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Brooks Koepka wins the PGA Championship for third time in six years

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All those injuries that made Brooks Koepka wonder if he was still among golf’s elite were put to rest Sunday at Oak Hill when he beat the strongest field of the year and won the PGA Championship for his fifth major title.

Determined as ever to restore his reputation as the player to beat in the majors, Koepka ran off three quick birdies early, never lost the lead amid a gritty fight from Viktor Hovland and closed with a three-under 67 for a two-shot victory.

He won his third Wanamaker Trophy — only Jack Nicklaus and Walter Hagen with five and Tiger Woods with four have won the PGA Championship more times — and captured his first major in four years.

And to think the 18 months Koepka was so wounded he felt he couldn’t compete, a decision that might have led to him leaving the PGA Tour for Saudi-funded LIV Golf in a shocking move last June after the U.S. Open.

In the Netflix series “Full Swing” that began aired earlier this year, he was quoted as saying his confidence had given way to doubt. “I’m going to be honest with you, I can’t compete with these guys week in and week out.”

Give him good health and a clear head, and good luck taking down Koepka in the majors.

He now has won five of his last 22 majors, a rate exceeded only by Woods, Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Nick Faldo and Ben Hogan in the last 75 years.

Koepka is in pretty heady company just about everywhere he looks. His five majors are as many as Seve Ballesteros and Byron Nelson. Among active players, only Woods (15) and Phil Mickelson (six) have more.

“I’m not even sure I dream of it as a kid, that I’d win that many,” he said.

Koepka looked as powerful as ever and left little doubt about his place in the game with his two-shot win over hard-luck Hovland (68) and Scottie Scheffler, who closed with a 65 and returned to No. 1 in the world.

“To look back to where we were two years ago, I’m so happy right now,” Koepka said. “This is just the coolest thing.”

The victory moves Koepka to No. 13 in the world and No. 2 in the Ryder Cup standings. The top six automatically qualify, and it would be hard to fathom leaving Koepka off the American team. He can only earn points in the majors, and two more are still to come.

Koepka had to share the loudest cheers with Orange County club pro Michael Block, who put on an amazing show over four days. Block made a hole in one on the 15th hole while playing with Rory McIlroy, and then made two tough par putts at the end for a fourth straight 70.

He tied for 15th, giving him a return date to the PGA Championship next year at Valhalla. It was the best finish by a club pro since Lonnie Nielsen tied for 11th in 1986 at Inverness.

“The most surreal moment I’ve ever had in my life,” Block said. “I’m living a dream and making sure I’m enjoying the moment. Not getting any better than this — no way in hell.”

UNBELIEVABLE! MICHAEL BLOCK JUST DUNKED A HOLE-IN-ONE! pic.twitter.com/Qin8FYXFQV — PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 21, 2023

Block charges $125 a lesson at Arroyo Trabuco in Mission Viejo, California. He earned just short of $290,000 at Oak Hill.

For Koepka, his fifth major might have been the sweetest of all considering the scrutiny of his pedestrian play brought on by injuries and his decision to join LIV Golf, where he has won two of the 54-hole events.

A month ago at the Masters, Koepka lost a two-shot lead in the final round by playing tentatively and was overrun by Jon Rahm. He vowed he would not do that again, and Koepka delivered in a major way, just like he used to.

Hovland made it easy for him at the end. Koepka was one shot ahead on the 16th hole when Hovland hit his nine-iron from a bunker that plugged into the lip in front of him — the same shot that stopped Corey Conners on Saturday — and made double bogey.

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Koepka gouged out a shot from the rough to five feet for birdie and suddenly was leading by four shots when Hovland made double bogey.

Scheffler started four shots behind and never got closer than two. His 65 matched the best score of the tournament, posted by four other players on a day that was set up for scoring.

Koepka seized on that by stuffing a wedge to four feet on the second and third holes, and rolling in an eight-foot birdie down the hill on the par-five fourth.

But he drove into the water on the sixth hole and did well to make bogey, and another bogey from the rough on the seventh trimmed his lead to Hovland to one shot.

Hovland pulled within one shot again with a 10-foot birdie on the 13th. Koepka answered with a driver he smashed over the steep bunkers and onto the fringe at the reachable 14th, and after they made pars on the par-three 15th.

Hovland hit nine-iron from the bunker on the 16th and could hear the awful thud of it rocketing into the turf at the edge of the sand. He knew immediately what happened, covered his mouth with a closed fist. After a drop into nasty rough, it took two more to get to the green.

“Brooks is a great player, and now he has five majors. I mean, that’s a hell of a record right there. It’s not easy going toe-to-toe with a guy like that,” Hovland said. “He is not going to give you anything, and I didn’t really feel like I gave him anything either until 16.”

Bryson DeChambeau, who began the PGA with a 66, made too many mistakes in his round of 70. He stuck around to clasp hands with Koepka, two players from LIV Golf who used to get under each other’s skin.

LIV had three players in the top 10 for the second straight major.

Koepka, who finished at nine-under 271, received $3.15 million and the heaviest trophy among the four majors. Nothing felt more valuable than that.

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Brooks Koepka found it again, and now he’s a three-time PGA champion

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The coolheaded man who once nailed the brutal art of clinching major golf tournaments, then seemed as if he had forgotten how, gave a sterling exhibit of the knack Sunday afternoon.

In fact, he gave two.

While Brooks Koepka bolted out of the gate ideally for one how-to demonstration — he birdied Nos. 2, 3 and 4 without detour or mess — he gave another through the rest of a daydream day on a daydream Oak Hill course. He clutched a precarious lead over a booming youngster for a scary-long amount of time without ever letting it go or looking even close to ruffled until he won the 105th PGA Championship by two shots and spruced up some numbers that had looked pretty already.

It took his major championship total from the hefty four that had held firm for four long, trying, injury-addled years and upped it to five, alongside such bright lights as Seve Ballesteros and among only 20 men with at least that many. It made him the only player with that many since 1990 beyond Tiger Woods (15) and Phil Mickelson (six). It took his total of PGA Championship wins to three, more than anyone else in the stroke play era except Woods (four) and Jack Nicklaus (five).

Brooks Koepka wins fifth major title, a symbolic boost for LIV Golf

It even made this 33-year-old Floridian into something of a real New Yorker — it became his third major title on three different courses in this state, counting those Long Island bullies Shinnecock Hills and Bethpage Black. It even made him the first player to win a major while playing on the infant LIV Golf circuit, the Saudi-backed money bonanza.

Beyond numbers, it reintroduced the idea of the largeness of Koepka’s guts, which finished their work after a tap-in on No. 18 and gave way to a gigantic smile. The winner had played the last three rounds in 66-66-67, finished at 9 under par and bested Viktor Hovland, who challenged almost all day long before landing at 7 under, and Scottie Scheffler, who challenged late before also landing at 7 under.

“It feels damned good,” Koepka said after four years without a major title, short for most but perhaps long for him. “Yeah, this one is definitely special. I think this one is probably the most meaningful of them all with everything that’s gone on, all the crazy stuff over the last few years. But it feels good to be back — and to get number five.”

He had a lot to contend with on a day when the loudest booms came from PGA club pro Michael Block’s hole-in-one on No. 15 , followed by Block’s extraordinary up-and-down on No. 18 to snare him a share of 15th place and a spot in the 2024 PGA Championship. But Koepka resumed the pressure prowess that marked his run from 2017 to 2019, when he won four of nine, and he discontinued his odd pratfalls of Sundays, which puzzled onlookers at the 2020 and 2021 PGA Championships and the 2023 Masters . His closing 75 at Augusta National kept him up all night, he said, but also seemed to fuel what happened at Oak Hill, a 7,394-yard course redesigned by Andrew Green into some sort of major fairness museum.

Hole-in-one and fairy-tale finish make Michael Block the star of the PGA

“I’m very pleased with what I took from it,” he said of the Masters. “I’m pleased with the honesty I was able to get into” — especially, he said, in a talk with his best friend and brother’s caddie who, he said, “ripped into me.” It all brought him “back to having a chance every time I tee it up,” he said, a throwback to his soaring confidence of the late 2010s before knee surgery in March 2021 and a long and winding recovery from same.

The conclusion that looked foregone early on and then lost its foregone-ness became foregone again at No. 16, where Koepka stood at 9 under and Hovland at 8 under. It came with a dud. It came with a 9-iron that traveled 17 feet in a fairway bunker and smacked against the bunker wall.

It did not come from Koepka, of course.

It came from Hovland, the 25-year-old Norwegian by way of Oklahoma State who has spent the past three major Sundays around the thick of contention. All day long, Hovland played alongside Koepka and scored pretty much alongside Koepka, usually lurking within one shot while sometimes drifting to two and using some lovely iron play to extract himself from thickets.

Now, just as he looked poised to make his first hard charge at a major title, he whacked one that embedded into the bunker lip, foretelling the double bogey that ensued. “Just didn’t get out of the bunker, plugged in lip, tried to get a drop and made a double bogey,” Hovland summarized with lasting disappointment.

He said, “I felt like I played really solid.”

And he said, “But Brooks was hard to catch.”

And he said, “He’s not going to give you anything, and I didn’t really feel like I gave him anything, either — until 16.”

Sensing the chance to slam the door, Koepka plied his uncommon talent for slamming doors. Having stood over there for a good while as Hovland sorted out the lie and the rules related to the lie, Koepka quickly shipped an approach from 157 yards to 4 feet 8 inches. His birdie would take him to 10 under, and Hovland’s double would take him to 6 under.

