‘Major hunter’ Brooks Koepka (USA) won the 105th PGA Championship (total prize money of $17.5 million) and gave LIV Golf its first major championship.
In the final round of the tournament held at Oak Hill CC (par 70, 7380 yards) in Rochester, New York, USA on the 22nd, Koepka reduced 3 strokes with 7 birdies and 4 bogeys and recorded a total of 9 under par 271 strokes, tied for second place Scotty Scheffler ( U.S.) and Viktor Hovlan (Norway, 7 under par, 273 strokes) by two strokes, and won the Wanamaker Trophy and $3.15 million in prize money (approximately 4.15 billion won).
Koepka, who won the 2017/2018 US Open and the 2018/2019 PGA Championship, won a major championship again in four years. Five major wins is a record only 20 players have ever achieved (tied for 15th in most wins), and three PGA Championship wins are the sixth record following Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods (above USA).
At the 2021 WM Phoenix Open (February), Koepka, who had struggled with a knee injury for a while after winning his 8th career victory on the PGA Tour, won his first major trophy at LIV Golf, which he joined in June of last year to find a breakthrough. Koepka, who declared recovery from injury by winning two victories at the 2022 LIV Golf Invitational Jeddah (October) and this year’s LIV Golf Orlando (April), took the lead on the final day of the season’s first major Masters Tournament before losing to John Rahm (Spain). The disappointment of coming from behind and finishing runner-up was washed clean this time.
At the awards ceremony, Koepka said, “I have a lot of things I want to say, but I’m happy to win again in a major tournament,” and recalled the difficulties he had experienced over the past two years and said, “It’s an honor to be on the same page with players who have won a lot in the PGA Championship.”
Koepka, who rose 31 places from last week to 13th in the weekly world rankings announced on the day, said, “This win means a lot to me. Five major wins are also special, and I hope to continue winning more.”
Koepka, who started with a one-stroke lead over Hovlan and Cory Connors (Canada), took three consecutive birdies from the 2nd to the 4th hole, leading by 3 strokes. Afterwards, Koepka, who had a close game with Hoblan by bogey on the 11th hole (par 3), caught a birdie on the 16th hole (par 4) and took a lead by 4 strokes with a fatal double bogey to secure the victory. Schaeffler hit a 5-under-par 65 with 6 birdies and 1 bogey, showing a back-and-forth, but remained tied for second place by two strokes. Schaeffler returned to world No. 1, overtaking Ram, who finished in a tie for 50th place (7 over par, 287 strokes) in this tournament.먹튀검증
Bryson DeChambeau (USA) of LIV Golf was tied for 4th place (3 under par 277 strokes) with Cameron Davis (Australia) and Kurt Kitayama (USA), and Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland), who was ranked 3rd in the world, tied for 7th place (2nd place). He finished with an under par of 278. Lee Gyeong-hoon, the only Korean player to pass the cut, cut 1 stroke with 4 birdies and 3 bogeys, recording a total of 5-over-par 285 strokes, and tied with Jordan Spieth (USA) for 29th place.