Anytime you put something on the line like that, I get up for it.â€� It’s a tie game for Justin Justin Thomas is used to wearing a tie. He wore one every day while attending high school at St. Xavier in Louisville, Kentucky. He wore one during his Walker Cup days. So for Thomas, it was no big deal to wear one as part of his apparel script this week at Royal Birkdale. Yet he figured it would be a conversation starter for everyone else. “Obviously knew it was going to get a lot of publicity,â€� he said. “… But I didn’t come here to dress well. I came here to try to play some good golf. And I guess that just happened.â€� Indeed it did. Thanks to an eagle at 17, Thomas finished with a flourish, carding a 3-under 67. Just like four weeks ago at Erin Hills, Thomas appears ready to contend in another major. In that third round at the U.S. Open, Thomas tied a major record by shooting 63 that left him one shot off the lead and put him in Sunday’s final pairing. But he followed with a disappointing 75 and a tie for ninth. Still, it’s easy for him to shake off the high score and concentrate on his third-round performance. “I can think of 63 shots that come to mind before Sunday,â€� Thomas said. “Yeah, Sunday is definitely not something I’m taking from that week. I’m taking the experience of Sunday and the fact that I was there to start the day on Sunday.â€� As for the tie? It will stay hidden inside the closet for the rest of the week. Spieth’s key adjustment The par-4 sixth hole, which faces toward the south, has been the most difficult the last two times Royal Birkdale has hosted the Open. It just so happens that the driving range faces in the same direction. Jordan Spieth used that to his advantage Thursday. Facing an approach shot that was 192 yards to the front of the green and 215 to the pin, Spieth opted for his 4-iron. Normally, he hits that upwards of 225 yards on the range back home in Dallas, Texas. But during his warm-up session Thursday, Spieth’s coach Cameron McCormick brought the TrackMan to calculate how much Spieth would need to adjust his yardage calculations in Thursday’s 55-degree weather. They figured the cooler temperatures resulted in a 10-15 yard reduction. Throw in the wind conditions, and it’s another 20-30 yards. Thanks to the adjustments, Spieth ripped his 4-iron and set up a two-putt par during his bogey-free round of 65. “Because I knew how far balls were carrying from our session this morning, I was able to know how far that ball would carry and then I can trust that,â€� Spieth said. “And that’s the most important thing, because you feel like you’re hitting so much club. You feel like you’re going to fly the world. And then it goes on the front green and I’m 60 feet away. I mis-hit it, it was a good club to get close to the hole. “I thought that was really well done by Cameron, because I didn’t even ask him to. He just brought it out and said, ‘Let’s figure this out, so you know at least when you’re coming into the wind what true effect it’s having.’ And it’s more an effect than anywhere I’ve experienced in the States.â€� Poulter back on track A year ago, Ian Poulter was part of Sky Sports’ broadcast team at Royal Troon. He did not like it. It wasn’t because he doesn’t like to talk. But he’d rather have been swinging a club than holding a microphone. Unfortunately, a foot injury kept the Englishman from making his 15th consecutive start in his national Open. This year, he had to qualify for the Open. Fortunately, one of the venues was his hometown course in Woburn. In front of several thousand fans, Poulter posted a score and then had to sweat out a 45-minute wait before securing one of the three spots that advanced to Royal Birkdale. “I certainly felt a bit of pressure — pressure to obviously make sure I take one of those three spots,â€� Poulter said. Now he’s back at Royal Birkdale. The last time he played here, he shot 69 in the final round in 2008 to finish solo second behind Padraig Harrington. It felt like old times on Thursday, as he shot a 3-under 67. The winds on Thursday were different than in the practice sessions, but Poulter was ready. It was the same kind of wind he played in nine years ago in the final round. On Wednesday night, he took out his old yardage book and adjusted his gameplan. “I almost played a round of golf last night in my head,â€� Poulter said, “and I had a lower score in my head last night than I did today. But don’t we all?â€� Two months ago, Poulter tied for second at THE PLAYERS Championship, his best result on TOUR in nearly four years. He followed that by making six more cuts on his worldwide schedule, including a tie for ninth last week at the Scottish Open. Apparently, he’s found his groove. “THE PLAYERS Championship was a big week for me,â€� he said. “I think that was a huge turning point. And I’m definitely a freer player on the golf course. I can be more aggressive. I can hit more of the shots that I’m kind of visualizing.â€� More playing. Less talking. Poulter is fine with that.