The tournament had ended before it ended, and the Koepka approach joined his tapestry of mastery throughout the day. That would include the 163-yarder to four feet on No. 2, the 212-yarder to four feet on the par-3 No. 3 and the 95-yarder to nine feet on No. 4. Then, in his second exhibition on clinching, after bogeys on Nos. 6 and 7 howled at a man who had made only one in the previous 30 holes, Koepka rolled in a nerveless eight-footer for birdie on No. 10, a doubtless 11-footer for birdie on No. 12 and a two-putt birdie after smacking it confidently to the green on the par-4 No. 14.

A par putt on No. 13 might have exceeded all of them for sheer audacity amid pressure because there Koepka’s clunker from 136 yards left him 61 feet from the hole before he hit it past to 10 feet, before he rolled in that 10-footer downhill without any apparent horror.

He had steadied himself again while others wobbled more — Bryson DeChambeau with an even-par 70 to finish at 3 under, Rory McIlroy with a 69 for 2 under, Justin Rose with a 71 to finish at 1 under. He looked again like that imperturbable sort who could only tell of the two years of wobbles that preceded.

“It’s been a long road,” he said of his recovery from a grisly dislocated kneecap. “... I know I seem like this big, bad, tough guy on the golf course that doesn’t smile, doesn’t do anything, but if you catch me off the golf course, I’ll let you know what’s going on.” He had done just that on a reality show where he spoke of his self-doubts, and he said retirement “definitely kind of crossed my mind,” and now he had traveled all the way back to himself, the great clincher.

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Brooks Koepka Major Wins - How Many Has He Won?

The American has one of the most formidable Major records, but how many has he actually won?

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Brooks Koepka is one of the biggest names in golf, shooting to fame with a scintillating run at the Majors from 2017 to 2019. The American tuned pro in 2012, opting to begin his career in Europe until earning his PGA Tour card for the 2014/15 season. 

From there, he went from strength to strength, establishing himself as the game's dominant force, before injuries and a loss of form saw him struggle.

He made the move to LIV Golf, believing he couldn't match the PGA Tour stars due to his struggles, but he came roaring back when fit and confident in 2023.

It's often said a golfer's career is judged on how many Majors they win, so how many does Koepka have? 

How Many Majors Has Brooks Koepka Won?

Koepka has won five Majors, the first four all in a remarkable three-year run in which he established himself as the best player in the world. He captured his first Major at the 2017 US Open at Erin Hills. 

It was an unusually low-scoring affair at America's national championship, as a final-round 67 saw Koepka come from one behind to claim a four-shot victory over Brian Harman and Hideki Matsuyama . Incredibly, he would win his second Major at the 2018 US Open at Shinnecock Hills , becoming the first player to defend his title since Curtis Strange in 1989.

Koepka wouldn't have to wait long for his third Major, holding off a certain Tiger Woods less than two months later to win the PGA Championship at Bellerive Country Club.

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His then survived a late scare in 2019 to successfully defend his PGA Championship at Bethpage Black and capture his fourth Major.

Then came injury, loss of confidence, a move to LIV Golf and insightful appearance on the Netflix 'Full Swing' docu-series before he finally found his way back.

He looked all out the winner at the 2023 Masters before he choked away the lead , in his own words, to Jon Rahm , but he insisted he had found out why and would use that the next time he was in contention.

And that next time came in the very next Major just a month later when he looked like the strutting, confident Koepka of old as he won the 2023 PGA Championship - lifting the Wanamaker Trophy for a third time.

Koepka started the final round at Oak Hill just a shot ahead of Viktor Hovland and Corey Conners but never flinched, carding a three-under 67 to beat Hovland and Scottie Scheffler by two.

He's now just the 20th player ever to win five Majors, joining the likes of the great Seve Ballesteros, Peter Thomson and Byron Nelson in the all-time list so will already go down as one of the best around - and he's not done yet.

"It's crazy. I try not to think of it right now," Koepka said after winning at Oak Hill. "I do care about it. It's just tough to really grasp the situation kind of while you're still in it, I think.

"When I'm retired and I can look back with Jena and my son and kind of reflect on all that stuff, that will be truly special, but right now I'm trying to collect as many of these things as I can. We'll see how it goes."

Brooks Koepka Major Record

Understandably, Koepka became known as something of a Major specialist during his assault to the top of the men's game, and after a down year with injuries he was right back to form. As well as his five victories, he has a number of top-10 finishes since his first appearance at the 2012 US Open. 

In fact, in 2019, he finished in the top-five at all four Majors, picking up one win. He is yet to win The Masters or The Open but has come close at both and will no doubt be keen to add them to his roll of honour and complete the career Grand Slam.

Here is his record in the four Majors:

The Masters Appearances: 8 Best finish: T2 (2019, 2023)

The PGA Championship Appearances: 11 Best finish: 1 (2018, 2019, 2023)

The US Open Appearances: 9 Best finish: 1 (2017, 2018)

The Open Appearances: 8 Best finish: T4 (2019)

A lifelong golf fan, Andy graduated in 2019 with a degree in Sports Journalism and got his first role in the industry as the Instruction Editor for National Club Golfer. From there, he decided to go freelance and now covers a variety of topics for Golf Monthly. 

Andy took up the game at the age of seven and even harboured ambitions of a career in the professional ranks for a spell. That didn’t pan out, but he still enjoys his weekend golf at Royal Troon and holds a scratch handicap. As a side note, he's made five holes-in-one and could quite possibly be Retief Goosen’s biggest fan.

As well as the above, some of Andy's work has featured on websites such as goal.com, dailyrecord.co.uk, and theopen.com.

What's in Andy's bag?

Driver: Callaway Mavrik Sub-Zero (9°)

3-wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2 Plus (15°)

Driving iron: Titleist U500 (17°)

Irons: Mizuno mp32 (4-PW)

Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM9 (50°, 54° and 58°)

Putter: Titleist Scotty Cameron Newport 2.5

Ball: TaylorMade TP5x

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Brooks Koepka major wins: What Koepka has won already

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — Brooks Koepka is chasing his fourth career major title at the PGA Championship on Sunday at Bethpage Black.

Even at 29 years old, Koepka has already put together an impressive resume, and he shines in the big-time events. He entered this week with five PGA Tour wins, three of which were major titles. (He’s of the few players who has more major titles than regular PGA Tour victories.)

At Tuesday’s press conference he actually explained why he thinks winning majors is easier than winning regular events.

“One hundred fifty-six in the field, so you figure at least 80 of them I’m just going to beat,” he said. “From there, the other — you figure about half of them won’t play well from there, so you’re down to about maybe 35. And then from 35, some of them just — pressure is going to get to them. It only leaves you with a few more, and you’ve just got to beat those guys.”

Koepka won his first tournament at the 2015 Waste Management Phoenix Open and won his first major in 2017, when he took the U.S. Open at Erin Hills by four over Brian Harman and Hideki Matsuyama.

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That was the first of three straight major victories for Koepka. He repeated at the 2018 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills and then won the PGA Championship at Bellerive two months later. His second PGA Tour win, and fifth victory overall, came last October at the CJ Cup in South Korea.

If Koepka finishes off the field on Sunday at the PGA Championship, it will be his fourth major title, which would tie for 20th all-time and give him the same amount of major wins as Ernie Els, Raymond Floyd and Rory McIlroy, to name a few.

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Koepka Wins P.G.A. Championship, Vanquishing Demons and Boosting LIV

Koepka claimed his fifth major championship when he outlasted a swarm of stars on Sunday at Oak Hill Country Club near Rochester, N.Y.

Credit... Desiree Rios/The New York Times

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By Alan Blinder

• May 21, 2023

PITTSFORD, N.Y. — Six weeks ago on Sunday, Brooks Koepka did not sleep. He had brooding to do and demons to chase. After everything — the ghastly knee injury, the agony of unfulfilled ambition, the taunts and the splenetic rift in professional golf that he helped personify — he had rallied to a Masters Tournament lead, and then he had fizzled. Collapsed, really.

He ultimately vowed, he recalled over the weekend at Oak Hill Country Club, never to “think the way I thought going into the final round.” On Sunday evening, Koepka found his vindication: a two-stroke win at the P.G.A. Championship, earning him his first major tournament trophy since 2019. It was Koepka’s fifth career major victory, tying him with figures like Seve Ballesteros and Byron Nelson.

“I think this one is probably the most meaningful of them all with everything that’s gone on, all the crazy stuff over the last few years,” said Koepka, who said that he had received about 600 text messages by the time he held a news conference. “But it feels good to be back and to get No. 5.”

The victory made him the first member of LIV Golf , the year-old breakaway league bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund , to win a major title since joining the circuit. And while Koepka’s triumph at Oak Hill may do little to stanch some of the criticisms of LIV — its ties to a repressive government, its disputed intentions, its gleeful instigation of a financial arms race in an ancient sport — it definitively ended the wrangling over whether men who play a smattering of 54-hole tournaments can prevail on golf’s grandest, 72-hole stages.

“I definitely think it helps LIV,” Koepka said, “but I’m more interested in my own self right now, to be honest with you.”

Fair enough, for he silenced the notion, one that seemed a little more off-the-mark after the Masters, that his contending days were done by carding a three-under-par 67 on Sunday, taking him to nine under for the tournament. But this is a 33-year-old player whose results in 2022’s major season looked like this: missed cut, tie for 55th, solo 55th, missed cut. It had been easy to forget that in 2021, the sequence went like this: missed cut, tie for second, tie for fourth, tie for sixth.

By the end of last year, he had a mounting hunch that his recovery was nearly done and that he could, finally, be relevant again. Around January, he has said, he was certain of it.

“He is back to being healthy,” said Cameron Smith, who won the British Open last summer and then joined LIV later in the year. “I think that brings a little bit of internal confidence as well being out there and just being able to do your stuff.”

