After four days of ultra-competitive golf in sweltering conditions at the Bellerive Town and Country Club, Missouri, the 2018 PGA Championship produced an epic clash between a rising star and one of the greatest golfers ever, as Tiger Woods duelled with Brooks Koepka for the title.
Koepka had already made a little history earlier in the summer, when he became the first man since Curtis Strange in 1989 to successfully defend the US Open title, but going into the PGA Championship, he was only the ninth favourite to win the tournament, based on the implied probabilities on the bigbetbookmakers.com site, one place ahead of Tiger Woods.
The fourteen-time Major winner went into the PGA Championship on the back of a remarkable resurgence. Having failed to break the top ten of any Major tournament since 2013, and after five years in which his retirement was prophesised on multiple occasions, Woods had produced a superb late charge at the British Open, to finish sixth, and for the first time in many years, he was going into a Major tournament with a realistic chance of being involved in the finish.
But the two players who would end up duelling for the trophy both made slow starts. Neither figured in the top ten at the end of the first round, although a 69 from Koepka and a 70 from Woods kept them both in contention going into Friday. That was the day when Koepka made his move. In a weather-interrupted round, he shot a course-record-tying score of 63, along with Charl Schwartzel, to move within two shots of the leader Gary Woodland and one behind Kevin Kisner.
Both Woodland and Kisner fell away during Saturday’s play, but Koepka continued to play consistent golf, shooting a 66 to take over the lead going into the final day. But four shots back, Woods had begun to creep into contention after two solid rounds of 66 that put him in a six-way tie for sixth place to set up a dramatic Sunday outside St Louis.
The final round began well for Koepka, who picked up a birdie on the first, but bogeys at the fourth and fifth set him back, and saw Woods close to within one shot, along with Justin Thomas. Koepka dug deep at the end of the front nine, scoring three consecutive birdies, but Woods staying in touch, and at the start of the back nine, was only three shots behind. That gap closed to one as Woods, to the delight of the Bellerive crowds, birdied the twelfth and thirteenth.
But Koepka wasn’t done. He picked up birdies at 15 and 16, while Woods was overtaken by Adam Scott. The Australian dropped a shot at the last, and the packed stands at the eighteenth roared as Woods birdied it, to finish a superb round of 64, his best ever final round at a Major tournament. With the trophy in his grasp, Koepka may have been feeling the pressure, but he didn’t show it, making par on the 17th and 18th holes to finish with a solid 66, in the process becoming the first player since Woods to win the US Open and the PGA Championship in the same season.
