Brooks Koepka won the 101st PGA Championship on Sunday at Bethpage Black by two strokes over Dustin Johnson. The win gives Koepka his fourth major championship out of the last nine. He now has won back-to-back PGA Championships and US Opens, where he’ll be trying for three in a row just one month away at Pebble Beach.
Less than two years ago, he had won as many majors as you and me.
Now he’s tied for 20th on the all-time list with players including Raymond Floyd, Ernie Els, and Rory McIlroy.
Billy Casper, Larry Nelson, Hale Irwin, Nick Price, Payne Stewart, Vijay Singh, and Padraig Harrington each won “just” three.
Jordan Spieth is also in that group, although it’s hard to imagine that number not going up by quite a few.
Only 29 men have ever won four or more majors. Only four active players have done it: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and McIlroy.
What has Koepka figured out that his contemporaries haven’t? How is it that he has won four majors, but has just two other wins on the PGA Tour? Gearing up for the majors is one thing… Nicklaus and Woods structured their years and careers around them. But this ratio is unprecedented.
No one has ever won twice as many majors as “regular” tournaments. It just isn’t done. And, over the long haul it won’t be that way for Koepka either. No player can continue the major run that he’s currently on and he’s going to win more non-majors.
But, other than playing great golf, what is behind Koepka’s dominance in golf’s biggest events?
He’s already answered that question, and he did it before ever hitting a shot at Bethpage.
“There’s 156 [players] in the field, so you figure at least 80 of them I’m just going to beat,” Koepka said. “You figure about half of them won’t play well from there, so you’re down to about maybe 35. And then from 35, some of them just – pressure is going to get to them. It only leaves you with a few more, and you’ve just got to beat those guys.”
Those comments may rub some fans and some of Koepka’s competition the wrong way. They may be seen as cockiness. Fact is, though, they’re true and he’s backing them up with wins.
The mindset is not exactly new, either. Jack Nicklaus used a similar mindset to win a record-holding 18 majors.
“I always felt like the majors were the easiest tournaments to win,” said Nicklaus. “First of all, half the field is scared to win a major”. Tough conditions and the attitude players had about those conditions eliminated a good portion of the remaining contenders, Nicklaus surmised.
That thinking certainly worked for Nicklaus. And it’s working for Koepka.
It’s a confidence-building outlook for a player who’s already pretty sure of himself.
Brooks Koepka is a physically talented player. No one is going to suggest otherwise. But those physical tools alone aren’t enough to win one major championship, let alone four.
There are some very talented players in the game today who haven’t won a major. Some of them never will. When they tee it up on Thursday, they see an overwhelming forest. Brooks Koepka just sees the trees and he’s cutting them down one at a time.
Joey Johnson is the publisher of Southern Fairways Magazine. He can be contacted by email at joey@southernfairwaysgolf.com.