It did not look that way as recently as Thursday, when the prospect that Koepka would outlast a swarm of stars seemed closer to impossible than even improbable. He had opened this tournament with a two-over-par 72 and, by his own account, was out of sorts and struggling to strike the ball as he wished. He could not remember, he said, the last time he had hit so poorly.

But he was not that far behind because the tournament, the first major played at Oak Hill since a sweeping effort to restore some of the daunting tests that characterize Donald J. Ross-designed courses, emerged as one of the most fearsome P.G.A. Championships in recent decades, often evoking the rigors of the 2008 competition at Oakland Hills in Michigan. Of the 156 players who competed this past week, only 11 finished below par — a departure from 2013, when 21 players finished in the red at the P.G.A. Championship at Oak Hill.

The stinginess came even with the course, with its perilous rough and humbling bunkers, being more accommodating on Sunday than it had been earlier. Smith, Cam Davis, Kurt Kitayama and Sepp Straka all shot 65s on Sunday, running them high up the leaderboard. Patrick Cantlay, who made one of the tournament’s scarce eagles, signed for a 66. Michael Block , whose day job is being the head pro at Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club southeast of Los Angeles, had a hole in one at No. 15, the first P.G.A. Championship ace by a club professional since 1996.

But much of the focus on Sunday was on Koepka; Viktor Hovland, the budding Norwegian talent; and Scottie Scheffler, the No. 2 player in the Official World Golf Ranking. Koepka, his standing shriveled because of his lucrative ties to LIV, whose tournaments are not accredited in the ranking system , entered Sunday at No. 44. (The P.G.A. of America, which organized this tournament, is distinct from the PGA Tour, LIV’s rival.)

Koepka stepped into the first tee box with a one-stroke lead and doubled his margin in short order when he made a birdie at the second hole. He had played the hole to par the first three days, always reaching the green in two shots but leaving himself with long putts. On Sunday, with the pin at the front-right of the green, he needed less than 5 feet.

His birdie putt at the third hole required even less, after his longest tee shot of the tournament at the hole known as Vista, moving his advantage to three stokes.

The sixth hole, a threat to so many players throughout the tournament, loomed. Koepka had survived the hole, a par-4 challenge that the field finished in an average of 4.52 strokes, well enough on Thursday, Friday and Saturday: par in each of the first three rounds. On Sunday, though, his tee shot rocketed rightward into a thick grass in the so-called native area. He took a drop and then, about 191 yards from the hole, struck it onto the green and eventually escaped with a bogey. Although Koepka followed with another bogey, Hovland also stumbled at No. 7.

At the turn, Koepka led Hovland by a lone stroke. Scheffler, a steady-voiced sensation since he won last year’s Masters, and Bryson DeChambeau , the 2020 U.S. Open winner, were three off the lead.

Koepka answered with a tantalizing streak: birdie, bogey, birdie. Hovland had a chance for birdie at the 12th hole, but his tap from nearly 15 feet edged just left of the cup. With six holes to play, Koepka’s advantage was back to two strokes. Two holes later, it was down to one.

But at nearly every major, there comes a moment when one man’s victory appears inevitable. It may not be mathematically buttoned-up yet, but almost everyone knows that the tournament is finished before it actually ends.

On Sunday, the scene for that moment was the 16th hole. It had not been the most hellish at Oak Hill, not by far. Hovland will remember it, though.

His ball in a bunker after his tee shot, he wielded his 9-iron. With less than 175 yards to the hole, he swung and blasted his ball — not onto the green, but into the bunker’s lip. His fourth shot reached the green. A bogey putt missed, leaving him with a double bogey. Koepka, in the twilight of his pursuit for his third P.G.A. Championship victory, made a birdie to lay claim to a four-stroke lead.

“It’s not easy going toe-to-toe with a guy like that,” Hovland, who finished in the top seven for his third consecutive major, said of his duel with Koepka. “He is not going to give you anything, and I didn’t really feel like I gave him anything either until 16.”

Scheffler made a birdie putt at the 18th green soon after to narrow Koepka’s path. Koepka himself narrowed it further with a bogey at No. 17.

He arrived at the 18th hole, which was playing 497 yards on Sunday, with two shots to spare. He tee shot soared and then thumped into the fairway, stopping at 318 yards. The towering grandstands waited in the distance, filled with spectators, as the fairway-lined galleries were, looking to see whether, after everything, Koepka was indeed back.

His next swing lifted the ball onto the green. The applause was rising, seemingly with every step in his march up the steep incline, the kind of incline that would have felt Everest-like to Koepka in the recent past. He knelt — there had been times, he said, when he could not so much as bend his knee — and then approached the ball. He steadied himself and tapped the ball forward.

It stopped, according to tournament officials, about 3 inches short.

He flashed a tight smile, as if to say that, of course, there would be one last hiccup.

He tried again. The ball fell into the cup. He pumped his fist and then embraced his caddie for nearly nine seconds.

Indeed, after everything, Koepka was back.

Alan Blinder is a sports reporter. He has reported from more than 30 states, as well as Asia and Europe, since he joined The Times in 2013. More about Alan Blinder

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LIV's Brooks Koepka wins PGA Championship for 5th major title

Brooks Koepka sinks the putt to earn his fifth major and third PGA Championship. (0:38)

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ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- In the final round of the 105th PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club on Sunday, Brooks Koepka seemed determined to step on the gas early.

He had three straight birdies in the first four holes to open up a 4-shot lead over Norway's Viktor Hovland and Canada's Corey Conners . Then he held on when Hovland and Scottie Scheffler , two of the best players in the world, made their moves on the back nine.

Koepka carded a 3-under 67 in the final round, finishing at 9 under for the tournament to win the Wanamaker Trophy for the third time, beating Scheffler and Hovland by 2 strokes.

"To look back to where we were two years ago, I'm so happy right now," Koepka said. "This is just the coolest thing."

Koepka had warned us: Whatever was going on between his ears heading into Sunday's round at the Masters in April would never be muttered in his mind again. Koepka had a 2-shot lead going into that final round at Augusta National Golf Club. He shot 3-over 75 in the final 18 holes and lost to Spain's Jon Rahm by 4 strokes.

Even Koepka, one of the most confident golfers in the world, acknowledged this week that he choked while trying to win his first green jacket.

"I've always learned more from the four times I finished second than, I guess, the five times I've won now," Koepka said. "I think failure is how you learn. You get better from it. You realize what mistakes you've made. Each time I've kind of made an adjustment. It's more mentality than it is anything. It's not really golf swing or anything like that. You're going to play how you play, but mentally, you can kind of figure things out, and I'm always trying to get better. Just trying to find that different little edge just to poke and try inside my head."

Even after Koepka won at Oak Hill, he was unwilling to share what he had learned at Augusta National.

"I can't give away all the secrets," he said.

Hovland had stayed within striking distance of Koepka until the par-4 16th hole, where Hovland hit his drive into a fairway bunker. His second shot became embedded into the bunker's face, leading to a double bogey and ending his chances. Koepka had a birdie on the hole to take a 4-shot lead.

It was a historic victory for Koepka and the LIV Golf League , the Saudi Arabian-financed circuit that reportedly paid him $100 million in guaranteed earnings to lure him away from the PGA Tour in June. Koepka is the first LIV Golf League player to win a major championship.

Koepka rose from No. 44 to No. 13 in the Official World Golf Ranking. He also is projected to climb to No. 2 in the U.S. Ryder Cup team points standings and seems almost assured of claiming one of the six automatic spots on the team that will compete outside Rome against Europe from Sept. 29 to Oct. 1.

"He's been knocking on the door a lot, and he's been playing some really good golf," said Phil Mickelson , another LIV Golf League captain. "And I think we're all kind of expecting that to happen.

"He's been working really hard, and it's good to see him playing well."

Over four days at one of the most difficult golf courses in the world, Koepka reaffirmed his position as perhaps the best major championship player of his era.

He claimed his third PGA Championship title, after winning at Bellerive Country Club outside St. Louis in 2018 and Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, New York, the next year. He became only the third player to win the PGA Championship at least three times after it became a stroke-play event in 1958; Jack Nicklaus (five) and Tiger Woods (four) are the others.

Koepka, 33, also won the U.S. Open in back-to-back years, at Erin Hills Golf Course in Wisconsin in 2017 and at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in New York in 2018.

According to Justin Ray of the Twenty First Group, Koepka becomes only the seventh player since 1950 to win five majors before age 34: Woods, Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer , Seve Ballesteros , Gary Player and Tom Watson also did it.

"This is probably the sweetest one of them all, because all the hard work that went into this one; this one is definitely special," Koepka said.

From 2015 through 2018, Koepka had a final-round scoring average of 68.9 in the majors. Nobody was better on golf's biggest stages.

Koepka won't say it, but we can assume that he believed he played too conservatively in the final round of the Masters. He came out firing at Oak Hill's pins Sunday after rain from the day before softened the greens.

Koepka made par on the first hole then carded three straight birdies to grab a 4-shot lead. According to ESPN Stats & Information, Koepka was the first 54-hole leader at a major in the past 20 years to start 3 under or better in his first four holes of the final round.

With the pin only three feet off the front and right on the par-4 second, Koepka hit his approach shot to 4½ feet. On the par-3 third, his tee shot stopped four feet from the hole, despite a stiff crosswind. He sank a 9-footer for birdie on the fourth. Koepka was cruising.

"When he gets in contention, he's like a shark when there's blood in the water," Rahm said during CBS Sports' broadcast on Sunday.

