Scotland’s David Law produced a “pretty unbelievable” second round to lie a shot off the halfway lead in the Porsche European Open in Hamburg.

Law tamed a 7,455-yard course known as the Green Monster as he fired an eagle and eight birdies in a seven-under-par 66, a nine-shot improvement on his opening 75.

That drew high praise from the man at the top of the leaderboard, Germany’s Max Kieffer adding a 71 to his opening 69 to reach six under par, a shot ahead of Law, England’s Jordan Smith and Northern Ireland’s Tom McKibbin.

“First of all, seven under is pretty unbelievable,” Kieffer said when told of Law’s score. “That’s a crazy round of golf.

“It’s playing quite long, even though it’s a bit shorter this year than the last few years. There’s lots of water, the greens are quite undulated.

“If you hit a loose shot here and there, usually on every hole there’s a bit of trouble. It’s a very tough course.”

Law could easily have gone even lower than 66 after starting on the back nine and following six birdies in his first eight holes with an eagle on the par-five 18th to be out in 30.

A bogey on the second halted his momentum and although he birdied the fourth and seventh, Law bogeyed his last two holes of the day.

“I went out there just trying to play golf and make birdies and score as low as I can,” the 32-year-old said. “The brakes came on a bit on the back nine, but it’s a difficult course, it’s tough.

“The goal is to keep doing what we were doing. I tried hard on the back nine to keep in the present and make birdies like we were, but it didn’t happen. Barring the last two holes we played really nice on that second nine.”

Arguably the shot of the day belonged to Law’s compatriot Ewen Ferguson, who putted out of a bunker on the 14th and holed from 25 feet for birdie.

“The sand is very firm and compact,” Ferguson said after a 72 left him three off the lead.

“It was a narrow green and I thought if I didn’t get the strike right (with a sand wedge) it could have trickled into the water or I had to go left of the pin.

“I thought I’d putt it and it rolled nicely didn’t it? I’ve never had that before. You just have to go for it and see what happens. Just smash it out and get lucky.”

Rory McIlroy bounced back from the nightmare finish to his opening round on day two of the prestigious Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village.

Just two days after tournament host Jack Nicklaus had lamented McIlroy’s occasional lapses in concentration, the four-time major winner carded a triple bogey on the 18th to card a level-par 72.

“I don’t know whether his is a constant lack of being able to keep that concentration for the whole thing or not, because sometimes he (goes) par, par, par, double, eight,” Nicklaus said in his pre-event press conference.

“He does that sometimes.”

It was not an eight on Thursday but a nevertheless destructive seven on the par-four 18th, where his drive finished in deep rough on a steep side slope.

McIlroy could only hack his ball almost sideways into more rough and he caught a flier with his third before taking four shots to get down from the back of the green.

“I felt good about everything that I did yesterday,” McIlroy said after carding six birdies and two bogeys in a second round of 68.

“I got one bad break on 18 with that ball finishing on the bank of the bunker. So I really feel like I’m one shot out of leading this golf tournament.

“(If) that rolls down into the bunker, hopefully I’m able to hit it on the green and make a four and instead of standing here at four under I would be at seven under and feeling really good about everything.

“I felt like I did a lot of really good things yesterday and I did a lot of good things right, so I can’t let that one sort of unlucky break sort of hide the fact that everything else was working pretty well.”

At four under par McIlroy was three shots off the early clubhouse lead held by Hideki Matsuyama, the former Masters champion carding a superb bogey-free 65 to lead by one from Patrick Cantlay and David Lipsky.

Englishman Matt Wallace is one stroke behind leader Davis Riley after the first day of the PGA Memorial Tournament on Thursday, on a hot day in Dublin, Ohio.

Wallace, who has one PGA tour win, had a strong start to the tournament, hitting six birdies and two bogeys to finish the day with 68 and four under.

Fellow countryman Danny Willett was a stroke behind Wallace, finishing tied in  third with seven others.

Willett, 35, who also has one PGA tour victory to his name, hit four birdies, an eagle and three bogeys to finish on three under par at Muirfield Village Golf Course.

Irishman Shane Lowry finished the day tied with Willett, after he had five consecutive birdies, alongside Jordan Spieth and David Lipsky.

Leader Davis Riley played the conditions well and is hoping to win his second PGA tour title, hitting just one bogey and six birdies to finish on five under.

Rory McIlroy finished even for the day with a triple bogey on the last hole undoing his good work during the day.

