The Limerick Summary: 2018 PGA Championship

Winner: Brooks Koepka

Around the wider world of golf: Kristen Gillman beat Jiwon Jeon to add a second US Women's Amateur to her record (the other was in 2014); Trevor Cone won the Web.com Tour’s Ellie Mae Classic; Corey Pereira won the ATB Financial Classic on the Mackenzie Tour - PGA TOUR Canada; Lauren Coughlin won the PHC Classic on the Symetra Tour; and Team Sweden3 (Cajsa Persson and Linda Wessberg) won the gold medal in the women’s team golf event at Gleneagles PGA Centenary Course on the LET.



Let's get a couple of things out of the way first, before I forget them.

Teaching pro Ben Kern was the only club pro to make the cut and he finished at T43 (-3), the best finish by a club pro in 13 years. Can't forget the club pros, especially when they play that well!

And both Adam Scott and Tiger, while neither won, should leave Bellerive with a huge confidence boost. Adam proved to himself that he actually can putt. And Tiger actually broke some of his own major records, which says something for how far he's come in less than a year. (Among other records, his 64 was his lowest score ever in a major.)

But the star of the show was Brooks Koepka. His performance was amazing, put him into some rare company at the Majors Club, and almost certainly locked up the Player of the Year award. But you'll be hearing about that all this week, maybe all winter until the Masters next April.

Let's talk instead about how this victory likely changes the competitive landscape on the PGA Tour for the next few months.

With three majors under his belt, Brooks has tied Jordan Spieth and lapped his buddy Dustin Johnson. Even Rory is only one ahead of him now! With this victory -- three of his last six majors -- Brooks has established himself as the "it" golfer of 2018. He's the Golden Boy now and, while he won't be #1 on the OWGR after this win (he will ascend to the top of my own Ruthless Golf World Rankings), there's no question that he's the man to beat going forward.

And with the FedExCup Playoffs and Ryder Cup just ahead, 2018 could get even better for him.

So I'll simply add my Limerick Summary to his haul this week. And I'll do it without a lot of fanfare -- that seems to be how Brooks does things lately.

Hey, Jordan and DJ—step back!
Make way as Brooks gives it a whack
And steps into the record books.
Hist’ry belongs to Brooks;
Now HE’S the head of the pack.

The photo came from this page at pgatour.com.

Brooks Looks Dangerous

I have nothing profound to write today, just a few thoughts that are banging around in my head.



First, as the title of this post says, I think Brooks Koepka is very dangerous. The long day on Saturday, along with the extreme heat, plays into his hands. Bear in mind that Brooks didn't have to come back out on Saturday morning and, adding that to his fitness level, he is probably the freshest of the players going into the final round today. He's a hard man to bet against.

Next, the slim two-shot lead Brooks carries into today's round could vanish in an instant if he sprays a few shots. When you start thinking about how many players are within two or three shots of the second spot -- guys like Tiger, Rahm, Fowler, Woodland, Day and Thomas -- a Koepka win is NOT a given.

Finally, don't sleep on Adam Scott. I know the bad rap his putting has given him, especially since the anchoring ban took effect. But Adam's got everything else he needs to run the tables at Bellerive, and all he needs is 18 good holes of putting on greens that aren't all that tricky. And that isn't such a long shot, when you think about it.

One thing is for sure. While the rains prevented the PGA from getting the conditions they wanted for their last August major, they managed to give us a really tight, really competitive leaderboard for Sunday. And I'm not sure a fan can ask for more than that.

But Brooks Koepka certainly controls the outcome here. If he can post, say, a 65 -- just one shot better than Saturday, when he stumbled a bit -- he's going to make it really hard for anybody else to catch him, let alone pass him.

My "5 to Watch" at the PGA

It's the final PGA Tour major of the year, the 100th PGA Championship. It's being held at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis MO, and it looks to be hot and wet for its final playing in August.



Everybody has a favorite this week, a player who they believe is a clear favorite to win, yet the only thing we know for sure is that the PGA almost always surprises us with an unexpected winner. Still, when you're trying to pick "the guy," it's really hard not to take the players who are in the best form or have a special skill that suits the conditions -- which, no matter how hard they try to find something different, is almost always length off the tee.

Nevertheless, I shall press on and try to do better this week than I did at the Ricoh last week. (Seriously though, Minjee Lee looked really good until Georgia Hall discovered the afterburner switch and torched the field.)