"I've always learned more from the four times I finished second than, I guess, the five times I've won now. I think failure is how you learn. You get better from it. You realize what mistakes you've made. Each time I've kind of made an adjustment. It's more mentality than it is anything." Brooks Koepka

Then, just like that, Koepka lost all of his momentum. After Hovland posted consecutive birdies on Nos. 4 and 5 and cut his deficit to 2 strokes, Koepka made his first big mistake. On the par-4, 481-yard sixth hole, he sliced his drive far to the right. His ball crossed over a native area and ended up in the deep rough left of the seventh fairway. Koepka was forced to take a drop and knocked his third shot onto the green. Hovland had a nice up-and-down out of a greenside bunker to save par on No. 6 and cut Koepka's lead to 1 shot.

Koepka extended his lead to 2 strokes with another birdie on the par-4 10th. Koepka and Hovland traded blows on the back nine. Koepka added birdies on Nos. 12 and 14. Hovland had back-to-back birdies on Nos. 13 and 14. Then Hovland made the big mistake on No. 16.

It was redemption for Koepka, who acknowledged at the Masters that he might not have jumped to LIV Golf if his body had been in better shape a year ago. At the time, he was still recovering from a dislocated right knee. Koepka said he fell at home and tried to pop his kneecap back into place. In the process, he shattered his kneecap and ruptured his medial patellofemoral ligament.

"You know, my leg was sideways and out," Koepka said at the time. "My foot was turned out, and when I snapped it back in because the kneecap had already shattered, it went in pretty good. It went in a lot easier."

During the Netflix series "Full Swing," Koepka seemed bruised and battered, wondering aloud if he could compete with the likes of Scheffler and other young stars any longer.

"I'll be honest with you: I can't compete with these guys, week in, week out," Koepka said during a dinner at the 2022 Masters, where he missed the cut. "A guy like Scottie, he can shoot 63 every day. I don't know."

Although Koepka has previously said his "Full Swing" episode didn't provide a full picture of what he was going through, he is glad viewers got to see his softer side.

"That's who I am," Koepka said. "I'm open and honest. I know I seem like this big, bad, tough guy on the golf course that doesn't smile, doesn't do anything; but if you catch me off the golf course, I'll let you know what's going on. Like, I'm happy they got that side, right? That's truly me, and some people might hate it, some people might dog it, but at the end of the day, it's just me."

Koepka's caddie, Ricky Elliott, said Koepka was probably at his lowest point after missing the cut at the Masters in 2021, when he rushed to get back on the course after injuring his knee the month before.

"I've been around and knew how low he was, and I've been to the highest points and the lowest points, and it's just golf, isn't it?" Elliott said. "They're born to play golf. He sort of got his game back, just before The Players [in 2021] and just messed up his knee. After that, I thought he thought he could rush back for the Masters. He missed the cut, probably the first in a major in 25 attempts. He was low."

Koepka said it took him two years to get fully healthy.

"It was a lot worse than I let on to [the media], let on to everybody," Koepka said. "Like I said, I think maybe only five, six people really know the extent of it. It was hard. Cold weather, it was achy. The swelling didn't go down until maybe a couple of months ago. I mean, so that's almost, what, two years? It's been a long road."

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PGA Championship 2023: Brooks Koepka wins his fifth major championship with a closing 67 at Oak Hill

Brooks Koepka celebrates winning the PGA Championship.

Michael Reaves

Byron Nelson, Peter Thomson, Seve Ballesteros … and now Brooks Koepka.

One year removed from making an unpopular decision to leave for the LIV Golf League and battling injuries that seemed to threaten his career, Koepka is again a major champion while climbing into another lofty level in the game with his fifth triumph among golf’s biggest four championships.

The 33-year-old Floridian made three straight birdies early in the final round on Sunday at Oak Hill, lost most of his cushion in the middle while battling with young Norwegian star Viktor Hovland, and then birdied the 16th hole while Hovland double bogeyed. With seven birdies on the day, Koepka shot three-under-par 67 to finish with a nine-under total.

He ultimately won by two shots over World No. 2 Scottie Scheffler, who charged with a 65 on the best day for scoring in sunny Rochester, N.Y., and Hovland, who closed with a birdie for 70.

Koepka becomes the 20th player in history to win at least five major championships. There are five others who have earned five, including Nelson, Thomson and Ballesteros.

"This is increeible," Koepka said in the immediate aftermath. "This is wild. I look back to where were were two years ago, everything that's gone on. I’m just so happy right now."

Of being the company of those who have won five or more majors, Koepka said, "is, honestly, incredible. I'll be honest; I;m not sure I dreamed of it as a kid. I'm just happy to do it in front of these New York fans."

Indeed, this was Koepka's third major victory in the state, following his 2018 U.S. Open triumph at Shinnecock Hills and 2019 PGA win at Bethpage Black.

(Scroll down for live updates)

Beyond the winner, Sunday will be remembered for the incredible performance of Southern California teaching pro Michael Block. Paired with Rory McIlroy, the 46-year-old Block created the single-biggest moment of the tournament when he scored a slam-dunk hole-in-one at the 15th. With the sunshine making the shot tough to follow, Block looked in disbelief when he was hugged my McIlroy and told that the ball went in on the fly.

Block said he’d never made a hole-in-one in competition in his life.

“To make it at that time, on hole 15 with the crowd … was probably the most surreal moment in my life,” Block said to CBS.

“It’s not going to get better than this,” Block said later. “No chance in hell.”

Still, Block needed to par in for his last three holes to finish in a tie for at least 15th and earn a return trip to next year’s PGA at Valhalla. He pulled it off, including an impressive up-and-down at the 18th hole to score 71 and tied for 15th at one over for the tournament.

PGA Championship 2023 live updates:

7:33 p.m. — It's official. With a par at the last, Brooks Koepka is the 2023 PGA Champiponship winner at Oak Hill. He closed with a 67 to beat Viktor Hovland (who birdied the last for 70) and Scottie Scheffler (65) by two shots. Koepka becomes the 20th player to have at least five major titles.

6:23 p.m. — The lead is down to two over Scheffler (who birdied 18) as Koepka goes to 18 after he made bogey at 17 by missing right in the trees and laying up. And he just drilled it onto the right side of the fairay. No way he makes double from there.

6:10 p.m. — This seems all but over now, with Hovland dropping to six under by making double bogey after his plugged second shot from a fairway bunker and Koepka hitting a brilliant approach to make birdie.

6:05 p.m. — Michael Block's incredible week ended, well, incredibly. Needing a par on the 18th hole to finish inside the top 15 and earn an exemption to next year's PGA, Block made an impressive up and down on the last hole, causing the second biggest roar of the day—following his ace from earlier. This is now sure to be remembered as the Brooks & Block PGA.

5:47 p.m. — Our leaders produced way less excitement at the par-3 15th here with a couple of ho-hum, two-putt pars. Koepka (-9) and Hovland (-8) enter the difficult three-hole closing stretch looking like the winner will come out of this group, with Scheffler's birdie putt at 16 coming up wide left.

5:39 p.m. — Just a couple routine-looking birdies at the 14th hole for Koepka and Hovland. The Norweigan chopped it out to seven feet and holes the birdie putt, and Koepka gave his eagle bid a good chance, but it rolled about 3 feet by. He holes the come-backer for birdie to maintain the one-shot lead (-9) over Hovland.

5:34 p.m. — Alpha stuff from Brooks Koepka at the short par-4 14th. He hits driver perfectly up onto the surface before it rolls just into the fringe. He's going to have a chance for eagle—and Hovland is in fine shape, hitting his tee shot into the rough at the front of the green. The 25-year-old's short game has looked really impressive all week ... we'll see what he comes up with here.

5:24 p.m. — How clutch was that from Koepka? He drips his seven-footer for par from above the hole to keep his one-stroke lead over Viktor Hovland, who nailed his birdie putt at the 13th hole.

5:17 p.m. — The chaos after the Michael Block just made the broadcast miss the second shots of Koepka and Hovland on the 13th hole. That's the gravity of what we just saw from the club pro ... we missed shots from the leaders! Koepka just made a pretty crucial mistake missing the green with his third shot at the par 5 ... his approach coming off the green. Oh boy ... and Koepka just used putter for his fourth and that went a good seven feet past the hole. That'll be slick coming down the hill for his par.

Also lost in the craziness of the Block party was Scheffler nearly holing his bunker shot on the short par-4 14th hole ... that would have got him to one back! It's still another birdie on this back nine for Scheffler, who is now just two back.

5:12 p.m. — You can't make it up folks. Michael Block has had the week that every PGA professional dreams about ... playing into one of the final groups at Oak Hill. Somehow, his week just got better. He hadn't made a birdie all day on Sunday, but he just aced the par-3 15th hole! ARE YOU KIDDING?! Literal goosebumps. This guy is an absolute rockstar. And he gets to dap up Rory McIlroy after making the hole-in-one ... GOODNESS!

5:06 p.m. — What a crucial moment this feels like. Koepka hated his approach to the 12th green, thinking it was about to come up short in the bunker ... but it just cleared and left him on the fringe. Then Koepka nails the 15-or-so footer to get back to 8-under—extending the lead to two.

Scheffler hit a fantastic third shot on 13 to about four feet and converts the birdie to get to 5-under ... so he's lurking and just three back. A birdie at the short par-4 14th would firmly put him in the mix...

4:55 p.m. — That was almost an unbelievable par from Brooks Koepka. With that fried-egg lie near the lip of the bunker, he somehow splashed it out to 13 feet ... but his par putt just slides by. Hovland fails to convert on his birdie putt, so Koepka will preserve a one-shot lead for the moment. Scheffler's playing the par-5 13th hole right now, and it feels like he absolutely needs a birdie to have a chance.