He finished tied in 33rd place after hitting four birdies before the last hole.

World number one Scottie Scheffler had his highest opening round since October 2021, finishing on two over par and seven strokes behind the lead.

Rory McIlroy has reiterated his opposition to LIV Golf players being allowed to represent Europe in the Ryder Cup.

World number two Jon Rahm believes the likes of Sergio Garcia, with whom he formed a successful partnership in 2021, should be able to compete in Rome and said he was sad that “politics have gotten in the way” of the biennial event.

Garcia is the leading points scorer in Ryder Cup history, but made himself ineligible by resigning from the DP World Tour in the wake of increased sanctions being imposed for playing LIV Golf events without permission.

American players remain eligible despite being banned or resigning from the PGA Tour in the wake of joining the Saudi-funded circuit, with Brooks Koepka set to qualify automatically following his victory in the US PGA Championship.

“I certainly think Brooks deserves to be on the United States team,” McIlroy said in his pre-tournament presser ahead of the Memorial Tournament.

“I think with how he’s played, I mean, he’s second in the US standings, (having) only played two counting events.

“I don’t know if there’s anyone else on the LIV roster that would make the team on merit and how they’re playing. But Brooks is definitely a guy that I think deserves to be on the US team.

“But I have different feelings about the European team and the other side and sort of how that has all transpired and, yeah, I don’t think any of those guys should be a part of the European team.”

McIlroy finished in a tie for seventh behind Koepka at Oak Hill, despite struggling with his long game, but the lack of faith in his “biggest weapon” may not prove as much of an issue at Muirfield Village.

“I can’t remember a time where I felt so uncomfortable over the ball for four days,” McIlroy said.

“The golf course allowed me to manage it. There was only two holes I felt at Oak Hill that really penalised big misses, which was six and seven. So you take those two holes out of it and it was what I would describe as a bogey golf course.

“It was very hard to make anything worse than a bogey. So you hit it in the rough off the tee, you got these openings into greens, you can run it up into the openings, make your par and move on.

“I needed to go back home and work on some things and, yeah, feeling a lot better about it, not fighting the club face quite as much. Feel a little bit more free, which is obviously a nice feeling.

“I think the one thing here, if you look at the recent winners, maybe apart from Jon (Rahm), they have all been sort of like medium-length hitters.

“I only hit four or five drivers on this golf course so it takes the driver out of my hands a lot. A lot of fairways bottleneck at like 330, 340 (yards) so the biggest weapon in my bag isn’t quite the weapon that it is at some other golf courses.

“I have played okay here and had some decent finishes, but I guess it sort of surprises me with the four par fives and the way the golf course sets up that I haven’t at least had a real chance to win here.”

G4D Open champions Brendan Lawlor and Kim Moore will compete in the inaugural Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed event next week.

The tournament at Ullna Golf and Country Club from June 5-6 will see five male players and five female players competing for the same trophy on the same course for the first time.

Lawlor, who edged out Kipp Popert to win the inaugural G4D Open at Woburn earlier this month, will be joined in Sweden by Popert – the current number one on the World Rankings for Golfers with a Disability (WR4GD) – Juan Postigo Arce, Kurtis Barkley and home favourite Rasmus Lia.

“I’m very excited for the Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed,” Lawlor said. “The fact that there’s a whole diverse range of disabilities and it’s a mixed field between five men and five women, it’s absolutely game-changing.

“We’ve gained some massive strides in the men’s side of the game and in disability golf, and I think we’re going to gain some massive strides in the women’s side of the game.”

Moore, who won the female category of the G4D Open by four shots, is joined by Aimi Bullock, Julia Bowen, Fiona Gray and Jennifer Sraga.

“I feel with the growing number of new golfers being women, it’s extremely important for the G4D Tour to be opening up the event to both male and female golfers,” Moore said.

“The exposure that this event gets will be huge in motivating and inspiring others with disabilities to give golf a chance.”

Emiliano Grillo won his second PGA tour title after he edged out Adam Schenk in a double playoff hole while English golfer Harry Hall finished tied third in Texas on Sunday.

The Argentinian was two strokes clear and looked primed to take out the Charles Schwab Challenge at the Colonial Golf Course in Fort Worth.

But the 30-year-old hit a double-bogey on the last hole, providing an opening for Schenk to come back into contention, seeking to win his first PGA Tour title.

