If Brooks Koepka’s career winds up as good as the other four players who have won a U.S. Open and PGA Championship in the same year, then he is bound for legendary status.
The 28-year-old Floridian, who in June became the first player since Curtis Strange in 1989 to successfully defend his U.S. Open title, joined Gene Sarazen (1922), Ben Hogan (1948), Jack Nicklaus (1980) and Tiger Woods (2000) as the fifth person to claim the U.S. Open and PGA in the same year.
All four who came before him have one thing in common – they achieved the career Grand Slam.
Koepka outdueled a host of contenders on Sunday at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, Mo., including a hard-charging Woods, to claim the 100th PGA Championship by two strokes. And Koepka needed a final-round, 4-under 66 to etch his name on the Wanamaker Trophy.
He’s now one of 17 golfers to amass three major titles, and one of a handful to do it before turning 30. When he tees it up in the 119th U.S. Open next June, site of this week’s U.S. Amateur, Koepka will be looking to become the first player to win the championship in three straight years since Willie Anderson from 1903-05.
