Brooks Koepka won his fifth major title as he held off Viktor Hovland and Scottie Scheffler down the stretch of the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y.
The win gives Koepka his first win in a major tournament since 2019, his third overall PGA Championship, and makes him the 20th player to reach the five-majors mark and the first LIV Tour participant to win a major since the Saudi tour began.
“It’s incredible,” Koepka told the media about his accomplishment. “I look back to a couple of years ago and where I’m at now. To be able to be here is special. It means a hell of a lot more to me.”
Koepka struggled for a couple of years following a knee injury but had begun to play well at recent events. He entered the final round with the lead for the second consecutive major, and, this time, he finished the job.
“This is probably the sweetest one of them all just because of all the hard work that had to go into this one,” Koepka reflected after his round. “It’s special.”
“I learned a lot from Augusta, just the way I thought, the way I approached it,” he added, referencing his collapse at the Masters last month. “I made sure if Augusta doesn’t happen, maybe I’ll get this one. I’m very pleased with the learning process that I’ve gone on in the last month.”
Koepka entered the final round with a one-stroke lead on Hovland and Corey Conners and a two-stroke lead on SMU alumnus Bryson DeChambeau. Hovland’s double bogey on 16 after a struggle in the bunker allowed Koepka to increase his lead, and the 33-year-old held off a late charge from Scheffler thanks to three early birdies and a par to close the round.
“I felt in control all day,” Koepka said after his final round, finishing at 9-under-par 271. “To be honest with you, probably the one that was settling was the par-5, making birdie there. I feel like that was a good putt, and the other ones were 3, 4 feet. I think maybe going forward it helped build some momentum early.”
Scheffler tied with Hovland for second at 7-under-par 273, while DeChambeau finished at 3-under 277 to tie for fourth.
Southern California golf professional Michael Block also made headlines over the weekend, finishing tied for 15th, qualifying for a return invitation to the PGA Championship next year, and receiving an invitation to play at the Charles Schwab Invitational in Fort Worth this week.
“This week’s been absolutely a dream,” Block noted as he met with the media after the tournament. “I didn’t know it was going to happen, but I knew if I just played my darned game right, that I could do this. I always knew it.”
“Obviously, I love my family and everything else and my job and everything, but golf is my life,” he added. “I live it, breathe it. I made sure of one thing in my life: That I was going to drive to a golf course every day, whether it was a caddy or an onsite service kid or an assistant pro or a head pro or general manager, I was going to be on a golf course. I came to the golf course today at Oak Hill and played in the PGA Championship.”
Block’s storybook weekend even included a hole-in-one on the 15th hole on Sunday, the first in the PGA Championship since 2020, the fourth in his life, and his first in a tournament.
“I’ve always talked about how I never had one in a tournament, and the situation under that, I mean, that was it,” Block told the media after his final round. “I don’t need to have another one. I’m good.”
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