Brooks Koepka was challenged, clinging to just a one-stroke lead entering Sunday, but pulled away shooting a final round 67 to win the PGA Championship at Oak Hill by two strokes.
He hoisted the Robert Wanamaker trophy for a third time, carding a 72-hole, 9-under-par score of 271 and joining elite company with his victory on the storied course in Rochester, N.Y., but this time was different.
Koepka, 33, became the first golfer for the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour to deliver a major championship—after falling short by four strokes against Spain’s Jon Rahm at the Masters in April. His fifth major win comes as LIV is tangled in an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour, from which Koepka and several other big names defected.
On Sunday, that didn’t seem to matter to Koepka, who has battled back from a knee injury to win his first major since the 2019 PGA Championship.
“A couple years ago, I was lost, I didn’t know where my golf swing was, and if I was physically capable of getting back to where I was,” Koepka told reporters after the win. “But a lot has transpired… I think [trainer Dr. Ara Suppiah] said it best a couple months ago: ‘If we couldn’t get the swelling out of [his] knee, then everybody is fired’. They’ve done a great job, and I wouldn’t be here without them.”
Koepka, who joined LIV Golf last summer, walks away with $3.1 million, part of an all-time high $17.5 million purse for the PGA Championship. The first-place payout is up from $15 million last year, when the winner took in $2.5 million. Koepka bested second-place finishers Scottie Scheffler and Viktor Hovland, who will receive $1.5 million each.
The PGA Championship, put on by the PGA of America, is distinct from the PGA Tour. Unlike the tour, the PGA Championship allows LIV Golf players to compete in its event, as do the three other majors.
Prize money across golf has increased since the inception of the Saudi Public Investment Fund-financed LIV tour, which has boosted the earnings of those willing to jump from the PGA Tour.
Koepka, who has more than $47 million in career earnings, according to Spotrac, has managed to capitalize, reaping the benefits of the increase for the second highest paying men’s major. But it didn’t come without opposition on and off the course.
Fellow LIV golfer Bryson DeChambeau, who withdrew his name from the LIV-PGA Tour lawsuit last week, and Koepka were met with loud boos during the tournament. The reaction was a reminder of how polarizing the upstart league has been since it launched in 2021.
Koepka sounded fine with that on Sunday.
“It’s so cool to look back on where I’ve come, traveling from Kenya to Kazakhstan and all those cool places and getting to see the world,” he told reporters. “To be out here now and to win five major championships is pretty incredible.”
(This story has been updated to accurately reflect Koepka’s career earnings.)
