Koepka wins, Scott goes to the top 10

Brooks Koepka with the PGA Championship trophy today. Image: Getty

Brooks Koepka almost blown it, but finally triumphed again. Meanwhile, Adam Scott was the leading Australian in the PGA championship at Bethpage State Park in New York today.

The victory of Koepka was not the triumph that everyone expected.

Seven shots in the offing at the start of the day, the seemingly nervous 29-year-old showed clear signs of mortality in the back nine with four consecutive bogeys, mainly with wandering drives in the winding Black Black rough of Bethpage.

It was a roller coaster. Through 10 holes, after he struck a beautiful gap-wedge for Birdie, he had fought off an early Dustin Johnson challenge and brought the lead back to six shots. But then the tumult: on the 11th, a bogey from the fairway bunker, and on the 12th another shot fell after you had to hang up from the deep rough. On the par-five 13th a short miss for par and on the 14th, he airmailed the green on the par-three and couldn't go up and down.

At the same time, Johnson hit him close on the 15th and rolled into his birdie-putt and suddenly the Koepka lead was just one shot of his good buddy and sports mate, Johnson. It was a fight between two men in which everyone went backwards on a difficult, windy day.

Koepka could hear Johnson's roar over the track and threatened a Normanesque-level fade-out, but what happened after that was educational. He pulled it back together, starting to hit fairways and greens. Steady pars came on the 15th and 16th and Johnson faltered just as he threatened to play the Nick Faldo role of the 1996 Masters.

Johnson bogeyed both 16 and 17 and then made a big up-and-down from the left of the 18th green to the crowd's acclaim to place six-under par overall. Because of this, Koepka (who had thrown another bogey in the par-three 17th) left a lead of two shots up 18. Even then there was drama with his dragged tee shot in a fairway that forced a lay-up.

Koepka stepped up with the knowledge that he had to hit the green at 60 meters and two pits. That would be enough. Under the most intense heat, he squeezed it close by, within two meters, rolled into the putt for par and showed the first burst of emotion all day – a big fist pump and a hug for his caddy. On the first day he had cut the famous difficult course with a 63; on the last day he had crawled to a 74.

He won with two shots on eight-substandard of Johnson with Jordan Spieth Patrick Cantlay and Matt Wallace equal for the third on two-substandard. Only six players ended on an equal footing with a day that Koepka called "brutal". The low round of the day was only 68, but Johnson, so often the bridesmaid, was brilliant with his 69. & # 39; DJ & # 39; now has the so-called & # 39; runner-up Grand Slam & # 39; with the second place finishes in all four majors.

Koepka returns to number 1 in the world with his fourth major and his back-to-back PGA Championship titles. He has won four of the last eight major championships – the 2017 Open and the last two PGA races – and becomes back-to-back the first man to win consecutive PGA & # 39; s and US Opens. He has gone from no major to four in one year and eleven months – faster than any man.

He also went wire-to-wire this week.

"I'm just glad we don't have to play any more holes," he said afterwards. "That was a stressful round of golf. That wind was up, DJ was playing great, congratulations on him. He put the pressure on, but I'm glad I'm in control of this thing again."

Scott closed today with a 74, leaked three shots to the last nine, but finished eighth in one excess and followed his top 10 win at this tournament last year. The Queenslander makes a real comeback to the highest level after a break, just outside the top 10 in the Players Championship and the Masters already this year.

Of the other Australians, Jason Day tied in 23rd place, Cameron Smith was 64th and Lucas Herbert was equal to the 71st

FINAL LEADERBOARD

– 8 Brooks Koepka

– 6 Dustin Johnson

– 2 Jordan Spieth, Patrick Cantlay, Matt Wallace

– 1 Luke Lisk

THE AUSTRALIANS

+1 Adam Scott

+4 Jason Day

+11 Cameron Smith

+12 Lucas Herbert