Grillo hit his drive into a small stream on the final hole which took the ball back 150 yards before stopping against a rock.

He decided to take a penalty stroke and landed a two-putt from 20 yards to tie with Schenk.

Schenk made par on the final hole while English PGA Tour rookie Harry Hall needed a par on the final hole to compete in the playoff.

Hall hit a bogey on the last hole after landing his drive into the water and finished tied in third with world number one American Scott Scheffler on 7-under.

Grillo struck a five-foot birdie putt to claim the title on the second playoff hole to get his first tour win in more than seven years, finishing the tournament on eight-under with 68 on his final day.

Grillo’s last win was in Napa in 2015 and has had four top 10 finishes this season.

American Adam Schenk finished second place for the second time this season and is still pushing for his first tour win.

Hall, 25, was leading after the first and second day but failed to hang on to the lead with two birdies and five bogeys on Sunday.

Englishmen Aaron Rei and Justin Rose finished tied 12th on three-under.

Pablo Larrazabal hopes to follow in the footsteps of fellow Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez after winning the KLM Open by two shots just two weeks into his forties.

Larrazabal celebrated the milestone by winning his ninth DP World Tour title and second in just four weeks after producing a big finish at Bernardus Golf on Sunday.

Having seen his overnight lead evaporate in the early stages of the fourth round, Larrazabal recovered with a series of birdies to sit in a five-way tie at the top after 12 holes.

And he finished with a flourish, birdieing the 15th, 17th and 18th to sign for a closing 69 and finish the tournament on 13 under par.

Larrazabal, who came into the week fresh from playing four rounds at last week’s US PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club, now has two victories in 2023, having won the Korea Championship Presented by Genesis in April.

Fellow Spaniard Adrian Otaegui finished alone in second on 11 under after closing his final-round 70 with a birdie.

Rasmus Hojgaard and Deon Germishuys were then in a tie for third, one stroke further back.

Scotland’s Grant Forrest and Ewen Ferguson finished in a share of eighth on seven under.

Winning so soon after his recent birthday, Larrazabal set his sights on replicating Jimenez, who clinched 13 DP World Tour titles in his forties – although he joked he would settle for a fraction of his success.

He said: “Hopefully I do 20 per cent of what Miguel did in his forties. This is the first win of 40.”

Reflecting on the final round, Larrazabal added: “It doesn’t matter how fast you run at the beginning, you have to run fast at the end to win the race.

“And that’s what I did. What a putt on the last. I tried to make two putts from 20 feet and suddenly I made it.

“I’m so proud of myself and so proud of my team. We struggled big time through Covid but here we are – four wins in the last 15 months. It means too much to me.”

Harry Hall survived back-to-back double bogeys to head into the final round of the Charles Schwab Challenge tied for the lead in pursuit of his first PGA Tour victory.

The 25-year-old Cornish rookie heads into the final round alongside American Adam Schenk with Harris English a shot further back.

With the scoring average at Colonial Country Club rising to more than one over par in the third round as the greens toughened up, Hall opened with a three-stroke lead and five straight pars before he hit trouble – an errant approach at the sixth and an iron into a muddy creek at the seventh leading to a pair of sixes.

Two birdies on the way home gave him a round of 72 and a place in the final pairing with Schenk – also chasing his first win after six years on tour – who shot a bogey-free 67 to tie at 10 under par.

“I’m never going to stop fighting,” Hall said. “I’m always going to keep trying.

“This game brings you new challenges every day and I’m equipped to deal with them. I think I showed that today, I kept a lot of patience and I kept to my game plan.”

“I’m ready. Just get on the green and make some putts.”

English was on course for a share of the lead before bogeying the last to lie a shot behind.

American Justin Suh and Emiliano Grillo of Argentina are three strokes further back with Viktor Hovland among a group on five under par.

England’s Aaron Rai shot a third round 67 to be tied for 10th in a group on four under par which includes world number one Scottie Scheffler after his 72, a score matched by Justin Rose who is a shot further back.

Cornish rookie Harry Hall fired four consecutive birdies around the turn as he took a three-shot halfway lead in the Charles Schwab Challenge.

Hall followed his opening round 62 with a 66 as he moved to 12 under par, three clear of American Harris English who lit up his round of 66 with a hole in one at the eighth hole at the Colonial Country Club at Fort Worth, Texas.

Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo is a shot further back after a best of the day round of 65.

