Final Round Notes – compiled by Jeff Babineau, pool reporter
***Brooks Koepka started the day two shots off the lead and had a legitimate shot at history, trying to become the first player to win back-to-back-to-back PGA Championships in a century. Sunday, not much went right. He didn’t drive it well (hitting only 7 of 14 fairways), wasn’t able to do much out of the rough, and had his worst putting round (32 putts) of the week. Koepka is used to being in charge on Sundays of majors, but at the 102nd PGA Championship, on closing day, it wasn’t meant to be.
When everyone in the pack was moving forward on the opening nine, Koepka was headed in the other direction. Koepka made four bogeys in his opening nine, ended up shooting 74, and finished his week at T-29.
“To make the turn at 4 over was disappointing, to say the least,” Koepka said. “You knew you had to be under par, at least one, to have a good chance on the back side. It’s my first bad round in a while in a major. You know, I was just there to cheer Paul (Casey) on. That was it. Just try to help him get it in the house and see how well he could finish, because I had put myself out of it already.
“You know, hey, it wasn’t meant to be. Three in a row, you’re not really supposed to do two in a row looking at history, but that’s all right. Got two more (2020 majors) the rest of the season and we’ll figure it out from there.”
***This week’s PGA represented the ninth major championship start for Tiger Woods since returning in 2018 from back surgery. In three of those nine starts (2018 Open Championship, Carnoustie; 2018 PGA, Bellerive; and 2019 Masters, Augusta National, which he won) he has been a contending factor on the weekend. Since his fourth PGA victory in 2007, Tiger now has made 10 starts in the PGA Championship, with a pair of runner-up finishes (2009 Hazeltine, 2018 Bellerive) his best showing.
When Tiger got up and down for birdie at the par-5 fourth hole on Sunday, it ended an 0-for-7 run out of the bunkers at Harding Park. Players said the bunkers were challenging because they didn’t feature a great deal of sand at the bottom. “The least amount of sand in any bunkers in the history of bunkers,” Phil Mickelson said Saturday on the CBS telecast. “That’s not a bad thing. They’re hazards.”
Tiger’s closing 3-under 67, which included five birdies, got him to 1-under 279 for the week, helping him to achieve a mini-goal.
“I drove it kind of like I did on Friday, and irons were a little bit more crisp and I hit better putts,” Woods said. “I made a few early on, and just kind of kept the momentum going. It’s something I hadn’t done the last two days, and it was an under par tournament score, which yesterday I was saying that’s kind of what I wanted to do. I made it happen today.”
***Jordan Spieth went out early on Sunday with fellow Texan and frequent practice partner Ryan Palmer. A day after tying for the highest score in the third round (76), Spieth bounced back with a round of 67, his best of the week. He finished his week at 4-over 284, and his quest to complete a career Grand Slam with a PGA Championship victory will now shift to 2021 and Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course.
Spieth hasn’t won in three years (the 2017 Open Championship was his last victory) and his struggles have been well documented as he tries to rebuild his game and confidence.
“I had fun. I felt I swung the club better and hit some nice putts,” Spieth told ESPN. “Getting repetitions on a major championship golf course is always a good thing.”
Old pal Justin Thomas, now World No. 1, the spot Spieth once held, isn’t too worried about Spieth making his way back: “I know he’s going to be fine. All it takes sometimes is one week and all your confidence gets back. I think Brooks (Koepka) kind of spoke on that a little bit, whether it was last week, or maybe before that, but just he found something last week obviously and he’s playing well again this week. So, that’s golf.”
As for Palmer, he had a finish that others higher on the leaderboard would have paid to have. Starting on 16, he finished eagle-birdie-birdie for a round of 64. He tied for 43rd.
***How odd was it to have the final round of a major championship played without any fans? Well, Ben An aced the 189-yard 11th hole, hitting 6-iron, and when his ball tumbled into the cup, the lone reaction was noise from a group scorer up at the green. “It was nice to see somebody happy for me,” An joked.
Tiger Woods and Tom Hoge were on the 12th tee, and once Woods hit his drive, his caddie, Joe LaCava, told him about An’s ace. Later, when there was a hold-up on the 16th hole (Jim He rman, in the group ahead, lost a tee shot), An joined the group ahead on the 16th tee. “We got a chance to say ‘Congratulations’ to Ben,” Woods said, “and he owes a round to all of us.”
***A year ago, three club professionals played on the weekend at Bethpage Park, but this week at TPC Harding Park, the Team of Twenty did not have a player survive Friday’s cut. Still, three players who were here this week still have one more major start ahead of them in 2020. Ryan Vermeer (Nebraska), Marty Jertson (Southwest) and Danny Balin (Metropolitan), the the top 3 finishers in the 2019 PGA Club Professional of the Year standings, were given exemptions into next month’s U.S. Open at Winged Foot.
For Balin, who is from White Plains, N.Y., and works at Westchester Country Club, Winged Foot will be a home game, and will mark the second consecutive year he is able to play a major close to home.
“To be able have the PGA last year at Bethpage, which is where we play our New York State Open every year, and now to have the U.S. Open at Winged Foot, and to probably be the only local playing in it, that’s going to be awesome,” said Balin, who shot rounds of 76-74 at Harding Park. “Door to door, it’s probably 12 minutes for me to get to Winged Foot.”
***Etc.: Paul Casey’s T-2 showing was his best finish in a major in his 64th major start. … Bryson DeChambeau (T-4) shot 66 on Sunday to earn his first top-10 in a major. It is his ninth top 10 of the season, tying him with Justin Thomas. … Eight Georgia Bulldogs played on the weekend at Harding Park: Brendon Todd, Keith Mitchell, Harris English, Brian Harman, Russell Henley, Sepp Straka, Kevin Kisner and Bubba Watson. … Ryan Palmer finished 2-2-3 (eagle, birdie, birdie) to shoot a final-round 64. … Ben An aced the 189-yard 11th hole on Sunday. Last year’s PGA Championship also featured one ace (Lucas Bjerregaard on Bethpage Black’s 206-yard 17th hole). An’s ace was the 43rd ace at the PGA since 1970. … Phil Mickelson, the 2005 PGA champion, shot 73 Sunday and finished T-71 in his first major start as a 50-year-old. … The PGA of America this week announced revised criteria for selection of the 2021 U.S. Ryder Cup team. All points earned will be recognized, and players now will earn points through the second PGA Tour Playoff event next year. Captain Steve Stricker still will have six picks, not four. “It just gives us a tremendous amount of flexibility,” Stricker said. “It was a decision amongst all of us that we thought was the good one and the proper one, and we’re sticking with it.”