Six weeks after feeling he “choked” in the final round of the Masters, Brooks Koepka held his nerve to overcome a spirited challenge from Viktor Hovland to win the US PGA Championship at Oak Hill.
Koepka carded a closing 67 to finish nine under par and claim his third US PGA title, his fifth major overall and the first for a player on the Saudi-funded LIV Golf League.
Hovland traded blows with Koepka until a costly double bogey on the 16th, but a birdie on the 18th deservedly gave the Norwegian a share of second place with Scottie Scheffler on seven under.
Koepka took a one-shot lead over Hovland and Corey Conners into the final round, having enjoyed double that advantage following 54 holes of the Masters in April.
The 33-year-old carded a closing 75 at Augusta National to finish second to Jon Rahm and felt he had choked under pressure, but exorcised those demons at the first opportunity.
The former world number one made a flying start with a hat-trick of birdies from the second and was momentarily four shots clear before Hovland matched his birdie on the fourth.
Hovland also birdied the fifth to close the gap and was within a single stroke when Koepka pushed his drive on the sixth into Allen’s Creek and was unable to save par.
Koepka doubled his lead with a birdie on the 10th, only to then see his approach to the next plug in a greenside bunker.
After blasting out to 12 feet, Koepka saw his par attempt lip out and although he bounced back immediately to birdie the 12th, he could not shake off a resolute Hovland.
The 25-year-old, who was in contention for the third consecutive major, took advantage of the par-five 13th to keep the pressure firmly on and both men birdied the short 14th to effectively turn it into a two-horse race.
However, in a carbon copy of what happened to Conners in round three, Hovland drilled his second shot into the face of a fairway bunker on the 16th to run up a double bogey.
Koepka’s birdie gave him a four-shot lead and he could afford to bogey the 17th and par the last to complete an impressive victory.
Scheffler had got within two of the lead thanks to birdies on the 10th, 13th and 14th, but had to wait until the 18th to pick up another shot and complete a superb 65.
World number one Rahm, commentating for CBS following a closing 71 which left him seven over par, had been full of praise for Koepka after his blistering start.
“He is a player that, when he gets in contention, is like a shark in the water,” Rahm said.
“He smells blood, especially on these types of courses. It suits his mentality of being even keel, plodding along and taking opportunities when they come.
“He came out aggressive and I don’t think people realise how dangerous some of these hole locations are. To be that precise (on the second) to give yourself three feet straight up the hill is incredible.”
Open champion Cameron Smith recorded the joint lowest round of the week to date with a closing 65 and insisted no one should be surprised that he and fellow LIV players like Koepka were able to compete at the highest level.
“I gave up on that narrative about six months ago,” Smith said with a smile. “I think there’s been a few guys that have been trying to kick it along a little bit.
“We’re still out there. We haven’t forgot how to play golf. We’re all great golfers out there, and we know what we can do, and I think that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Rory McIlroy began the day five shots behind Koepka and made the ideal start with a birdie from tap-in distance on the first, but bogeyed two of the next three holes and eventually signed for a third straight 69.
McIlroy at least had the best seat in the house for an extraordinary performance from playing partner Michael Block, the 46-year-old club professional making a hole-in-one on the 15th in a closing 71 that secured a place in the field at Valhalla next year.
Justin Rose was within three of the lead when he birdied the first and chipped in to save par on the second, but had to settle for a closing 71 to finish one under.
Compatriot Tyrrell Hatton was left to rue a nightmare opening round of 77 after subsequent scores of 68, 69 and 67 proved what was possible and left him in a tie for 15th.
Lauren Coughlin holds first-round lead at the Chevron Championship
After shooting an opening 66 at the Chevron Championship in Texas on Thursday, American golfer Lauren Coughlin has a first-round lead for just the second time in her career.
Coughlin went bogey-free with three birdies on the front nine and three on the back nine on the first day of the tournament.
She hit 14 of 18 greens, recorded 10 one-putts and needed just 26 putts overall to get through her first round.
“I think my husband and I had a really good game plan, and I wasn’t trying to be too aggressive out there. Just trying to take a 30-footer or, I might have a chip here or there, just knowing that that’s the appropriate place to be,” she said.
Her husband, John Pond, recently started caddying for her.
She added: “Not trying to be too aggressive in certain spots and taking what, certainly there’s some holes, good pins and stuff that you can go at stuff, but overall, I was just trying to take what it would give me and not trying to force anything.”
Coughlin is making her 11th appearance in an LPGA Tour major championship this week. The American has made the cut in just two of her 10 previous starts in majors, but finished T15 and T16, respectively, in the 2023 and 2022 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
Two strokes behind Coughlin are two-time LPGA Tour winner Marina Alex, eight-time JLPGA winner Minami Katsu and major champion Nelly Korda, who is chasing her fifth win in as many consecutive starts on Tour.
Defending champion Lilia Vu withdrew from the Chevron Championship moments before her first-round tee-off on Thursday due to a back injury.
Scottie Scheffler out to win at Hilton Head after clinching second Masters title
Scottie Scheffler insists he will not be taking things easy in the RBC Heritage in the wake of his second Masters title in three years.
Scheffler justified his billing as pre-tournament favourite with a four-shot victory at Augusta National on Sunday, after which he made a brief trip home to Dallas before heading to Hilton Head.
It was the world number one’s third victory in his last four starts and increased his lead over Rory McIlroy at the top of the rankings to more than six points, but the 27-year-old has no intention of just making up the numbers this week.
“I won the tournament last week and now we’re here and it’s Wednesday and we’re all even par again,” Scheffler told a pre-tournament press conference.
“It seems like to me in my head that everything starts over each week, so it doesn’t matter what I’m ranked going into the week. It only really matters kind of where you sit at the end of the week.
“So going into this week it’ll be a bit more challenging than it was last week just because I think playing in contention at majors and especially winning takes a lot out of you.
“There’s a lot of stuff that goes on after the Masters on Sunday and you get home very late and emotionally I think I’m a bit drained.
“But we’re starting at even par, so I’m going to go home this afternoon and get as much rest and recovery as possible and show up tomorrow ready to play.
“I was on a radio show earlier today and Colt [Knost] asked me if I thought about withdrawing and I said, no, I committed to this tournament and I’m not showing up here just to walk around and play a little golf.
“I left my pregnant wife at home to come here and play in a golf tournament. I am here to play and hopefully play well. I’m not here just for fun.”
Scheffler stressed how keen he was to get home to his wife Meredith during his post-victory media duties, so much so that a picture of him wearing the green jacket at a bar in Dallas on Sunday evening warranted an explanation.
“I don’t know if I’d actually been to that place before,” Scheffler said.
“There was another tavern around the corner that I’d been to a few times and it’s a nice place but shockingly it wasn’t open Sunday at 1:30 in the morning. This place was open.
“On the plane ride home I was with my manager Blake and my coach Randy and then I had four of my good buddies with me, and I don’t remember who suggested it but it seemed like a good idea.
“When Meredith picked us up at the airport it still seemed like a good idea and Meredith was down so we went for probably 20 minutes and went home.
“Took a few photos, had a drink and then went home and went to bed.”
Nelly Korda looking to add major to winning streak at Chevron Championship
World number one Nelly Korda insists she is taking nothing for granted as she bids to secure a remarkable fifth straight win and second major title in the Chevron Championship.
Korda took a seven-week break after winning her first title of the year, the LPGA Drive On Championship, in January, and returned to win three events in the space of three weeks, including beating Ireland’s Leona Maguire in the final of the T-Mobile Match Play.
The 25-year-old is the first woman to win on four consecutive starts since Lorena Ochoa in 2008 and is also the first to enter a major on such a streak since Annika Sorenstam.
View this post on InstagramSorenstam’s run came between the end of the 2004 season and the start of 2005 and the Swedish star went on to win the Kraft Nabisco by eight shots.“In 2021 I went on a run, and then in 2022 and 2023 golf really humbled me,” admitted Korda, who won four times in 2021, including her sole major title to date in the Women’s PGA Championship.
“There are ups and downs. Every athlete goes through the rollercoaster, and that is what makes the sport so great. You mature and grow so much and learn more about yourself.
“You never take these weeks for granted. You always try to appreciate and become very grateful for them.
“It makes just all the hard work so worth it. But I think I’ve learned so much about myself even through the losses.”
Korda has had one week since her last victory to recharge the batteries ahead of the first women’s major of the season at Carlton Woods in Texas, where she finished a shot outside the play-off won by Lilia Vu last year.
“Last week I was so tired,” Korda added. “I don’t think I’ve ever been that tired. I would wake up and I was ready to go back to bed but I couldn’t. It’s almost to the point where you just can’t sleep, you’re just overly tired.
“I made sure to prioritise any rest. My parents are on top of me to not overdo it.
“I always want to practice more, do more to be better. So made sure to prioritize my rest and making sure to go to sleep early and sleeping a lot, too. That’s the number one thing for recovery. Overall this week I feel really good.”
Korda and Vu have been drawn together for the first two rounds alongside Australia’s Minjee Lee, while English amateur Lottie Woad, winner of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur earlier this month, is in a group with Madelene Sagstrom and Gabriela Ruffels.
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