4:48 p.m. — Oh boy ... we are the jinx! Right as we typed that this looked like a two-horse race, Koepka's tee shot at the par-3 11th has ended up at the very front of the green with a fried egg lie. That's a really bad break (also a poor shot) ... but he's going to have his work cut out for him here. And Hovland hit a solid shot to the middle of the green, so this lead looks like it will be trimmed again shortly.

RELATED: PGA Championship 2023: Brooks Koepka's final-round rules issue, explained

4:43 p.m. — The lead is back to two shots for Brooks Koepka. What a timely birdie for the four-time major champion—who had been 2-over since the fourth hole. That was peak Koepka right there—he went right at it from 140 yards out and nailed the 8-footer.

Hovland raced his 20-footer about 5 feet past the hole but made a good comebacker to remain two back. It's now looking more like a two-horse race with Koepka putting his foot back on the gas.

4:30 p.m. — Koepka got very fortunate with his lie in the left rough—his tee shot was so far left that it found some trampled down grass where the spectators have been standing. He's able to advance it just onto the green and navigates the two-putt to take his one-shot lead (-7) over Viktor Hovland to the back nine. Scheffler, who just birdied 10 after the bogey on 9, and Bryson are both three back.

4:20 p.m. — Things are getting interesting. After pars for Koepka and Hovland at the eighth, Koepka (-7) pull-hooked his drive on the ninth hole into the thick rough on the left. That'll make the approach to this elevated green quite difficult. Hovland's in good shape, but if Koepka wants to preserve his lead heading into the back nine—he'll have his work cut out.

If Koepka drops one here, that brings a lot of people into this on the back nine. Bryson's at -4, Rose, Scheffler, Conners, Straka and Kitayama are at -3. We might have an exciting back nine, sort of unexpectedly.

4:07 p.m. — Bryson DeChambeau isn't going away. He's just birdied the gettable eighth hole to get to 1-under on his round and just three back of Brooks Koepka's lead. Scottie Scheffler had just birdied 7 and 8 and stood within three of Koepka, but he found the thick rough at No. 9 and failed to convert on a 9-footer for par, so he drops back to 3-under, which is now four back.

4:02 p.m. — It's no shame to bogey the ultra-difficult sixth and seventh at Oak Hill, which is what Brooks Koepka just did. This one will sting for Koepka, though, after a great tee shot up the right side of the fairway ... but our leader found a really tough lie in the greenside bunker. Koepka left his third shot about 35 feet shy ... so that'll lead to his second straight bogey.

Viktor Hovland follows Koepka with a bogey, remaining one back. Hovland found the thick rough on the right off the tee and elected to lay up short of Allen's Creek with his second. He couldn't get up and down, and that'll move him back to 6-under, one back of Koepka.

As CBS' Trevor Immelman just pointed out regarding Koepka, if you had told him he'd play his first seven holes in 1-under par, you'd imagine he'd take it. It probably won't feel like it after the trouble at 6 and the bogey at 7, but he's still in the driver's seat. Though it felt like he might've been running away with it just 30 minutes ago...

3:49 p.m. — Ruh Roh. What seemed like a potential blowout less than half an hour ago is now a legit ball game as Koepka’s tee ball at the diabolical sixth hole finds the junk. After a lengthy debate as to where the ball crossed the red line, Koepka drops and goes on to make bogey. Hovland makes par to reduce the cushion to one and now those at four and three under are back in it as well. That said, first-round leader Bryson DeChambeau at four under shouldn’t be all that optimisti. In the last 17 PGA’s the first-round leader has gone on to win just twice, with Jimmy Walker in 2015 and Brooks Koepka in 2019 the only ones to pull it off.

3:31 p.m. — As Viktor Hovland stands over a lengthy birdie putt, CBS’s Dottie Pepper says, “He needs a touch more pace on his putts. Just half a roll.” The Norwegian then proceeds to follow instructions, his ball reaching for the lip of the cup before stretching half a roll into it to get within two of Koepka.

3:20 p.m. — Talking with Jon Rahm about club professional Michael Block’s play, CBS’ Amanda Renner notes that Block only hits about one bucket of balls a week. Rahm responds incredulously, “God, how much is he beating me by?”

2:53 p.m. — Brooks Koepka stakes his approach at the par-4 second and rolls in the birdie putt to stretch his lead to two. Should he win he will join some heady company of players with three or more PGA Championship wins. The only others are Jack Nicklaus (5); Walter Hagen (5); Tiger Woods (4); Gene Sarazen (3); Sam Snead (3). When talking about playing for history, this is what it looks like.

2:39 p.m. — Victor Perez makes it four birdies in a row and goes from one over par to 3 under and tied for fourth. Perez’s play is emblematic of the fact that even on a difficult course, soft conditions are like raw meat to tour professionals, who have their distances on approach shots very much dialed in.

2:21 p.m. — Trevor Immelman says he was texting with Mike Weir—the only Canadian golfer to win a men’s major at the 2003 Masters—and Weir said he would be glued to the TV today, watching fellow Canadian Corey Conners. Ironically, Conners didn’t return the favor when Weir won, telling the Masters Journal this year that as an 11-year-old he couldn’t bear to watch Weir’s putt to force a playoff. “When Mike had a six-foot par putt on the final hole to force the playoff, I ran out of the living room,” Conners said. “I couldn’t bear to watch it. I was sitting on the staircase and heard my dad let out a loud cheer. I was so relieved. I told Mike that story years later and he got a good laugh out of it.”

2:02 p.m. — And the crowd goes wild! PGA professional Michael Block receives a folk heroes welcome as he introduced on the first tee. Jim Nantz comments on CBS that it is the loudest applause on the first tee all week. Less than 10 minutes later, playing companion Rory McIlroy gets the ovation as he stiffs his approach shot at the first—just the kind of start he needed.

1:53 p.m. — The middle of the course remains a formidable test. After starting out hot throught he first six holes, both Cam Smith and Chez Reavie have cooled off a bit, Smith with a bogey at the seventh—that he was a bit lucky wasn't worse—and Reavie with four straight pars and a bogey on 10. That's not "bad" by any stretch, but it may show us that if the pack chasing Koepka is going to go get him, it might have to happen early.

1:17 p.m. — Much has been made of the changes to Oak Hill before this championship. The course was re-routed, trees were removed , greens were reshaped. To highlight the work that was done, architect Andrew Green tweeted this morning that eight of the first nine hole locations are in "'new' or expanded green space."

12:49 p.m. — They're each (probably) a bit too far back to make a move, but Chez Reavie is three under through six and Cam Smith is two under through three. They started the day out of the mix, but with the weather cooperating, it is clear the course is much more getable than it has previously played this week. Good news for those chasing Koepka later this afternoon. Also good news for Koepka, who posted consecutive 66s in subpar scoring conditions anyway, and could just run away with this thing.

12:19 p.m. — The last two PGA Championship winners have completed their tournament. Phil Mickelson closed his week at Oak Hill, while Justin Thomas closed with a par. If Brooks Koepka closes this thing out later this evening, we may see Mickelson again on the 18th green for some LIV Golf fraternizing.

Another subplot here, Mickelson's longtime caddie, Jim "Bones" Mackay is now on the bag for Justin Thomas. Such has been the case for years now, but this is the first time they've been paired together in a major since Mickelson went scorched earth on the PGA Tour and aligned himself with LIV Golf. This is how the two said goodbye after the round:

11:52 a.m. — Other notables making an early, mini charge include Adam Scott, who just made his third birdie of the day at the par-4 eighth to climb to three over for the championship. He's tied for 20th along with Schauffele and a host of others who have yet to tee off. In the pack right behind them at four over is a group that includes Jordan Spieth and Jon Rahm, both two under early in their rounds.

11:44 a.m. — Here comes Xander! A birdie-birdie start gets Schauffele to three over, nine off the lead but inside the top 20, where he lives at major championships. It's becoming clear that the first few holes are providing an opportunity for guys to get off to hot starts, which should produce some interesting jockeying later this afternoon.

11:10 a.m. — What a difference a day makes. After monsoon-like conditions had everyone wondering why they played the PGA in Rochester in May on Saturday, Sunday has turned into a top-10 day. Temperatures are in the mid-60s as we type and they could get as high as 73 in the afternoon. There is some wind expected, which is just how it should be on Sunday at a major, but these players will trade breezy conditions for sopping wet ones any day of the week.

While most on the course have no chance of winning the tournament, it's worth pointing out that there are some birdies to be had. Surprise, surprise, Jon Rahm has made back-to-back to begin his final round, jumping 15 spots on the leader board in the process (T-42 to T-27). At four over, he's 10 back. Last year's surprise story, Mito Pereira, is also at four over after making birdie at No. 1. The best round on the course belongs to Adrian Meronk, who is three under through 10 holes, putting him at five over, T-36.

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Brooks Koepka’s PGA Championship win is confirmation that he’s back

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Brooks Koepka pulled slowly into the Oak Hill Country Club parking lot at 1:10 p.m. Sunday, arriving exactly one minute after Viktor Hovland, his partner in a 2:30 tee time. Koepka leaned to his right, an elbow atop the center console, and draped his left wrist over the steering wheel of his courtesy SUV. He pulled into a personalized parking spot with signage honoring his 2018 and ’19 PGA Championship wins. He backed up, straightened her out, pulled forward, and put it in park.

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Then Koepka walked the way Koepka walks. Impossibly unhurried. Shoulders pressed back. It’s like he’s never wanted the world to think he’s trying to get anywhere.

For a long time, this walk from Koepka framed so many championship Sundays. He was the one everyone was waiting for. He was the last to arrive. He was the one greeted by a backpedaling camera guy who captured every step as the broadcast cut to a live shot of The Man coming upon the scene.

In recent years, though? We kind of got used to not seeing him.

