Matsuyama did his best to back-door his way into contention, shooting 6-under 66 to shoot up the leaderboard after starting the day six strokes off the lead. Matsuyama birdied No. 18 to close within one shot of Koepka with five holes to play, but Koepka turned on the afterburners late Sunday. He carded three straight birdies on Nos. 14-16 to create plenty of distance between himself and the rest of the field.
Erin Hills had been wide open all tournament long, with light winds and soft conditions leading to new records for birdies, low rounds, and players under par. Koepka’s 16-under tied Rory McIlroy for the lowest score in relation to par in US Open history, and Koepka is just the third US Open winner to finish double digits below par (Tiger Woods). This year was also the first time that the runner-up finished double digits below par (the top seven on this year’s leaderboard all did so).
But Erin Hills, hosting its first major championship, finally played like a US Open course on Sunday, with 20-25 mile per hour winds wreaking havoc on the tee box and playing like the difficult links-style course that the United States Golf Association envisioned when it booked the event.
One by one the contenders dropped off Sunday afternoon. Harman, the leader after the third round, only carded one birdie on the front and then fell out of contention with back-to-back bogeys on 12 and 13. Tommy Fleetwood, Patrick Reed, and Si Woo Kim only managed even-par or worse.
That left only Koepka and Matsuyama, who shot the two lowest rounds of the day.
“It made me feel a lot better seeing Brooks shoot 5-under,” Thomas said. “I would have had to play some pretty spectacular golf to catch him.”
Koepka, a 27-year-old from West Palm Beach, Fla., flexed his muscles off the tee box all weekend (seventh in driving average in the field) and showed excellent touch with his putter on Sunday.
Brooks Koepka (born May 3, 1990) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour.
Ranked inside the top 25 in the Official World Golf Ranking, he chose a different route than other young Americans to get mainstay status on the PGA Tour, by starting his career on the European Challenge Tour and eventually the European Tour.
Koepka claimed his first major championship by winning the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills.
Koepka was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, and raised in Lake Worth, Florida. He attended Cardinal Newman High School. He played college golf at Florida State University, where he won three events and was a three-time All-American. He qualified for the 2012 U.S. Open while still an amateur, but missed the cut.
In the summer of 2012, Koepka turned professional and began playing on the Challenge Tour in Europe. He won his first title in September at the Challenge de Catalunya. In 2013 he had his second victory on the Challenge Tour, winning the 2013 Montecchia Golf Open . He followed this a month later with his third win, the Fred Olsen Challenge de España, where he set the tournament record, 260 (−24), and won by a record 10 strokes. Three weeks later he had his third win of the year at the Scottish Hydro Challenge. With those three wins, he earned his European Tour card for the remainder of the 2013 season and for the full 2014 season. The day after his third Challenge Tour win of 2013, Koepka qualified for the 2013 Open Championship. Koepka made his debut as a member of the European Tour (he played in three events prior to promotion to membership) at the Scottish Open, finishing T12.
In his first event of the 2014 PGA Tour, Koepka led after the second and third rounds of the Frys.com Open. He finished tied for third. At the U.S. Open, he collected a fourth-place finish, which earned him his PGA Tour card for the 2014–15 season and his first Masters invitation. Later he ended 15th at the PGA Championship. He was nominated for the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year award. On the 2014 European Tour, Koepka won the Turkish Airlines Open and finished third at the Dubai Desert Classic and Omega European Masters, and ninth at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. He ranked 8th in the 2014 Race to Dubai rankings and was named the European Tour’s Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year.
On February 1, 2015, Koepka won his first PGA Tour event, the Waste Management Phoenix Open and moved to 19th in the Official World Golf Ranking.
In 2015, Koepka chose to give up his European Tour membership.
In 2017, Koepka won his first major championship by claiming the U.S. Open title at Erin Hills. Koepka’s win tied him for the record of the lowest U.S. Open score at 16 under (tied with Rory McIlroy‘s 2011 record).
Personal life
Koepka’s brother Chase is also a professional golfer.
Koepka was recently in a relationship with professional soccer player Becky Edwards, but they broke up when Edwards returned to Sweden in 2017 to play professional soccer. At the 2017 U.S. Open it was announced that Koepka is dating actress Jena Sims.
Amateur wins (1)
- 2009 Rice Planters Amateur
Professional wins (8)
PGA Tour wins (2)
| Major championships (1) |
| Other PGA Tour events (1) |
| No. | Date | Tournament | Winning score | Margin of victory |
Runners-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Feb 1, 2015 | Waste Management Phoenix Open | −15 (71-68-64-66=269) | 1 stroke |   |
| 2 | Jun 18, 2017 | U.S. Open | −16 (67-70-68-67=272) | 4 strokes | |
PGA Tour playoff record (0–1)
| No. | Year | Tournament | Opponent | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2016 | AT&T Byron Nelson |  |
Lost to par on first extra hole |
European Tour wins (2)
| Legend |
| Major championships (1) |
| Race to Dubai finals series (1) |
| Other European Tour (0) |
| No. | Date | Tournament | Winning score | Margin of victory |
Runner(s)-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nov 16, 2014 | Turkish Airlines Open | −17 (69-67-70-65=271) | 1 stroke |  |
| 2 | Jun 18, 2017 | U.S. Open | −16 (67-70-68-67=272) | 4 strokes | |
Challenge Tour wins (4)
| No. | Date | Tournament | Winning score | Margin of victory |
Runner(s)-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sep 30, 2012 | Challenge de Catalunya | −16 (68-67-65=200) | 3 strokes |  |
| 2 | May 5, 2013 | Montecchia Golf Open | −23 (66-67-62-66=261) | 7 strokes | |
| 3 | Jun 2, 2013 | Fred Olsen Challenge de España | −24 (64-66-64-66=260) | 10 strokes |   |
| 4 | Jun 23, 2013 | Scottish Hydro Challenge | −18 (70-66-62-68=266) | 3 strokes |  |
Japan Golf Tour wins (1)
| No. | Date | Tournament | Winning score | Margin of victory |
Runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nov 20, 2016 | Dunlop Phoenix Tournament | −21 (65-70-63-65=263) | 1 stroke | |
Major championships
Wins (1)
| Year | Championship | 54 holes | Winning score | Margin | Runner(s)-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | U.S. Open | 1 shot deficit | −16 (67-70-68-67=272) | 4 strokes | |
Results timeline
| Tournament | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masters Tournament | DNP | DNP | DNP | T33 | T21 | T11 |
| U.S. Open | CUT | DNP | T4 | T18 | T13 | 1 |
| The Open Championship | DNP | CUT | T67 | T10 | DNP | |
| PGA Championship | DNP | T70 | T15 | T5 | T4 |
| Tournament | Wins | 2nd | 3rd | Top-5 | Top-10 | Top-25 | Events | Cuts made |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masters Tournament | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| U.S. Open | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 4 |
| The Open Championship | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| PGA Championship | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| Totals | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 15 | 13 |
- Most consecutive cuts made – 13 (2013 PGA – 2017 U.S. Open, current)
- Longest streak of top-10s – 2 (2015 Open – 2015 PGA)
Results in World Golf Championships
| Tournament | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mexico Championship | T17 | T23 | T48 |
| Match Play | T17 | QF | R16 |
| Bridgestone Invitational | T6 | WD | |
| HSBC Champions | DNP | T40 |
