Brooks Koepka claims redemption with victory at US PGA

Brooks Koepka’s self-declared “choke” at The Masters last month will now be rendered an aberration.

Playing to win and not to lose was the difference from Augusta National to Oak Hill and Koepka was not going to make the same mistake twice on this PGA Championship Sunday.

The cavalry charge came but went, and Koepka was unflustered. The valiant Viktor Hovland’s hopes came to an end when he smashed the ball into the face of the sand trap on 16.

Scottie Scheffler posted a superb five-under 65 to set the clubhouse target, but his damage was done on a rain-sodden moving day.

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Barring an incredible hole-in-one from PGA club pro Michael Block, this was the Koepka show, and he eased home with a par at the last to shoot 67 and claim victory by two in Rochester.

“Golf’s so crazy because when you have it, you feel like you’re never gonna lose it. And when you don’t have it, you feel like you’re never gonna get it.”

This rare insight into Koepka’s mind on Netflix’s “Full Swing” told you everything you needed to know about his fears that his place amongst the game’s elite was over last year.

Crippling knee injuries and a crisis of confidence over the last four years meant the 33-year-old had gone from golf’s most feared player to perhaps it’s most disenchanted.

It was the uncertainty during that chastening period in the wilderness which surely induced him to jump ship for the endless riches at LIV Golf.

Yet Koepka won this major with the kind of swagger befitting a player who belongs in the conversation with the world’s very best.

He has now broken free of that misery, and this latest triumph feels more like the start of something than the end.

Whether this inevitable result proves to be as landmark a triumph in the sport’s ongoing civil war as the LIV associates will claim, or is simply a fleeting PR boost, remains to be seen.

With Koepka or without Koepka, Greg Norman still has to persuade fans to wear the colours of his “Smash GC” team, or better still, the Range Goats, in a business model that is unique but precarious.

Koepka will care not.

Whispers over his buyer’s remorse after ditching the American establishment for the Saudi millions seem trivial when the Big Four are still within his grasp.

Because this is a player who knows his career will be defined by major titles and not the tour on which he plays.

Majors are Koepka’s domain and he has now joined Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus in lifting three Wanamaker trophies. More esteemed company in the history books you will not find.

As for the Ryder Cup, captain America Zach Johnson’s stance this week over the prospect of eligible LIV players wearing red-and-blue this September has been befuddling.

Failure to consider a resurgent Koepka, should he not keep his place in the Team USA automatic qualifying spots, would now feel more of a dereliction of duty.

Ben Parsons joined bunkered as a Content Producer in 2023 and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.