Former Walker Cup star Hall is chasing his first PGA Tour win after chalking up two top 10 finishes in his rookie season to date.

Starting at the 10th, he bogeyed the 13th before getting that shot back two holes later and grabbing four straight birdies around the turn to strengthen his position at the top of the leaderboard.

That run was ended with a bogey at the third, but he birded the seventh and holed his second attempt to escape a greenside bunker at the eighth after plugging into the side.

English fared much better at the 170-yard eighth where he produced the first ace at the hole since Jim Furyk in 2011.

Adam Schenk, Byeong Hun An and Robby Shelton were tied for fourth, a stroke behind Grillo and one ahead of Andrew Novak and world number one Scottie Scheffler, who lost in a play-off 12 months ago and had his second consecutive round of 67.

Justin Rose, who won at Colonial five years ago, was tied for ninth at 5 under after a bogey-free 66.

Michael Block, the 46-year-old club pro from California who earned an invitation after tying for 15th at the US PGA Championship, finished last in the 120-strong field at 15 over par but improved on his opening round of 81 by seven strokes.

A career-best round of 62 propelled England’s Harry Hall to the top of the leaderboard after the opening day of the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club.

Hall took only 22 putts to card a score of eight under and a decisive three-shot lead in Fort Worth, Texas.

He picked up eight birdies without dropping a shot and managed to save par from 15 and 30 feet.

Harris English is Hall’s closest competitor on five under, after the American split a bogey with six birdies, including two on his final two holes.

Tom Hoge, Adam Schenk, Robby Shelton and Andrew Putnam are all tied for third on four under par.

Elsewhere, it was a mixed day for Scotland’s Russel Knox and English duo Callum Tarren and Justin Rose, who all head into Friday’s second round on one under.

Club professional Michael Block, who dazzled the golfing world with his heroics at the US PGA Championship heroics, had a rough outing as he finished his opening round 11 over par.

France’s Victor Perez will defend the KLM Open title he won in amazing fashion last year as he bids to boost his Ryder Cup chances.

Perez beat Ryan Fox on the fourth hole of a sudden-death play-off 12 months ago, Fox having run up a double-bogey seven on the 72nd hole.

Fox twice had one hand on the trophy when he birdied the first and third extra holes – the par-five 18th – only for Perez to hole from 15 and 30 feet respectively to stay alive.

Perez then holed another long putt for birdie when the action switched to the 17th and it was no surprise that a shellshocked Fox then missed his shorter attempt.

That was Perez’s sole victory in 2022, but he finished third in the Italian Open at this year’s Ryder Cup venue and started this season with a win in Abu Dhabi.

Another top 10 in the Italian Open earlier this month and a tie for 12th in last week’s US PGA Championship have helped Perez move into the automatic qualifying places for the European Ryder Cup team as he bids to secure a debut in the biennial event.

“One of the mistakes I made for Whistling Straits (in 2021) was I was in a similar position, inside the world’s top 50, so I had the opportunity to play in America, but then you don’t have the opportunity to score points on the European Points List,” Perez said.

Perez was ninth in the Players Championship in 2021 and reached the semi-finals of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, but missed the cut in five of his next six starts to slip out of the qualifying places.

“It’s tricky because it didn’t work last time and it doesn’t mean that because I’m playing in Europe it means I’m going to make the team,” he added. “It might not work.

“At the end of the day, it’s just about playing well and elevating your game when the deadline approaches.”

Perez is also third on the current Race to Dubai rankings, with the top 10 players at the end of the season, who are not otherwise exempt, earning a PGA Tour card.

It is a controversial innovation which has led to accusations that the DP World Tour is becoming a “feeder tour” to the PGA Tour as part of its strategic alliance with the US-based circuit, but Perez is in favour.

“I’ve heard that people say that 10 people are going to go so the DP World Tour are going to lose their stars,” the 30-year-old said.

“You can agree or disagree, but I still feel like there are guys who are going to lose their cards in America. They’re going to think they’d much rather play in Europe for two or three million every week rather than going to the Korn Ferry Tour because they can get 10 spots again.

“There are those players who are going to thrive, then there’s those players who come back. You still play for great money, whether people want to complain or not.

“You’re still playing for millions of dollars, every week, travelling the world, playing golf. It’s not like your life is difficult, relatively.

“It’s always easy to be like, ‘Oh they’re playing for USD 25million in America’. If you are to go over there then you’re playing against better competition, you still make no money for missing the cut even though it says USD 25m at the start of the week.”

