Brooks Koepka held off a late charge from Dustin Johnson to win the PGA Championship for the second straight year.
Koepka took a seven-stroke lead into the final round at Bethpage Black and held on after Johnson cut his deficit to one stroke.
Koepka finished with a 4-over 74 to win by 2 strokes and claim his fourth major title. He joins Tiger Woods as the only golfers to win the PGA in back-to-back years since the tournament went to stroke play in 1958. Koepka has also won back-to-back U.S. Opens.
Koepka made bogey on four straight holes on the back nine, and when Johnson birdied No. 15, he had closed the gap to one stroke. But Johnson had back-to-back bogeys to restore Koepka’s cushion.
Johnson, the No. 1 player in the world rankings, shot 69. It’s the second straight major he’s finished as runner-up. Johnson, who was second to Woods at the Masters last month, has finished second in all four majors. Koepka replaces him as No. 1 in the world ranking.
It’s Koepka’s fourth win in a major before turning 30. In the Masters Era (since 1934), only two golfers have had more major wins before turning 30 — Woods and Jack Nicklaus, according to ESPN Stats and Information.
Koepka is also the first player all-time to earn $7M in a span of 5 majors and the first major winner to have a final round of +4 or worse since Vijay Singh was +4 in the final round of the 2004 PGA Championship
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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