Generation of greats: Brooks Koepka joins the golf elite as he wins his fifth major at the 2023 PGA Championship
ROCHESTER, NY — On July 13, 1968, Gary Player won his fifth major championship, the 97th Open Championship at Carnoustie. Since the Player lifted the fifth of nine trophies representing the greatest championships in golf, 20,035 days have passed — almost 55 years. Only seven of those days (0.03% of them) ended with a male golfer winning his fifth major.
Today is one of those seven days.
True history is rarely made in golf. The sport primarily involves a factory of anonymous, unrecognizable players plying their trade in a variety of virtually meaningless events. The harsh reality of golf is that it takes place mostly in secrecy, not recorded by anything but scores, endings, and sometimes money.
Millions of professional golf swings are made each year, and the vast majority — in fact, almost all of them – doesn’t matter at all.
However, on the opposite end of the spectrum, here’s the truth: All 271 shots Brooks Koepka took this week at the 2023 PGA Championship straight to the standard.
That’s because, with wins by two strokes over Viktor Hovland and Scottie Scheffler, Koepka joined a good (and short) list of humour. Since the Player Open 55 years ago, only six men have won their fifth major: Tom Watson, Lee Trevino, Nick Faldo, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods and Seve Ballesteros. Now, you can count Koepka among them.
Fifty-five years — over 200 major championships — and only seven times have one player win a fifth. And we were lucky enough to watch one of those utopias unfold on Sunday afternoon at Oak Hill Country Club.
At 2:29 ET, Koepka paced as if only he could make it to the first tee; he shook Viktor Hovland’s hand, reminding him of the one-stroke lead he held on the last 18 holes. That’s exactly the same position Koepka found himself in April when he led eventual Masters 2023 champion Jon Rahm by two points and then delivered three hooks and a devastating knock to the face. in the next nine holes.
It’s a loss Koepka refers to almost every day this week as he claims to have learned a big lesson at Augusta National, promising he won’t fail if given the same opportunity again.
Failure he did not. Instead, he just delivered.
Koepka hit three of the first four holes while trying to eliminate Hovland as soon as possible.
However, oddly enough, he did not. Bogeys at 6-7 put the tournament in doubt as Hovland held out fiercely with Koepka trying hard. For all of Koepka’s beauty practices, it’s not without foundation; His showers fell on the Norwegians like a pile of bricks. Hovland endured the sequence and somehow got to the 12th tee in the first round and was alive.
But Koepka kept coming.
He launched one of his league-leading 18 birdies (seven on Sunday alone) in 12th place, and Hovland wobbled just a bit. The tournament found its soul in the next 20 minutes.
Tournaments of this magnitude are often won at the most unlikely of times, and Koepka won this tournament on the 13th green.
With the faint smell of roasted onions and the quick closing of the gallery, Hovland scored the birdie and took a difficult step when it fell. On the side of the hole or on the side of his opponent, the recipient does not matter because the message is quite clear: All majors are hard to win, but I’ll make this the hardest one for you.
Koepka was 10 feet above par to keep a narrow lead. Turning away from the largest amphitheater on site and looking down at the green’s throat, chaos enveloped him.
Club expert Michael Block just fly his trump card into the cup at 15th placeand he’s the only name that matters
So Koepka stood on it with the balloon whirring overhead and the tournament wobbling at his feet. It’s impossible for so many people to be silent for so long, but not a single word was spoken. If it weren’t for the hot air balloon, you might have heard his heartbeat.
Koepka finally hit the smallest hit of the day; it never leaves the heart. His reaction to Hovland’s shot: You will never lead this.
Hovland never did. Both scored 14 and both passed 15 before Hovland smashed one into the bunker on the 16th.
You have certainly seen the rest.
They wandered home for the last 30 minutes, and the only question for the engraver was what number to write next to Koepka’s name. The final nine is the answer. It could also be Koepka’s future prime total.
Everyone was focused on punches and turns, perhaps words and manners. I want to talk about the walk.
When you attend a golf tournament and watch the players on the course, 99% of the time it’s watching them walk. You can usually say your name while striding hundreds of yards away. Rory McIlroy’s bounce. Phil Mickeslon’s long stride. Max Homa’s swaying head pointed straight ahead. Dustin Johnson, it was writtenevokes the greasy gait of a wildcat.
Koepka’s gait is often difficult to pin. He walks as if he believes a true athlete should walk — with a swagger and a muscular stance. But it runs deeper than that. He’s not particularly strut, and he certainly doesn’t dance.
No, Brooks Koepka walked as if he were trying to rotate the Earth a little with each step. It wasn’t a particularly quick move, but it was intentional. He walks like he knows you know he knows you’re watching him. He walks like a man who believes that every step may be the only one you see and that that memory is something you will carry with you when you tell your friends about him.
He said he thought about it.
“I have to start walking slower [in these situations] because my stride just wanted to keep going,” Koepka said. “Wanted to be the first to hit the ball and hit it and just play the fastest round of golf ever.”
Lots of people will tell their friends, children, and perhaps even grandchildren about watching Brooks Koepka walk. From hole to hole. From one major to the next.
He beat McIlroy in four big games on Sunday and is now the clear generation’s major champion. In doing so, he went straight into history on Sunday. When asked about pushing the club’s five biggest leagues of all time from 19 to 20 (the remaining 13 clubs had won fifth place before 1968), Koepka had no idea who he was in. Fair enough. The five men in the troupe completed the victory over the Great Depression. Everyone else goes by a name in this world.
- Jack Nicklaus: 18
- Tiger Forest: 15
- Walter Hagen: 11
- Ben Hogan: 9
- Player Gary: 9
- Tom Watson: 8
- Harry Vardon: 7
- Bobby Jones: 7
- Gene Sarazen: 7
- Sam Snead: 7
- Arnold Palmer: 7
- Lee Trevino: 6
- Nick Faldo: 6
- Phil Mickelson: 6
- James braids: 5
- Byron Nelson: 5
- Peter Thomson: 5
- Seven Ballesteros: 5
- Brooks Koepka: 5
Brooks is now among them, “Koepka” is no longer needed. When you reach for this ether, you only need a name.
The more majors you earn, the fewer nicknames you need. And five majors is a lot. It will probably be the most anyone in the post-Tiger and Phil era for decades or more. Remember, in the previous 20,035 days, only six people had cracked the code before Brooks cracked seven on Sunday.
How rare is this kind of history specific? Rare as the men who make it.
“It’s crazy,” said Koepka, who isn’t necessarily a student of the game but is still overwhelmed by the feat. “I try not to think about it right now. I mean, I really care [history]. I think it’s hard to really grasp the situation when you’re still in it.
“Maybe when I retire and I can look back with [wife] Jena and my son and thinking about all that stuff, it’s going to be really special. But right now, I’m trying to collect as much of this as possible. We’ll see how it plays out.”
Fourteen men won six, 11 won seven and only six won eight. Brooks seems prepared to spin those dials as well.
Say what you want about the five-time champion — if the Rochester crowd is any indication, everyone certainly will — but there’s no doubting this fact: Over a century and a half In the past, the big championship golf tournament was held, there were few people who liked him and even fewer people who were better than him. And will rarely have again.
Twenty men have won five or more titles in more than 150 years of golf. Twenty.
It is very little. Five is a lot.
Brooks is so amazing.
Brooks Koepka joins the elite group of tennis players with five major championships. On CBS Sports HQ, Rick Gehman breaks it all down with Kyle Porter, Mark Immelman and Greg DuCharme. Follow and listen to The First Cut on Apple Podcasts And Spotify.