Sunday’s round with Hovland began in front of a massive gallery, just like the old days. Koepka hit his opening tee shot and there it was, more of that walk. After an opening par, Koepka birdied the second hole, pulled the ball out of the cup and took about 30 full seconds to walk off the green. His tee shot on No. 3 was followed by a stroll pulled straight from a John Woo film.

As he has done for most of his professional career, Koepka did exactly what he wanted Sunday. A glacial front nine produced a 1-under 34. A heated back nine seeing him and Hovland trading blows, competition boiling, sped things up. Koepka’s gait moved him across the land, in control, those shoulders pushed back even further. A 2-under 33 made for a 3-under 67 and, like that, a new sign for the parking space.

Koepka was the 2023 PGA Champion.

I Got 5 on It 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 pic.twitter.com/IqAI0jx7yk — Brooks Koepka (@BKoepka) May 22, 2023

Everything that happened at Oak Hill this weekend occurred according to Koepka’s schedule. It’s been a while since he could say that and, in some ways, it felt appropriate for a player whose road back from near-oblivion rarely went as planned. At the darkest times, it seemed his playing days might befall an end known by an unfortunate company of injured greats. Such a fate would’ve been cruel. He is, without question, one of the finest players in modern golf history. This victory in Rochester makes him just the third golfer to reach five major victories in the 21st century. The others are Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, two others who know what it looks like to go to the brink and back.

After winning four majors in 2018 and ’19, Koepka tore his patella tendon in August 2019 and sustained a hip injury in 2020. Then, in March 2021, a gruesome injury. A slip and fall at home left Koepka on the ground with a dislocated knee. He tried to put the knee back in place, but instead shattered his kneecap and tore his medial patellofemoral ligament, leaving his knee and foot pointing in different directions. A series of surgeries followed, even as Koepka tried to play through it.

All of this added up to Koepka’s career teetering. Is that why he joined LIV Golf and loaded his bank account with all that up-front money? Yeah, probably. We essentially got first-hand proof in “Full Swing,” the Netflix docuseries chronicling the 2022 season in professional golf.

There are some things you can’t unsee, and this was one. Koepka has long been a star with a well-crafted, very exact image. The whole look. All Nike head-to-toe. Custom kicks. Tan. Dimples. Stubble. Biceps. Actress wife. Happy to present himself as cooler than the shmucks on the PGA Tour . Happy to suggest he’s an actual professional athlete, one who just happens to play golf.

The documentary was jarring. Episode 2 focused in large part on Koepka. Or at least this injured, broken-down version of him. The times were dark and the hair was bleached. He was broken, physically and emotionally.

“It’s like, I got a taste of it, right?” Koepka said then of bygone success. “And now it’s all I want. It’s all I want.”

It was unclear if Koepka was questioning just his body, or himself, too.

Sunday evening, standing next to the Wanamaker Trophy, he was asked about it.

“It’s tough — it’s very hard to explain,” he responded. “It’s just, like, you can’t fathom how difficult it is just to get going. I mean, it was a lot worse than I let on to you guys, let on to everybody. Maybe only five, six people really know the extent of it, and it’s just — it was hard.”

That was Koepka’s world for roughly two years. The swelling in his knee only went down a few months ago.

So, yes, whether you particularly care for him or not, this past week is all the more impressive. Koepka began with an opening 2-over 72 on Thursday, saying it was “the worst I’ve hit it in a really long time.” Then he answered with a second-round 66 to jump back in the mix. On a rain-soaked Saturday, a day when only nine players in the field broke par, he posted a second straight 66 to carry a one-shot lead into the final round.

Back in the day, Koepka would’ve been an unquestioned favorite heading into Sunday. But these are different days. Last month at Augusta National, Koepka announced his return to form by leading the Masters after both the second and third rounds. That ended, though, with a fourth-round 75 and a congratulatory handshake offered to Jon Rahm.

“He just hadn’t been in that position for a while and it showed,” said Ricky Elliott, Koepka’s caddie.

Entering this Sunday, it was unclear how much of the Koepka-of-old was still in there.

But that was answered quickly.

After going 1-over on Oak Hill’s front nine over the PGA’s first three days (vs. 7-under on the back), Koepka birdied Nos. 2, 3 and 4 to build a three-shot lead Sunday before home viewers could even settle in for the afternoon broadcast. From there, the pending result already felt like a foregone conclusion.

Well, that is, until the sixth tee, when Koepka opted for driver instead of 3-wood and pumped one into the right marsh. He took bogey, followed it with another, and the door remained open for others.

Hovland was still alive. So was Scottie Scheffler and others. Cameron Smith was blitzing the course and going low. These guys, they’ve emerged on the scene as Koepka receded from it. This wasn’t lost on Team Koepka.

“You only need an average six months out here and, as everybody is right now, guys will just fly by you,” Elliott said. “If you’re not winning, you’re not really relevant, are you?”

Elliott has worked for Koepka since the 2013 PGA at Oak Hill. Back then, Koepka was paired with Woods on Sunday. At one point that morning, Elliott had to nudge Koepka, tell him to stop watching Woods and focus on his own game. All this time later, it was Koepka sauntering around, unbothered.

“I’ve got to slow down,” Koepka said Sunday, describing his style on these stages. “I’ve got to take my time and really just kind of assess things. I don’t think my hands shake or my heart rate gets up. I don’t think about the next shot. I just think about what’s going on.”

This is why Koepka looked unchanged, whether rolling in a birdie putt on No. 10, or leaving a tee shot two clubs short on the par-3 11th, or rolling in another birdie on No. 12. He played his round and often walked alone, leaving a path of well-pressed footprints and dip spit.

With Hovland trying to push into the mix, Koepka matched both a birdie on No. 14 and a par on No. 15. On 16, young Hovland blinked. A drive into a right fairway bunker ended up perilously close to a raised grass front. Roles reversed, Koepka would’ve likely taken his medicine, played it out safely, and hoped to get up and down to stay in the fight. It’s one of the reasons he’s won five of these things. But Hovland? He’s 25. And he swung a full 9-iron, embedding the ball in the bunker wall, then resting his chin on his fist, wondering what he was thinking.

Hovland left with a double bogey. Koepka left with a four-shot lead.

“He is not going to give you anything, and I didn’t really feel like I gave him anything either, until 16,” Hovland said.

And that was that. Koepka closed the tournament with a 9-under 271, two shots clear of Hovland and Scheffler. His win came 1,463 days after his last major win — the 2019 PGA at Bethpage. Back then, Koepka seemed invincible. In time, his body proved otherwise.

Nevertheless, Sunday didn’t end with tears or Koepka breaking down for everyone to see. He mostly played it cool. Some things never change.

That dynamic is, at this point, unavoidable when it comes to Koepka. He’s now the first LIV player to win a major, and it’s irrevocably part of his story.

On No. 9, a fan yelled, “Let’s go Vik! Brooks is gonna choke!” and got a stare-down from Elliott. On No. 13, another yelled “Get in the water!” after a Koepka tee shot, drawing another Elliott glare. On No. 17, a voice beside the green hollered, “Sellout!” as Koepka finished up a bogey.

“I hear it all,” Koepka said. “I just don’t care. I mean, that’s sports, right?”

The lone crack in Koepka’s exterior came on his walk from the 18th green to the scoring tent. An expecting first-time father, the 33-year-old has a lot happening in his life. On his way to sign his card, that’s when it all set in and he swallowed some emotion.

“It was what I accomplished,” Koepka said an hour or so later, remembering the walk. “Pardon my language, but it’s all the f—ing s— I had to go through. No one knows. No one knows all the pain.”

With that sentiment, as only he can, Koepka ended his Sunday.

He’s the sixth player to win three PGA Championships. The others: Walter Hagen (6), Jack Nicklaus (5), Woods (4), Gene Sarazen (3) and Sam Snead (3). The hardest part about Koepka’s play being halted was always that history was being slowed with it. He had every right to be bitter about it.

But now Koepka has somewhere to be. Next, he’s slated for a LIV event later this week in Washington D.C., then the U.S. Open in Los Angeles in mid-June. He’ll get there at his own pace. As of 9:30 p.m. Sunday, that white Escalade was the only one left in the lot.

(Top photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

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Brendan Quinn is an senior enterprise writer for The Athletic. He came to The Athletic in 2017 from MLive Media Group, where he covered Michigan and Michigan State basketball. Prior to that, he covered Tennessee basketball for the Knoxville News Sentinel. Follow Brendan on Twitter @ BFQuinn

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2024 PGA Championship odds, field: Surprising PGA picks from golf model that has won 11 majors

Sportsline's proven model simulated the pga championship 2024 10,000 times and revealed its pga golf picks for valhalla golf club.

Brooks Koepka became just the fourth golfer in PGA Championship history to win the tournament three times over a six-year stretch after emerging victorious last year. He joined Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus as the only players to do so since 1930. Koepka now will try to become the first golfer since Woods to win the event back-to-back years when the 2024 PGA Championship tees off from Valhalla Golf Club on Thursday, May 16. Koepka finished 15th the last time the PGA Championship was held at Valhalla Golf Club in 2014 and is 16-1 in the 2024 PGA Championship odds after finishing 45th at the Masters. Should you include Koepka in 2024 PGA Championship bets due to his dominance?

Scottie Scheffler is the 4-1 favorite in the 2024 PGA Championship field after winning his second green jacket and Jon Rahm follows at 9-1 in the latest PGA Championship 2024 odds. Before locking in any 2024 PGA Championship picks of your own, entering PGA DFS lineups on sites like DraftKings or FanDuel, or finalizing PGA Championship props and PGA Championship Pick Six entries, be sure to see the 2024 PGA Championship golf predictions and projected leaderboard from the proven computer model at SportsLine .

