Partisan New York gallery fires up Koepka after lead slips away

By Andrew Both

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. (Reuters) – The PGA Championship hung in the balance for seven minutes late in the final round on Sunday with the raucous New York gallery cheering against Brooks Koepka as he walked off the 14th green with a tenuous one-stroke lead.

Koepka has played with a chip on his shoulder his entire career, and hearing chants in his face of “D.J., D.J.” only served to fire him up as he walked down the steep hill and across Round Swamp Road to the 15th tee at Bethpage Black.

Two groups ahead, fellow American Dustin Johnson was playing the adjacent 16th hole with the previously unthinkable suddenly possible.

Koepka’s seven-stroke lead at the start of the final round had been whittled down to the smallest of margins after four successive bogeys in the windy conditions and one of golf’s greatest collapses loomed.

“I wasn’t nervous. I was just in shock at what was going on,” Koepka said. “When they started chanting D.J. on 14, it actually kind of helped.

“That was probably the best thing that could have happened … helped me refocus and hit a good one down 15.”

Koepka’s playing companion Harold Varner III, however, was annoyed by the crowd reaction.

“I thought it was pretty weird how they were telling Brooks to choke,” Varner said.

“That’s not my cup of tea. I was pulling for him after that. I have a few choice words for that. Just cheering for him to do bad, I just don’t get that.”

Johnson subsequently bogeyed the 16th after misjudging his approach shot in the strong and gusty winds and the lead was back up to two strokes, an advantage Koepka held to secure his fourth major title in less than two years.

He also displaced Johnson as world number one.

With a closing four-over-par 74, Koepka became the first champion to lead wire-to-wire since Hal Sutton in 1983.

Koepka finished at eight-under 272, while Johnson (69) was second on six-under, with Americans Jordan Spieth and Patrick Cantlay and Britain’s Matt Wallace four strokes further back tied for third.

Koepka, who also won back-to-back U.S. Open titles in 2017-18, admitted his run of bogeys had put him under pressure.

“Tell you what, the hour spent from number 11 to 14 was interesting,” Koepka said. “I just got stuck in a bogey train. I just made mistakes at the wrong time.

“You’ve got to hit good drives and I put it in the rough. I challenge anyone to play this course in 15-to 20 miles-per-hour winds and see what they shoot.”

“Today was definitely the most satisfying out of all of them for how stressful that round was, how stressful D.J. made it.

“I know for a fact, that was the most excited I’ve ever been in my life … on 18.”