Confidence was by no means a problem for Brooks Koepka till the accidents piled up, the doubts crept in and he started to surprise if he nonetheless belonged amongst golf’s elite.

Koepka answered each query on the PGA Championship with a efficiency that ranks amongst his finest. His fifth main title was the sweetest of all of them. No doubt about that, both.

“It feels damned good. Yeah, this one is definitely special,” Koepka stated. “I think this one is probably the most meaningful of them all with everything that’s gone on, all the crazy stuff over the last few years.”

One knee damage stored him from the Masters, one other from the Presidents Cup in Australia. Two years in the past, he tried to pop his knee again into place and shattered his knee cap. And then final summer time, unsure about his future, he determined to go away the PGA Tour for the assured Saudi riches of LIV Golf, bringing a combination of criticism and skepticism.

And there he was Sunday at Oak Hill, wanting good as new, dominant as ever, in opposition to the perfect assortment of golfers on this planet on a punishing golf course.

Koepka ran off three fast birdies early, by no means misplaced the lead amid a gritty struggle from Viktor Hovland, and closed with a 3-under 67 for a two-shot victory.

He held up his index finger as he posed subsequent to the Wanamaker Trophy, however he could as properly have held up all 5.

With three PGAs and two U.S. Opens, he turned the twentieth participant with 5 or extra majors. He received his third Wanamaker Trophy — solely Jack Nicklaus and Walter Hagen with 5 and Tiger Woods with 4 have received the PGA Championship extra instances — and captured his first main in what felt like 4 years.

And to assume that over the previous few years, Koepka was so wounded he felt he couldn’t compete, a choice that may have led to him leaving the PGA Tour for Saudi-funded LIV Golf in a stunning transfer final June after the U.S. Open.

In the Netflix sequence “Full Swing” that started aired earlier this yr, he was quoted as saying his confidence had given technique to doubt. “I’m going to be honest with you, I can’t compete with these guys week in and week out.”

Give him good well being and a transparent head, and good luck taking down Koepka within the majors. He now has received 5 of his final 22 majors, a price exceeded solely by Woods, Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Nick Faldo and Ben Hogan within the final 75 years.

He is the primary participant from LIV Golf to win a serious, and it hits again on the notion that 54-hole occasions and assured cash would take the sting off the rival league’s finest gamers.

“I definitely think it helps LIV, but I’m more interested in my own self right now, to be honest with you,” Koepka stated. “Yeah, it’s a huge thing for LIV, but at the same time I’m out here competing as an individual at the PGA Championship. I’m just happy to take this home for the third time.”

Koepka is in fairly heady firm nearly in all places he seems to be. His 5 majors are as many as Seve Ballesteros and Byron Nelson. Among energetic gamers, solely Woods (15) and Phil Mickelson (6) have extra.

“I’m not even sure I dream of it as a kid, that I’d win that many,” he stated.

Koepka left little doubt about his place within the sport along with his two-shot win over hard-luck Hovland (68) and Scottie Scheffler, who closed with a 65 and returned to No. 1 on this planet.

“To look back to where we were two years ago, I’m so happy right now,” Koepka stated. “This is just the coolest thing.”

The victory strikes Koepka to No. 13 on this planet and No. 2 within the Ryder Cup standings. The high six routinely qualify, and it will be exhausting to fathom leaving Koepka off the American crew. He can solely early factors within the majors, and two extra are nonetheless to come back.

Koepka needed to share the loudest cheers with California membership professional Michael Block, who placed on an incredible present over 4 days. Block made a hole-in-one on the fifteenth gap whereas taking part in with Rory McIlroy, after which made two powerful par putts on the finish for a fourth straight 70.

He tied for fifteenth, giving him a return date to the PGA Championship subsequent yr at Valhalla. It was the perfect end by a membership professional since Lonnie Nielsen tied for 11 in 1986 at Inverness.

“The most surreal moment I’ve ever had in my life,” Block stated. “I’m living a dream and making sure I’m enjoying the moment. Not getting any better than this — no way in hell.”

Block prices $125 a lesson at Arroyo Trabuco in Mission Viejo, California. He earned simply wanting $290,000 at Oak Hill.

A month in the past on the Masters, Koepka misplaced a two-shot lead within the remaining spherical by taking part in tentatively and was overrun by Jon Rahm. He vowed he wouldn't do this once more, and Koepka delivered in a serious manner, identical to he used to.

Hovland made it simple for him on the finish. Koepka was one shot forward on the sixteenth gap when Hovland hit his 9-iron from a bunker that plugged into the lip in entrance of him — the identical shot that stopped Corey Conners on Saturday — and made double bogey.

Koepka gouged out a shot from the tough to five toes for birdie and all of a sudden was main by 4 photographs when Hovland made double bogey.

Scheffler began 4 photographs behind and by no means bought nearer than two. His 65 matched the perfect rating of the match, posted by 4 different gamers on a day that was arrange for scoring.

“I gave the guys on top of the leaderboard something to think about, and I kind of made a little bit much a move, but Brooks just played some fantastic golf this week,” Scheffler stated. “He played too good this weekend for me to catch up to him.”

Koepka was decided to revive his fame as a serious drive, and he wasted no time. He stuffed a wedge to 4 toes on the second and third holes, and rolled in an 8-foot birdie down the hill on the par-5 fourth.

But he drove into the water on the sixth gap and did properly to make bogey, and one other bogey from the tough on the seventh trimmed his result in Hovland to 1 shot.

It was tight the remainder of the way in which till the sixteenth. Hovland hit 9-iron from the bunker and will hear the terrible thud of it rocketing into the turf on the fringe of the sand. He knew instantly what occurred, coated his mouth with a closed fist. After a drop into nasty tough, it took two extra to get to the inexperienced and led to double bogey.

“Brooks is a great player, and now he has five majors. I mean, that’s a hell of a record right there. It’s not easy going toe-to-toe with a guy like that,” Hovland stated. “He is not going to give you anything, and I didn’t really feel like I gave him anything either until 16.”

Bryson DeChambeau, who started the PGA with a 66, made too many errors in his spherical of 70. He caught round to clasp arms with Koepka, two gamers from LIV Golf who used to get below one another’s pores and skin.

LIV had three gamers within the high 10 for the second straight main.

Koepka, who completed at 9-under 271, obtained $3.15 million and the heaviest trophy among the many 4 majors. Nothing felt extra beneficial than that.