Our proprietary model, built by DFS pro Mike McClure, has been red-hot since the PGA Tour resumed in June of 2020. In fact, the model is up almost $10,000 on its best bets since the restart, nailing tournament after tournament.

McClure's model correctly predicted Scottie Scheffler would finish on top of the leaderboard at the 2024 Masters, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and The Players Championship this season. McClure also included Hideki Matsuyama in his best bets to win the 2024 Genesis Invitational. That bet hit at +9000, and for the entire tournament, McClure's best bets returned nearly $1,000.

The model also predicted Jon Rahm would be victorious at the 2023 Sentry Tournament of Champions and The American Express. At the 2023 Masters, the model was all over Rahm's second career major victory heading into the weekend. Rahm was two strokes off the lead heading into the third round, but the model still projected him as the winner. It was the second straight Masters win for the model, which also nailed Scheffler winning in 2022.

In addition, McClure's best bets included Nick Taylor (70-1) winning the 2023 RBC Canadian Open, Jason Day (17-1) winning outright at the 2023 AT&T Byron Nelson, and Rickie Fowler (14-1) finishing on top of the leaderboard at the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic.

This same model has also nailed a whopping 11 majors entering the weekend and hit the Masters three straight years. Anyone who has followed it has seen massive returns.

Now with the PGA Championship 2024 field taking shape, SportsLine simulated the tournament 10,000 times, and the results were surprising. Head to SportsLine now to see the projected leaderboard.

Top 2024 PGA Championship predictions 

One major surprise the model is calling for at the 2024 PGA Championship: Brooks Koepka, a three-time PGA champion and one of the favorites, stumbles and doesn't even crack the top 10. Koepka has five major tournament wins on his resume and a reputation for elevating his level of play in big events. However, his last two major starts haven't gone well as he was 45th at the Masters, which followed a 64th-place finish at last year's Open Championship. He's failed to shoot par in each of his last seven rounds at major tournaments.

After notching three tournament wins in 2023, including last year's PGA Championship, it has been tough sledding for Koepka in 2024. He has no victories, or even top-fives, and across his six starts, he has three times as many finishes outside the top 25 (three) as he has inside the top 10 (one). He played Valhalla at the 2014 PGA Championship and finished in a tie for 15th place, but that placement ranks just eighth out of his 11 career PGA Championship starts.

Another surprise: Bryson DeChambeau, a 30-1 longshot, makes a strong run at the title. He's a target for anyone looking for a huge payday. DeChambeau was the Round 1 leader at this year's Masters after shooting a 65 and was tied for the top spot Saturday morning after Friday's cut. However, DeChambeau tailed off over the final two rounds and finished sixth. DeChambeau showcased his strength with the second-longest average drives at the Masters (316.1 yards) to put himself in positions for birdies.

DeChambeau had eight birdies on Par 4s at the Masters, with only two golfers having more than him over the tournament. DeChambeau finished fourth for the second time over his last three PGA Championships last season and is a proven major winner, taking the 2020 U.S. Open. DeChambeau won three PGA Tour events in 2018 as a younger golfer and hasn't lost much power in his driver. Given his strong all-around showing at the Masters and finishing eighth or better in five of his last 13 major events, the model projects value at 30-1 odds to include DeChambeau in 2024 PGA Championship bets.  See who else to pick here .

How to make 2024 PGA Championship picks

The model is also targeting three other golfers with odds of 25-1 or longer to make a strong run at the title. Anyone who backs these longshots could hit it big. You can only see the model's picks here .

Who will win the 2024 PGA Championship, and which longshots will stun the golfing world? Check out the PGA Championship 2024 odds below and then visit SportsLine to see the projected PGA Championship leaderboard, all from the model that's nailed 11 golf majors, including the last three Masters .

2024 PGA Championship odds, field

Get full 2024 PGA Championship picks, best bets, and predictions here.

Scottie Scheffler 4-1 Jon Rahm 9-1 Rory McIlroy 10-1 Ludvig Aberg 16-1 Brooks Koepka 16-1 Xander Schauffele 18-1 Viktor Hovland 20-1 Patrick Cantlay 20-1 Wyndham Clark 20-1 Cameron Smith 22-1 Joaquin Niemann 22-1 Collin Morikawa 25-1 Sam Burns 25-1 Max Homa 25-1 Matt Fitzpatrick 28-1 Tom Kim 28-1 Jordan Spieth 30-1 Bryson DeChambeau 30-1 Tony Finau 30-1 Dustin Johnson 30-1 Justin Thomas 33-1 Hideki Matsuyama 35-1 Jason Day 35-1 Cameron Young 35-1 Tommy Fleetwood 40-1 Rickie Fowler 45-1 Min Woo Lee 50-1 Sungjae Im 50-1 Shane Lowry 50-1 Tyrrell Hatton 50-1 Brian Harman 55-1 Corey Conners 60-1 Patrick Reed 65-1 Justin Rose 65-1 Russell Henley 65-1 Sahith Theegala 65-1 Keegan Bradley 75-1 Adam Scott 80-1 Talor Gooch 90-1 Gary Woodland 100-1 Kurt Kitayama 100-1 Daniel Berger 100-1 Louis Oosthuizen 125-1 Tiger Woods 125-1 Si Woo Kim 125-1 Keith Mitchell 125-1 Thomas Pieters 125-1 Abraham Ancer 125-1 J.T. Poston 125-1 Sepp Straka 125-1 Mito Pereira 150-1 Harris English 150-1 Phil Mickelson 150-1 Ryan Fox 150-1 Adam Hadwin 150-1 Sergio Garcia 150-1 Seamus Power 175-1 Denny McCarthy 175-1 Robert MacIntyre 175-1 Christiaan Bezuidenhout 175-1 Davis Riley 175-1 Aaron Wise 175-1 Marc Leishman 175-1 Billy Horschel 200-1 Harold Varner III 200-1 Jason Kokrak 200-1 Mackenzie Hughes 225-1 Francisco Molinari 225-1 Joel Dahmen 250-1

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Where does 9-over rank for five-time major champion Brooks Koepka in his Masters career?

Turns out Trump National Doral wasn't such a great Masters tune-up for Brooks Koepka.

Koepka talked about honing his game at the LIV event last weekend, saying the entire week was about checking off the final boxes of his preparation for the year's first major.

Koepka may need another strategy next year.

After finishing tied for second in 2023, Koepka, 33, had his worst week at Augusta National Golf Course, other than missing the cut in 2022. The Jupiter resident finished at 9-over 297, four shots higher than his previous worst score. He finished with a 75 Sunday after rounds of 73, 73, 76.

The five-time major champion, who continues to chase his first green jacket, was tied for 45th.

More: Jupiter's Brooks Koepka believes he will win a lot more majors. But how many?

After carding a 65, 67 in 2023 - and at one time leading by five shots - Koepka now has been over par for six consecutive rounds at August National Golf Club. He carded his two highest scores of his Masters career this weekend: 75 (his fourth time) and 76, which occurred one other time, the third round in 2016.

Koepka's fifth major came at last year's PGA Championship at Oak Hill. He will attempt to defend his title next month at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville. He has won the PGA Championship three times.

Tom D'Angelo is a senior sports columnist and golf writer for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at [email protected].

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2024 LIV Golf Singapore schedule, field of players, teams, prize money, purse, live stream, TV schedule

Liv golf embarks on its second tournament in as many weeks.

Following yet another successful event in Australia, LIV Golf is back at it again this week in Singapore. LIV Golf Singapore marks the second time in as many years that the 54-hole circuit will travel to the country, and it represents the league's final event before the second major championship of the season, the PGA Championship.

It will be at Valhalla in two weeks' time that Smash GC's captain, Brooks Koepka, will defend his Wanamaker Trophy. The five-time major champion has not experienced the fast start that he saw in 2023 before winning at Oak Hill, but he may have showed signs of things to come with a quality outing at last week's LIV Golf Adelaide.

Koepka hopes to build on the momentum he garnered at The Grange ahead of his major defense. Meanwhile, Cameron Smith's Ripper GC proved victorious in a playoff over Louis Oosthuizen's Stinger GC in the league's first-ever team playoff. The all-Australian squad scored their first victory together on home soil and aim to keep a good thing going this week.

Meanwhile, two-time major champion, Jon Rahm, continues to flash form but is without an individual crown to show for it. The world No. 5 is getting himself in position and is among the favorites to take home the trophy before eyeing his third different major championship.

Torque GC's Joaquin Niemann remains in fine form, as does Crushers GC's Bryson DeChambeau. Dustin Johnson will look to lean on his teammate, Patrick Reed, with their 4 Aces are sinking down the season-long standings with only six tournaments to go.

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PGA Championship picks 2024: The 13 best bets to win at Valhalla

S cottie Scheffler has reached favorite status we haven't seen since prime Tiger Woods as we head into the second men's major of the year, the 2024 PGA Championship. So should we even bother breaking down anyone else's odds of winning Glory's Valhalla's last shot? Probably not, but we will anyway.

RELATED: Get ready to see this PGA Championship hero again at Valhalla

After all, Scheffler's number is so low that it makes plenty of other golfers tempting. So despite the fact that it feels like we're heading toward an inevitable Scottie victory, here's a look at our weekly ranking/rundown of the best bets (odds via DraftKings) available.

Reason to pick: Did you see the Masters? First major championship start and he was tied for the lead heading to the back nine on Sunday at Augusta National. This guy has multiple majors written all over him.

Cause for concern: As long as Valhalla's patrons fans don't knock his food out of his hands.

Reason to pick: All he does is win or contend in big events. He's won three in the past year and he's finished runner-up to Scheffler in two already this year. So at SEVEN times the odds of Scheffler, that's crazy value.