• I have to take defending champ Justin Thomas as one of my picks. While it's unusual for a player to follow a win at a big tournament with a win at a major, JT has been in great form all season -- perhaps better than most of the players in the field -- and seems to be relaxed coming into this week. While I can't predict how his game will go, I like his mental state. That could make all the difference by Sunday.
• Likewise, I have to take Dustin Johnson for similar reasons. These two are battling it out for #1 in the world every week, or so it seems, and have a total of five wins between them in 2018. (DJ has three, JT two.) The soft course conditions really could help him this week, and his ability to shrug off bad shots might give him an edge when guys start hitting balls into that deep wet rough.
• Rory McIlroy. Two-time PGA champion. Wet conditions. Need I say more?
• Tommy Fleetwood keeps knocking on the door, and eventually it's going to give way. He's not getting anywhere near the attention he should, given how well he's played, and I like the way he's flying under the radar this week.
• And my flier is... Ian Poulter. Not the 42-year-old you expected, right? But Euro Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn put the word out Tuesday: He wants to see "something" from Poults, and that may be just the thing Ian needs to get over the hump and get a major. He's coming off a T12 and a T10, which I think would truly qualify him as a surprise winner.

And my pick is... Poulter. I can't help but think the Ryder Cup is just the tonic Poulter needs for his ailing history in majors.

Bear in mind that the PGA isn't televised by GC, but rather by TNT and CBS. TNT coverage begins Thursday at 2pm ET.

Mental Tips from Brooks Koepka

I found this new article -- and when I say new, I mean it was written late yesterday -- over at Golfweek called Brooks Koepka's Recipe for Major Success Is Simple ... Very Simple. And when you read it, you're going to say it's nothing new.

But read it. It will help you.



For example, he says that performing in a major comes down to preparation. But most of us, whether we like to admit it or not, need to have things "dumbed down" a bit. So Brooks says:

“Sometimes it’s a lot simpler than people think. I think people kind of psyche themselves out quite a bit in a major, put too much pressure on themselves. It’s the same game I’ve been playing for 23, 24 years. All you’ve got to do is put the ball in the hole and move on.”

Yes, I hear you now. Yes, that's a HUGE understatement. But when you're under pressure to score, you need to keep it simple.

Want to guess what Brooks set as his goal this week? For every major he plays?

Try to avoid double bogeys.

Yes, this short article has quite a bit of terse, simple advice. You'll be tempted to gloss over it.

Don't. Instead, pay serious attention. This is good USABLE advice from a winner. And it's easy to remember.

A Good Move for the European Tour as Well

In the midst of the buzz about the PGA Championship moving to May and THE PLAYERS to March in 2019, you may have missed the ET's announcement. These moves stand to benefit the ET in a big way, and their response demonstrates that they recognize it.



When the PGA moves to May, that will make the Open Championship the final major of the year. Think about it -- the last major of the year will now be the oldest championship in golf, and the final act of the major season will be crowning the Champion Golfer of the Year. Somehow, that just feels right to me.

The promotional benefits of this new position also make perfect sense, as it will increase the perceived importance of the Open. (Let's face it, it seems like a bit of a letdown to have one more major after the Open is over. The Open is... foundational to the game. That's no insult to the PGA, it's just that the Open is about 50 years older. Foundational.) And now, there will be a nine-month gap until the Masters, not just eight. There will definitely be an increased feeling of necessity to get that last major.

But there's more. The ET will be moving the BMW-PGA to September in 2019, and I think that's going to help them as well. As it stands, the BMW-PGA -- the ET's equivalent of THE PLAYERS -- has been played the week after THE PLAYERS, and it put some stress on players wanting to play both events. Some would skip one or the other. That will no longer be a problem.

Ken Schofield even suggested that the ET might seek a co-sanction with the PGA Tour, thus improving the strength of the field. It's already played at Wentworth, a course with a long history. It's the headquarters of the PGA ET and has hosted the flagship event since 1984. In addition, it was the host of the 1953 Ryder Cup and the home of the HSBC World Match Play Championship from 1964 through 2007 A lot of big names won trophies there, and the event deserves more attention.

Even better, the BMW-PGA will probably be played after the FedExCup and will certainly be much closer to the final stretch of the Race to Dubai, lending even more importance to it. With the big events of the PGA Tour finished for the season, many more players will likely take some time to play the ET, which will help balance the world points rankings.

While it remains to be seen how all the necessary event shuffling will be handled by the three organizations, this new era of cooperation looks to be very promising for all parties. And that's good for all of us fans.

My "5 to Watch" at the PGA

The final major of the year is finally here. While the news that the PGA Championship will move to May in 2019 set everyone abuzz on Monday, our concern now is August 2017... and my "5 to Watch."



The revamped Quail Hollow course is only a few dozen yards longer -- PGATOUR.com is listing it at 7600 yards -- but it's been toughened up. The Green Mile is already considered the hardest final stretch on tour, and now the course opens with a 524-yard par-4. No rest for the weary, it seems.

No one is quite sure how the changes will affect play, especially with the major setup the pros will face this week. One thing's for sure -- Quail Hollow will be a real handful! The only question is who will be able to handle it the best. Since this course normally hosts the Wells Fargo Championship, we do have some recent history that might give us some clues.

• I have to agree with Jordan that Rory McIlroy is the favorite this week. Rory's the only player in the field with two wins at Quail Hollow (2010 and 2015), and the weather will likely suit him as well. I live about 90 minutes north of the course, and rain is expected in North Carolina virtually every day this week. Need I remind you that most of Rory's majors have been wet ones?
• While Dustin Johnson may not have returned to his pre-Masters form yet, he's still playing pretty well and he was one of the runners-up last year at the Wells Fargo. Even if he's off a bit, you have to think he'll have a good -- if not exceptional -- showing.
• Brian Harman was last year's champion at the Wells Fargo, and he gave Brooks Koepka a run for his money at the US Open this year. Had Brian's driver not deserted him on Sunday, that event might have gone differently. Brian's got to have good feelings coming back this week, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him play well.
• Has Hideki Matsuyama begun another streak with his win at the WGC-Bridgestone? We won't know until we see him in action... but it's hard to bet against him, after that run he put together late last year.
• And my flier is... Webb Simpson. True, Webb's game has been somewhat sketchy since the anchoring ban went into effect. But he plays Quail Hollow quite a bit, and he's been runner-up at the Wells Fargo before.

My pick this week is... Matsuyama. He was T11 at the Wells Fargo last year, before his streak began. I think this may be the week Japan gets its first-ever major winner.

Remember, this major "belongs" to TNT and CBS. The first round is Thursday from 1pm-7pm ET on TNT.

My "5 to Watch" at the PGA

Well, it's nearly a day late because of our internet failure, but here are my picks for the PGA Championship. Jason Day is, of course, the defending champion.



Although the tournament is already underway, I haven't changed my picks from who I would have chosen yesterday. So we already have some idea how my picks may fare!

First off, I didn't choose Jason Day, Jordan Spieth or Rory McIlroy. While I believe they're all very capable of winning this week, I also believe the accumulated stress of high-level play for a year or more may be taking its toll on them. As a result, I expect a mixed bag of good and bad rounds from them, which may not be enough to beat the other players who aren't as tired.

And now, here are my "5 to Watch":

• I agree with David Duval -- it's going to be hard to leave Dustin Johnson off one of these lists for the foreseeable future. It's not just about his improved short game; it's not about his amazing driving; it's not even about his obvious self-confidence. It's simply because he doesn't seem to stress out at all. As I write this, he's at +5 after seven holes so I may be completely off-base with this one. But given how he came back from a slow start last week -- and the knowledge that the winning score will likely be in single figures -- you've got to like his chances to make a run.
• Sergio Garcia is way under the radar, given that he's had five Top5s in his last six events, including the last two majors. Baltusrol is a shotmaker's course, and that's Sergio's strength. All he needs is a decent week putting and he could chalk up his first major.
• I also like Zach Johnson because of his straight hitting and his scrambling ability. For some reason this season, his good play hasn't resulted in the scores I'd expect to see. But I can see him getting done this week.

And I have two flier picks... and I think you'll understand why when you see them.

• The first is Phil Mickelson. It's hard enough to follow up a great round; how do you follow up a performance that would have won 141 of 144 OPENS but didn't win this one? Phil is unpredictable under the best of conditions; I won't even try to guess what he might do this week.
• And the other, obviously, is Henrik Stenson. Look, I know that Henrik has a proven ability to capitalize on great performances. But this wasn't a Tour Championship, the final official event of the season -- this was THE OPEN, in the midst of a very crowded schedule with the Olympics and FedExCup Playoffs just days away! I'm not sure even Henrik has the endurance to do it again so soon... but he makes my list because, like Phil, he's very capable and very unpredictable.

So who is my favorite to win this week? This is exactly what I planned to write last night: DJ is probably the best choice (not looking like that right now, of course) but I think Sergio just might get it done this time. His game is as good as it's been in a long time, his "head" seems to be in as good a place as it ever has at a major, and I think Henrik's success may have been the extra little push he needs to believe in himself. If he keeps hitting the ball as he has lately, he doesn't need a great week of putting -- just a good one. And I think he's going to have it.

I know -- awfully optimistic for a guy who lost the internet for a day. But I'm like that. ;-)