Watch: The lucky bounce that helped Koepka win the 118th US Open
After striping a drive down the middle of the 18th hole, it looked all but over. With a two-shot lead on the final hole, Brooks Koepka looked like he would easily become the first back-to-back U.S. Open champion since Curtis Strange in 1988-89.
But on his approach shot from 201 yards out, Koepka hooked his iron way left. If it were to land in the knee-high rough, that two-shot lead would have had the potential to quickly evaporate.
Luckily for Koepka, his wayward shot was stopped by the grandstands before it could have gone any further from the green.
Brooks Koepka pulls one way left on 18 with a two-shot lead. May want to get to a TV. #USOpen. pic.twitter.com/GEOxkdDdil
— Mark Harris (@itismarkharris) June 17, 2018
Not only that, but the ball kicked hard off the grandstand, maybe 20 feet out, back toward the green. So there was no awkward lie or need for a club-length drop. He actually had a good look at the pin and was just far enough away from the greenside bunker to avoid it on his chip.
His chip on 18 left him about 15 feet from the hole, which he managed to easily two-putt for a bogey and the one-shot win.
A two-putt bogey on the 72nd hole does it. @BKoepka is the 118th #USOpen champion, and the first back-to-back champion since 1989! pic.twitter.com/DaWUiRGHCw
— U.S. Open (@usopengolf) June 17, 2018
Koepka finished at 1-over for the tournament, one shot ahead of Tommy Fleetwood, who fired a U.S. Open record-tying 63 in the final round.
“It feels so good to have this thing back,” Koepka added, holding the trophy.
Koepka’s performance overshadowed Fleetwood’s incredible 63, carded on one of the toughest U.S. Open venues there is, Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, New York.
Fleetwood, who started the day at 9-over, had an 8-foot putt on 18 to break the U.S. Open scoring record. More importantly, it would have put him in the clubhouse at 1-over and ultimately in a playoff with Koepka. But he missed it to the left.
“The putt, I started on the line I wanted to,” Fleetwood told Reuters. “It was a little slower than I thought. I knew what it was for. I hit the putt I wanted. It’s so steep, that green.”
Tommy Fleetwood has equalled Johnny Miller’s record for the lowest final round ever at a US Open (63).
Incredible golf. pic.twitter.com/KIP0Kflef5
— bet365 (@bet365) June 17, 2018
But all credit goes to Koepka, who outlasted the beast that is Shinnecock.
“I enjoy being pushed to the limit,” Koepka said, according to the Associated Press. “Sometimes you feel like you are about to break mentally, but that’s what I enjoy. I enjoy hard golf courses. I enjoy playing about the toughest in golf you are ever going to play.”
Koepka has won on one of the easiest U.S. Open tracks, Wisconsin’s Erin Hills, and one of the toughest, Shinnecock. He’s not just a big hitter; Koepka obviously has the type of game that travels anywhere.
Koepka will try to become only the second golfer — and the first in more than 100 years — to win three straight U.S. Open titles when the event returns to the famed Pebble Beach Golf Links in California next year. The only other golfer to three-peat was Scotland’s Willie Anderson in 1903, 1904 and 1905.
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