Cause for concern: Can he overcome Scheffler down the stretch? Speaking of …

Jared C. Tilton

Reason to pick: It seems crazy to put someone with odds this low this high in the ranking, but the World No. 1 is on a historic run right now. And I'm kicking myself for not just betting him every week this season.

Cause for concern: He will not be as well-rested if his wife has their first child before the tournament.

Streeter Lecka/PGA of America

Reason to pick: The defending champ! And a man going for a fourth Wanamaker Trophy! Not much not to like when Koepka plays these PGA setups. He even finished T-15 here way back in 2014.

Cause for concern: Will he be too distracted by his beloved "Ps" making a Stanley Cup run?

Reason to pick: He's just really, really good at all aspects of the game. And he never seems to have a bad week as evidenced by his current PGA Tour-leading 45-tournament cut streak.

Cause for concern: For whatever reason, that "really, really good" hasn't been good enough when it comes to winning a major. But I'm sticking with him.

Michael Reaves

Reason to pick: We're going to call that lackluster Masters performance a blip. He was the defending champ, and it was his first time mingling with PGA Tour folk again.

Cause for concern: Then again, he looked pretty miserable and didn't play well at a course he's owned.

Reason to pick: DeChambeau certainly had everyone's attention at the Masters as he shared the 36-hole lead before cooling off over the weekend as scores went up. He should like playing an easier Valhalla course even better.

Cause for concern: Not much concern, just wish he was still being put in that 40- to 50-to-1 range by oddsmakers.

Reason to pick: With a playoff loss in this event two years ago, Zalatoris has flashed that form at times this season in his return from back surgery last year.

Cause for concern: That being said, he hasn't been nearly as consistent since the surgery.

Lintao Zhang

Reason to pick: So my 55-to-1 Masters ticket on this guy didn't work out, but he still seems primed for a major breakthrough after winning the first two LIV events of the season and receiving a special invite to Valhalla.

Cause for concern: Given LIV's sporadic schedule, those two wins seem like a long (long) time ago.

Andrew Redington

Reason to pick: After a slow start to the season (for him), McIlroy picked up his first PGA Tour title of the year at the Zurich.

Cause for concern: Then again, that was a team event with Ryder Cup buddy Shane Lowry. And now he probably has "Don't Stop Believin'" stuck in his head.

Reason to pick: The reigning FedEx Cup champ was also last year's runner-up to Koepka at the PGA. A year ago—heck, a few months ago—18-to-1 odds would have been considered a steal.

Cause for concern: Hovland hasn't kept the momentum he had at the end of last season in large part because of his iron play and a change in coaches . He's fallen from 11th in strokes gained/approach to out side the top 100 in 2024.

Kevin C. Cox

Reason to pick: This guy doesn't win often, but when he does, he prefers winning PGA Championships. Also, the Louisville native is playing a home game.

Cause for concern: That oddly timed breakup with caddie Jim "Bones" Mackay ahead of the Masters. That being said, JT finished T-5 at Hilton Head with his new looper. Also, the Louisville native is playing a home game (with the pressure that comes with that).

David Cannon

Reason to pick: After having a notoriously bad record in major championships his first few years on tour, Homa has really picked it up with his first two top-10s in his last two starts, including a T-3 at the Masters.

Cause for concern: Is Valhalla too much of a "bomber's" course for a guy who only ranks 86th in distance and 111th in strokes gained: off-the-tee?

RELATED: Tony Romo reveals 'insane' Scottie Scheffler stat

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Brendan Steele wins LIV Golf Adelaide tournament from fast-finishing Louis Oosthuizen

Individual Champion Brendan Steele of HyFlyers GC poses with the trophy after the final round of LIV Golf Adelaide at the Grange Golf Club on Sunday, April 28, 2024, in Adelaide, Australia. (Chris Trotman/LIV Golf via AP)

Individual Champion Brendan Steele of HyFlyers GC kisses the trophy after the final round of LIV Golf Adelaide at the Grange Golf Club on Sunday, April 28, 2024, in Adelaide, Australia. (Chris Trotman/LIV Golf via AP)

Brendan Steele of HyFlyers GC hits his shot from the third tee during the final round of LIV Golf Adelaide at the Grange Golf Club on Sunday, April 28, 2024, in Adelaide, Australia. (Chris Trotman/LIV Golf via AP)

Brendan Steele of HyFlyers GC hits his shot from the first tee during the final round of LIV Golf Adelaide at the Grange Golf Club on Sunday, April 28, 2024, in Adelaide, Australia. (Chris Trotman/LIV Golf via AP)

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ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) — Three-time PGA Tour winner Brendan Steele held off a fast finishing Louis Oosthuizen to win the LIV Golf Adelaide tournament at The Grange Golf Club by one stoke.

The 41-year-old Steele shot a final round 68 Sunday for a 54-hole total of 18-under 198 to earn his first victory since he won his second Safeway Open in 2017 on the PGA Tour.

Steele had a streak of five consecutive birdies early in the round, before some putting jitters appeared in his back nine to open the door for a fast finishing pack of challenges including Oosthuizen, and former previous Masters winners Charl Schwartzel (64) and Jon Rahm (64).

“Yeah, I was telling myself that I knew there was going to be hard moments today regardless of the result and that I just needed to get back in there and start playing with freedom again,” Steele said moments after winning.

“And, and I was able to hit some good shots after that and write the show.”

South Africa’s Oosthuizen shot 65 to finish second at 17-under 199, and had drawn within one stroke of Steele late in Sunday’s final round, only for the American to make some clutch pars in the final holes to clinch victory.

Oosthuizen’s compatriot Schwartzel and Rahm were among a group of five players at 16-under 200, with Joaquin Niemann (66), Andy Ogletree (65) and Dean Burgmester (67) in a tie for third.

Former world No.1 Rahm had an eagle and six birdies in his 8-under 64 but had left too much ground to catch up on Steele on the final day to capture his first title since joining the LlV tour in December.

Last year’s winner Talor Gooch shot 70 and finshed in a tie for 26th at 10-under.

Some of the LIV Golf’s biggest names were also off the pace this week, including Brooks Koepka (nine-under), Dustin Johnson (nine-under), Phil Mickelson (seven-under) and Sergio Garcia (six under).

Australian team Ripper GC, led by local favorite Cameron Smith, with Marc Leishman, Matt Jones and Lucas Herbert, won the teams format on the second playoff hole against the South African-based team, Stingers GC, to the delight of another large and boisterous crowd at The Grange course on Sunday.

The LIV tour remains in the Asia region next week for the May 3-5 Singapore event at the Sentosa Golf Club. Then there’s a month-long break before resuming in Houston from June 7-9.

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The PGA Tour stops in McKinney, Texas, this week for the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, a name that doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.

This will be the fourth time TPC Craig Ranch has hosted this event and each of the first three turned into birdie-fests. 

The winning scores in the previous three have been -23, -25 and -26, so golfers will need to make a lot of birdies in order to contend this week. 

The course is a par-71 that measures more than 7,400 yards. It features tree-lined fairways and water hazards on 13 of the 18 holes. 

You would think that would translate into a difficult test for the pros, but that hasn’t been the case. It has played as one of the five easiest courses on the tour in each of the last three years. 

Wind and rain are in the forecast, so perhaps it won’t be so forgiving this time. 

Given the length of the course, it certainly doesn’t hurt to have some distance off the tee. There are very few wedges used at this event, as 70% of approach shots in 2023 came from at least 150 yards. 

Golfers who have good proximity numbers with their mid and long irons will have a significant advantage this week getting onto the large bentgrass greens. 

Course history has not been very predictable at this event, so don’t hesitate looking at golfers who have never played at TPC Craig Ranch. 

At the end of the day, this week will be all about making birdies. 

Top odds to win the CJ Cup Byron Nelson

Cj cup byron nelson best bets, si woo kim to win (+1800, betrivers ).

Kim has struggled on the greens this year but has still managed to make the cut in all 11 of the events he has started.

He has gained at least 5.7 tee-to-green strokes in six of his last eight starts, which puts him up there with the best in the field over that timeframe.

He’s a good total driver of the ball, excellent on approach, and he has been terrific around the green this season.

He’s one good putting week away from capturing his fifth PGA Tour title. I could see it coming this week since he finished second at last year’s event. 

Adam Scott to win (+2500, BetMGM )

If you just look at Scott’s finishes, he appears to be having a very consistent year, but his strokes-gained metrics in his game log are all over the place.

He’ll gain off the tee and around the green one week and he’ll gain on approach and on the green the next week.

The way I see it, he just needs all parts of his game to fire on the same week and he’ll find himself back in contention.

I like the number that we are getting in this weak field and the fact that he’s finished T32 and T8 in his two starts at this event. 

Nate Lashley top 40 (+125, bet365 )

My model always seems to love Lashley. For what it’s worth, he’s come through more often than not this year.

If you look at his statistics, he’s above the field average in all four of the strokes-gained metrics.

You might see a lot of missed cuts in his game log, but they have almost all been by one or two strokes.

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On a strokes gained basis, he’s actually having a very good year.

He’s finished in the top 25 at this event in each of the last two years, and we are getting +160 on him to finish in the top 40 this week. 

Peter Kuest top 20 (+330, FanDuel )

Kuest burst onto the scene last summer and rattled off a number of top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour. Eventually, he ran out of sponsor’s exemptions and failed to secure his tour card for this season.

However, he has played well on the Korn Ferry Tour and got an invite to play in the Corales event a couple of weeks ago. He finished in the top 10 and earned himself a spot in this field.

He’s a bomber off the tee and can make birdies in bunches. He played here last year and finished T14.

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