Weekend Wrap: Koepka Back On Track As PGA Defense Looms
Pendrith captures the Nelson while Otaegui plays his way into the PGA. Plus, remembering Peter Oosterhuis, more wackiness from Greg Norman, and Quotables.
Subscriber perk alert!
I watched golf this weekend so you did not have to.
Admittedly, the Derby and Shohei’s exploits proved infinitely more compelling. Then again, reverse turtle races at the local pub would be far more compelling than the “product” peddled by the supposed game growers.
You have to feel for the Salesmanship Club of Dallas. They’ve annually put on one of the great examples of a golf tournament giving back millions to its community, only to be consistently crapped on by the PGA Tour. With longtime sponsor AT&T having said enough is enough to a tough date, no Four Seasons on site, and after players point-missed Trinity Forest, Lord Nelson’s event has become a glorified minor league stop on a track devoid of verve, vibe or, this year, viable turf.
So let’s get to what matters most: a possible rival to Scottie Scheffler at the upcoming PGA Championship.
As he’s prone to do, Brooks Koepka appears to have flipped that amazing switch where he miraculously goes from full boredom mode to sensing another major within reach.
Not that you would have known it early last week when he offered this bleak game assessment prior to LIV Singapore.
“Clearly not very good, with Augusta the way that it went,” he said Thursday. “I kind of felt like I wasted all the time from December until then.”
Three rounds later in the miserable heat, and the PGA Championship’s defending champion hoisted that weird rebar border-wall-remnant-thing-of-a-trophy after a two-stroke win over Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman. Koepka will next surface at Valhalla in just over a week with hopes of winning a sixth major.
“It’s all starting to come around,” the 34-year-old said after a final round 68 and spending his May 3rd birthday in sweltering Singapore. “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.”
Koepka took the week off after his +9, T45 Masters showing. Then he and swing coach Claude Harmon dug in prior to LIV’s Australia and Singapore stops.
“Kind of started to see it turn maybe Wednesday, Thursday of Adelaide, so to see it pay off here is huge,” he said. “I like the way things are trending. We just need to go back this week -- well, next week, and make sure everything is kinda going, do the right stuff and go from there.”
I believe that’s Floridian for “keep doing what I just did here in Singapore.” But I also don’t speak fluent Floridaman so, we’ll just see what he says at Valhalla.
You’ll hear this endlessly for the next week and for darn good reasons: Koepka’s major wins have come in pairs: the U.S. Open in 2017 and 2018, the 2018 and 2019 PGA and now, a chance to couple his 2023 PGA win at Oak Hill with one in Kentucky next week.
Koepka’s also got something Scheffler and others do not have: experience at Valhalla. When the Jack Nicklaus design last hosted in 2014, a far less imposing Koepka finished T15 in his sixth major and second-ever PGA Championship.
Elsewhere…
Taylor Pendrith (64-67-63-67-261) captured his first PGA Tour title with a one-stroke win over Ben Knowles. The 32-year-old Canadian’s victory in the CJ Cup Byron Nelson gets him into the PGA Championship and next year’s Masters. Pendrith entered the Nelson week ranked 109th in the world having missed six of 11 cuts with two top 10’s in 2024.
While he is the first Canadian to win the Nelson, Pendrith’s victory means 11 of the past 16 champions have been international players. Full highlights here.
16-year-old Kris Kim posted a second-round 4-under 67 to make the cut by one stroke. The English(young)man had not been lighting up the amateur and junior circuit, yet made the cut and finished 70-73 on the weekend. But fields have never been deeper with these athletes today! The Epsom student, who played the CJ Cup Byron Nelson on a sponsor’s invite, returns home where the first of his GCSE exams awaits Thursday (Corrigan/Telegraph).
Scottie Scheffler was the only eligible player who did not commit to this week’s Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow as he and wife Meredith await their first child. The Masters champion will now go from winning at Harbour Town a few weeks ago to the next major.
The Wells Fargo gave maybe-someday-possibly-depending-on- outgoing PGA Tour Board member Webb Simpson his fourth signature event sponsor exemption of the year. I get that he lives on the course and tells Johnny Harris the latest changes to the over-renovated course are just what the doctor ordered, but still…what an embarrassing display of Old Boys Network nonsense.
Adrian Otaegui came from five back to secure his fifth DP World Tour title at the rain-shortened Volvo China Open. The Spaniard earned a spot in the PGA Championship via the Asian Swing Ranking that also vaulted Sweden’s Sebastian Söderberg and Japan’s Keita Nakajima into the field. Full China Open highlights here.
18-1 shot Mystik Dan took the 150th Kentucky Derby by a nose over Sierra Lione and Japan’s Forever Young. Dornoch, named for the great links and relentlessly mispronounced throughout the day (Door-KNOCK), finished 10th. The full race is here. Though it’s always fun to watch Churchill Downs track announcer Travis Stone ply his trade:
Remembering Peter Oosterhuis
I was lucky enough to meet Peter Oosterhuis in the early 1990’s and, being a dumb kid who knew just enough about his career to be dangerous, struck up a conversation about, of all things, persimmon woods. The range in question was Sandpiper near Santa Barbara where Peter wintered when he was the pro at Forsgate and I was a young college golfer at UCSB still (also) playing those wooden things.