Brooks Koepka was the perfect spoiler for Tiger Woods’ PGA charge

Brooks Koepka will play the disrespect card again, as all the headlines and attention turned to Tiger Woods on Sunday at the PGA Championship. But it’s less about disrespect for Koepka, the best player in the world, than it is the fascination with the biggest draw ever in the game doing things we never thought we’d see again. It could have been any player, any legend, any longshot, playing in the final pairing on Sunday with the lead and everyone would have been paying more attention to what was going on up ahead with Tiger.

But it was not any player in that last group. It was the golfing automaton that is Koepka, the person probably most impervious to the madness up ahead. Tiger shot a 64 that had the ground shaking in St Louis. It could have been a shot better — maybe — on the back nine and it still would not have mattered. Koepka would hear a roar and then just make a birdie to separate.

It was so impressive but not really unexpected. We’re starting to understand that this is who Koepka is at the majors, especially when playing from out front late in the game. This was just the game, blouses moment.

At the last spot where he could find serious trouble, the 17th tee with water running down the right side, he murdered the ball on the perfect line over a corner and down the middle. We saw Tiger pump one into the hazard about 15 minutes prior but Koepka might not have nerves of any kind, especially with the driver in his hands.

The course was among the easiest you’ll see at a major, but Koepka went 66-66 on the weekend after matching the PGA Championship record with a 63 on Friday. Perhaps the most impressive thing about it is that it felt so inevitable. He was a likely candidate to win before the week started and then by the time we got to the weekend, it seemed crazy to think anyone else would knock him off.

Now he’s got as many majors as Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose, Justin Thomas, and Jon Rahm, combined. Those are the other top five players in the world, but it’s not really a question of who is the most dominant when it matters most. The others may get more publicity, a thing Koepka apparently bristles at and notices each time, but Koepka is the one best set-up for an historic career.

Right or wrong, we tend to define careers most by major championship performance, and that’s where Koepka is at his best. He has the remarkable, quite backwards, distinction of having won three majors while only winning one PGA Tour event. The progression is usually the other way around but it feels like Koepka is still getting started at this kind of show at the majors. Just like it would have been surprising to see him blow it on Sunday, it would be surprising if he never won another major.

He’s the best player in the world, the Player of the Year, and is now a certain Hall of Famer. Here’s your final leaderboard from Bellerive: