Koepka seals major upset at US Open
Print Edition
THE list of places Brooks Koepka had to go to win golf tournaments looks like a page straight out of a travelogue.
Spain. Scotland. Turkey. Japan.
On Sunday, he added Erin Hills in Wisconsin to the list — the stop that made all those frequent flier miles worth it.
The 27-year-old American, who had to leave his home country and join Europe’s minor-league tour to get his career going, won the US Open. He set aside the wind and the pressure to subdue Erin Hills after it finally got some teeth following three rounds of soft greens and prime scoring conditions.
The wind kicked up, but it didn’t faze Koepka. He shot 5-under-par and made only one bogey to finish at 16-under 272. That was four shots clear of Brian Harman and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama. The only drama at the end was whether he’d make birdie on the par-5 18th to break Rory McIlroy’s scoring record in relation to par.
Koepka settled for a tap-in par, but that didn’t matter. He earned US$2.16 million, his nation’s championship and the comfort of knowing the far-flung trips to Kenya and Kazakhstan and India and beyond are all in the rearview mirror.
“To get to travel the world at 22, 21 years old, and do what you do for a living is pretty neat,” Koepka said. “I’ll go anywhere. ... I think it helped me grow up a little bit and really figure out that, hey, play golf, get it done, and then you can really take this somewhere. And I built a lot of confidence off of that.”
His confidence in the final round came, in part, from a short conversation the night before with Dustin Johnson, a friend who had been through his share of close calls and heartbreaks before finally becoming a major champion at the US Open last year.
Take the shots one at a time, Johnson told him. Turns out, they think pretty much the same. Play the same, too.
“He’s going to overpower golf courses, and he’s got a great demeanor,” said Bill Haas, who finished tied for fifth. “He’s just like Dustin, I would say. They’re very much a similar player, where nothing seems to bother them. And it’s no surprise.”
Tied for the lead with six holes left, Koepka made an 8-foot par putt on 13 that gave him confidence in his putting stroke. He followed that up with birdies on the next three holes.
Only Matsuyama displayed that kind of scoring ability on Sunday. But he started the day six shots out of the lead. His round of 66 was over nearly 90 minutes before Koepka strolled to the 18th green, with the tournament all but wrapped up. “I learned a lot this week,” Matsuyama said. “Hopefully, though, in the future, in majors, I can play in the either last or next-to-last group to give myself a better chance.”
Other than him, nobody made a charge.
Rickie Fowler and Justin Thomas were the popular favorites. But Thomas followed his record-setting 63 with a 75, and his hopes were essentially dashed after three bogeys over the first five holes. Fowler shot 72 and finished at 10 under, in a tie for fifth. It’s a score that would’ve won all but two of the previous 116 renditions of the US Open.
But not this one.
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