Brooks Koepka wins LIV Golf event in lead up to PGA Championship title defense
One of golf’s most dominant major performers is heating up — and at just the right time.
Brooks Koepka won LIV Golf Singapore on Sunday, firing a final-round three-under 68 to finish 15 under, two strokes ahead of Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman.
It’s Koepka’s fourth LIV title, the most of any player. As for his next start? The 2024 PGA Championship, where Koepka is the defending champion, starts in just 11 days.
“It’s all starting to come around,” Koepka said. “I’ve put in a lot of work. I feel like on the golf course, off the golf course, it’s been a good two weeks, to say the least. Take a week off and then grinding pretty hard with [coach] Claude [Harmon III] over the last few days, I thought that was very important. Kind of started to see it turn maybe Wednesday, Thursday of Adelaide, so to see it pay off here is huge.”
After a 45th-place finish at the Masters, Koepka tied for 9th at LIV Golf’s stop in Australia last week. His improved play carried over to Singapore, where he jumped into contention with a bogey-free 64 on Saturday.
He said in the lead up to last week’s tournament he could see his ball-striking coming around.
“If I don’t see it come out of the right window I kind of struggle. But it was nice to see it start where I wanted it and the ball was moving in the right direction,” he said. “I kind of didn’t know if it was going to fade or draw for about a month there. But I just got into bad habits. It’s all the same thing. We’ve just got to go back to the basics with me. Playing in wind all year, the ball just got moved back and that was about it. I count really hard on Claude and [caddie] Ricky [Elliott] to really just pay attention to the fundamental stuff.”
It was also Koepka’s first victory with both his wife, Jena, and their son, Crew, on-site. Crew was born in July 2023.
“It’s such a cool feeling. It’s great to have them here,” Koepka said. “I finished better than 40th or 45th, like the last few times he’s been there. At least he got to see me do something a little better than that.”
LIV Golf is off this coming week, but a handful of LIV players, Koepka included, will travel to Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky., for the PGA Championship on May 16-19.
Koepka has already won three PGA titles (and five majors total), and as the defending champ he’ll be one of the betting favorites for the second major of the year.
Another storyline to watch is if the top betting favorite will be there as well. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and his wife, Meredith, are expecting their first child any day, and Scheffler did not commit to next week’s Wells Fargo Championship. It’s unclear when his next start will be.
SOURCE: [Golf.com]