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A20    SPORTS
                       Monday 20 May 2019
            Koepka survives Bethpage Black to win PGA Championship



            By DOUG FERGUSON                                                                       playoff in 2004 at Whistling  hit  7-iron  to  the  par-3  14th
            FARMINGDALE,  N.Y.  (AP)                                                               Straits.                     that sailed over the green,
            —  Brooks  Koepka  took  his                                                           "I'm  just  glad  I  don't  have  leading to a fourth straight
            place  in  PGA  Champion-                                                              to  play  any  more  holes,"  bogey.
            ship  history  with  a  wire-to-                                                       Koepka  said.  "That  was  The  crowd  sensed  a  col-
            wire victory, minus the style                                                          a  stressful  round  of  golf.  lapse,  and  began  chant-
            points.                                                                                I'm  glad  to  have  this  thing  ing,  "DJ!  DJ!  DJ!"  as  Koep-
            In  a  raging  wind  that                                                              back in my hands."           ka  was  playing  the  hole.
            turned  Bethpage  Black                                                                Koepka appeared to wrap  Ahead  of  him,  Johnson
            into a beast, Koepka lost all                                                          it  up  with  a  gap  wedge  made birdie on the 15th —
            but  one  shot  of  his  record                                                        from 156 yards to 2 feet on  the toughest hole at Beth-
            seven-shot  lead  Sunday.                                                              the 10th hole for a birdie, as  page Black all week — and
            He  lost  the  brutal  Long  Is-                                                       Johnson  made  his  first  bo-  the lead was down to one.
            land  crowd,  which  began                                                             gey of the round up ahead  That was as close as John-
            chanting  "DJ!"  for  Dustin                                                           on  the  11th.  That  restored  son got.
            Johnson as Koepka was on     Brooks Koepka poses with the Wanamaker Trophy after winning   the  lead  to  six  shots,  and  His  5-iron  pierced  through
            his way to a fourth straight   the PGA Championship golf tournament, Sunday, May 19, 2019,   the coronation was on.  a  wind  that  gusted  close
            bogey.                       at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)   And then it all changed in  to 25 mph, over the green
            But  he  delivered  the  key                                          Associated Press  a New York minute.          and  into  a  buried  lie.  He
            shots  over  the  closing                                                              Koepka     missed    three  missed the 7-foot par putt,
            stretch  as  Johnson  faded  to-back winners of the PGA  win.                          straight fairways and made  went long of the green on
            with  two  straight  bogeys,  Championship since it went  This one should have been.  three straight bogeys, hav-   the  par-3  17th  for  another
            and  Koepka  closed  with  to stroke play in 1958.        It wasn't.                   ing  to  make  a  6-foot  putt  bogey and had to settle for
            a  4-over  74  for  a  two-shot  Koepka said at the start of  His 74 was the highest final  on  No.  11  to  keep  it  from  69.
            victory  and  joined  Tiger  the  week  that  majors  are  round by a PGA champion  being worse. The wind was  "Hit  the  shot  I  wanted  to
            Woods  as  the  only  back-  sometimes  the  easiest  to  since  Vijay  Singh  won  in  a  so  fickle  that  it  died  as  he  right  at  the  flag,"  Johnson
                                                                                                                                said  of  his  5-iron  from  194
                                                                                                                                yards  on  the  16th.  "I  don't
                                                                                                                                know how it flew 200 yards
                                                                                                                                into the wind like that.
                                                                                                                                Johnson  now  has  runner-
                                                                                                                                up finishes in all four of the
                                                                                                                                majors,  the  wrong  kind  of
                                                                                                                                career Grand Slam.
                                                                                                                                "I  gave  it  a  run,"  he  said.
                                                                                                                                "That's all you can ask for."
                                                                                                                                Koepka  returned  to  No.
                                                                                                                                1  in  the  world  with  a  per-
                                                                                                                                formance  that  defines  his
                                                                                                                                dominance in golf's biggest
                                                                                                                                events.
                                                                                                                                He becomes the first player
                                                                                                                                to hold back-to-back titles
                                                                                                                                in two majors at the same
                                                                                                                                time, having won a second
                                                                                                                                straight U.S. Open last sum-
                                                                                                                                mer 60 miles down the road
                                                                                                                                at Shinnecock Hills. He was
                                                                                                                                the first wire-to-wire winner
                                                                                                                                in  the  PGA  Championship
                                                                                                                                since  Hal  Sutton  at  Riviera
                                                                                                                                in 1983.
                                                                                                                                And  what  stakes  his  claim
                                                                                                                                as one of the best in his gen-
                                                                                                                                eration was a third straight
                                                                                                                                year  winning  a  major.  He
                                                                                                                                joins  a  most  elite  group  —
                                                                                                                                only Woods, Phil Mickelson,
                                                                                                                                Tom Watson, Jack Nicklaus
                                                                                                                                and  Arnold  Palmer  have
                                                                                                                                done  that  since  the  Mas-
                                                                                                                                ters began in 1934.
                                                                                                                                He  now  has  four  majors  in
                                                                                                                                his  last  eight,  a  streak  not
                                                                                                                                seen since Woods won sev-
                                                                                                                                en out of 11 when he cap-
                                                                                                                                tured the 2002 U.S. Open at
                                                                                                                                Bethpage Black.
                                                                                                                                Next up is the U.S. Open at
                                                                                                                                Pebble  Beach,  where  Ko-
                                                                                                                                epka  defends  his  title  for
                                                                                                                                the third time. q
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