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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