Club professional Michael Block admits he is hoping to avoid a return to reality for as long as possible after his US PGA Championship heroics.

Block almost stole the show from winner Brooks Koepka at Oak Hill, making a hole-in-one during the final round while playing alongside Rory McIlroy and finishing in a tie for 15th place.

The 46-year-old’s display captured the imagination of the spectators and his tie for 15th secured a place in next year’s US PGA at Valhalla, followed soon after by invites for this week’s Charles Schwab Challenge on the PGA Tour and June’s Canadian Open.

“I’ve said it a lot, but it’s just a dream,” Block told a pre-tournament press conference at Colonial.

“I’m just cruising. I’m actually kind of glad that at this point I haven’t come to the reality about what’s happening so I can actually play pretty good golf.

“I think if I sit down and think about it too much, I’m not sure I could swing the club on Thursday.

“There’s a lot going on and I really apologise to all my friends and fans and PGA members out there that have texted me. I’m sorry I haven’t gotten back to you.

“I literally scroll and scroll and scroll and it’s never ending. I can’t even get to the bottom of any of my feeds to even see how many or who’s seeing me. So it’s been crazy.”

Among the messages Block has been able to reply to was one from his hero Michael Jordan, the former basketball star telling Block that his performance was “why he loves the game of golf so much”.

“I’m a big Jordan guy my whole life,” Block said. “I was a little kid in Iowa saving 100 bucks for a pair of Jordans back in the day. Pretty darn cool, to say the least.”

Block also revealed he became friends with baseball star Albert Pujols after being paired with him in a golf tournament in California and will be attending his wedding in the Dominican Republic in December.

And although he, understandably, has never received such attention before, he has been around the professional game for long enough to get a sense of how it works.

“I’ve been around it in a weird kind of small way in little bits here and there over the last 10 years,” the Block said. “So I’m somewhat comfortable with it.

“It’s just weird now where I come up through a gate and the guys at the gate are screaming ‘Block Party’ when I’m going through – and the guy making me an omelette gave me knuckles and said I did awesome last week.

“I mean, that’s the part where it’s a little beyond me at this point. So it’s cool, but I’m trying to enjoy it.

“I don’t really know what the future is going to hold whatsoever. I’m not trying to guess what’s going to happen. I’m just going to keep doing what I’ve been doing.

“I just show up on Thursday and tee it up with Min (Woo Lee), which is a buddy of mine, which is great – so super comfortable pairing – and just have fun. Whatever comes of it, comes of it. I’ll enjoy it one way or the other. I’ve got a great life both ways so it’s good all the way.”

William Knibbs defied the odds to be crowned the Jamaica National Amateur Golf Champion on Sunday at the Caymanas Golf Club in St. Catherine.

Knibbs entered Sunday's final day three strokes behind leader Zandre Roye but after rounds of 74 and 72, he shot a 73 for a combined score of 219 to win by four strokes. Roye opened with a 71 on Friday and followed up with 72 on Saturday but it all fell apart on Sunday when he shot four birdies, six bogeys and three double bogeys for a score of 80 for a combined score of 223.

Knibbs was almost in disbelief that he managed to come from behind to claim victory.

"I was three strokes back after day one. I saw that there were opportunities throughout both the first two days where had I capitalized a little better I could have had better scores and been closer to the lead so today (Sunday) I just tried to avoid as many mistakes as possible and let the good golf come to me," he said while expressing his delight at winning another national title.

"It feels great to join Justin Burrowes as the second multiple-time winner of this event. I knew I was playing well coming into this week and through the first two days I was really playing well, just didn't get the most out of my game so today I came a little earlier and put in a little extra practice and try to grind out a good result today."

Last year's champion Oshae Haye, who was in fifth place going into the final day ended in third place with a score of 238 (81, 80, 77).

Three golfers Dr. Mark Newnham, Sean Morris and William Lee tied for fourth place after posting 241 each over the three days.

Michele McCreath was crowned the female champion for the first time. She was the only entrant in the female category.

"Absolutely" happy to win even though "it was a challenge. The course was very difficult and the conditions were very tight but it does feel wonderful at this stage of my career in golf to be winning."

Robert Chin won the Men Super Senior section with scores of 80, 78 and another 78 in the final round for a total score of 236. Mike Gleichman came from behind to grab second place after ending on 239 (84, 80 and 78), while Dorrel Allen was third on four strokes back on 240 (88, 75, 77).

 

 

Tiger Woods has officially withdrawn from next month’s US Open at Los Angeles Country Club.

Woods pulled out of the Masters during the third round in April, saying at the time it was due to plantar fasciitis.

However, the 47-year-old then had a subtalar fusion procedure in New York to address the problem caused by a previous fracture of his talus, a bone in the ankle joint.

The 15-time major winner did not contest last week’s US PGA Championship at Oak Hill and the USGA confirmed he will also miss the US Open while announcing that 33 more players are now exempt for the year’s third major.

Twenty five of those players earned their place courtesy of being ranked in the world’s top 60, including world number 18 Tyrrell Hatton and major winners Patrick Reed and Jason Day.

Woods feared his leg would have to be amputated due to the serious injuries he suffered in a car accident in Los Angeles in February 2021.

He made a remarkable return to action 14 months later and finished 47th in the Masters, but withdrew from the US PGA following a third-round 79 and skipped the US Open before missing the cut in the 150th Open at St Andrews.

Woods will hope to defy the odds to compete in July’s Open at Royal Liverpool, where he won a third Open title in 2006 in his first tournament since the death of his father Earl two months earlier.

On the eve of the US PGA Championship, Brooks Koepka was asked about the possibility of being selected for the Ryder Cup.

US team captain Zach Johnson had dismissed Koepka’s runner up finish in the Masters as “one good week” and claimed he could not accurately assess the form of LIV players in their own events.

Knowing that performing well in majors was effectively his only chance of impressing Johnson enough to earn one of his six wild cards, Koepka had a simple solution.

“If you go second, first, first, first, it would be kind of tough not to (get a) pick, right? If you go handle business, I feel like I should be fine,” Koepka said.

It sounded an ambitious goal but not any more after Koepka claimed his fifth major title and third US PGA Championship at Oak Hill, holding off a determined Viktor Hovland and a charging Scottie Scheffler to win by two shots.

There may be no need for a wild card now. Koepka has jumped from 22nd to second in the Ryder Cup standings, with the top six qualifying automatically and Johnson selecting six wild cards.

And his place on the team, despite playing on the Saudi-funded LIV circuit, was immediately welcomed by one of the men he had just beaten into second place.

“I want to win the Ryder Cup. I don’t care about tours or anything like that,” Scheffler said.

“It’s something we talked about when we finished (at Whistling Straits) a year and a half ago. We want to beat those guys in Europe. It’s been a long time since we’ve beat them.

“Whoever the best 12 guys are that make a complete team, it’s different than individual tournaments. We want a team of guys that are going over there together to bring the cup back home, and that’s all I really care about.”

Koepka is just the 20th man in history to have won five or more majors, matching the totals of Seve Ballesteros, Peter Thomson, Byron Nelson, JH Taylor and James Braid, the latter pair each winning five Open titles before 1913.

“It’s crazy,” the 33-year-old said. “I try not to think of it right now. I mean, I do care about it. It’s just tough to really grasp the situation kind of while you’re still in it, I think.

“Probably when I’m retired and I can look back with Jena (his wife) 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.”

The chances of Koepka again becoming a dominant force in majors – he won four in eight starts at his peak – looked exceedingly slim as he suffered a number of career-threatening injuries.

He rushed back from surgery after shattering his kneecap in order to compete in the 2021 Masters, but missed the cut and did so again 12 months later, revealing this year at Augusta that had prompted him to try to punch out the back window of his car in frustration.

Koepka also admitted his decision to join LIV would have been harder if he had been fully fit at the time, while confessing on the Netflix documentary ‘Full Swing’ that he would “pay back every dollar I ever made” to regain the feeling of winning a major for another hour.

“It’s very hard to explain,” the former world number one said. “I mean, it was a lot worse than I let on to you guys, let on to everybody. I think maybe only five, six people really know the extent of it, all the pain.

“There’s a lot of times where I just couldn’t even bend my knee. The swelling didn’t go down until maybe a couple months ago, so that’s almost, what, two years? It’s been a long road.

“But look, that’s who I am. 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.”

Asked if he considered retiring when at his lowest ebb, Koepka said: “I don’t know if I considered retiring, but I knew if I couldn’t play the way I wanted to play then I was definitely going to give it up.

“I mean, the thought definitely kind of crossed my mind.”

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