US PGA: Can Brooks Koepka win for third year in a row as majors tee off again?

Defending champion back in form but Rory McIlroy must step up a few gears to challenge for title

Brooks Koepka poses with the Wanamaker Trophy after winning the US PGA Championship at Bethpage Black in 2019. Koepka is bidding to win the title for the third consecutive year. Picture: AP Photo/Julio Cortez, FIle

A major. What’s that? Okay, perhaps a bit melodramatic, but it has been a long time. Close to 13 months, in fact, in the men’s game as the last one was Shane Lowry’s sensational win in the Open Championship at Royal Portrush.

At that time, a wait until April for The Masters already seemed like an eternity, but here we are finally on the cusp of one of the sport’s showpiece events returning as the 102nd US PGA Championship takes place this week at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco.

In the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge, golf’s first major winner behind closed doors will be crowned on Sunday, with lots of fascinating questions set to be answered between now and then.

Can Brooks Koepka become the first player since the legendary Peter Thomson, who achieved the feat in The Open in the 1950s, to win the same major three seasons in a row?

Can Rory McIlroy rediscover his sparkling early-season form on a course where he has already been a winner in the WGC-Cadillac Match Play in 2015?

Will Tiger Woods, another WGC winner on this course back in 2005 before picking up five points out of five in the Presidents Cup four years later, be able to contend after just one competitive outing on the PGA Tour since February?

Is bulked up Bryson DeChambeau ready to prove he is, indeed, the real deal by making his presence felt on a major leaderboard for the first time in his career?

Already a double US Open champion at the time, Koepka held off a rejuvenated Woods to land the first of his wins in this event at Bellerive just under two years ago before retaining the title with another impressive display at Bethpage Black in its new slot last May.

The 30-year-old had been out of sorts recently before enjoying a timely return to form as he put himself in the mix on the last day before losing out to Justin Thomas down the stretch in the WGC FedEx St Jude Invitational on Sunday.

“Koepka is certainly going to be a factor,” observed 2014 Ryder Cup-winning captain Paul McGinley, writing in his Sky Sports column. “He was miles off form going into last week, but found something again. His coach, Peter Cowen, was out there as well as Claude Harmon – who also works with him – and Phil Kenyon, his putting coach. One thing led to another and the confidence came back very quickly.

“I don’t know what it is about him, but for some reason when the big tournaments and the big money comes along – even without crowds at the moment – he’s still able to find performances.

“Going for three PGA Championships in a row is something special. I love watching him when he’s under pressure and he has that toughness about him.”

There was certainly a toughness about McIlroy when he landed this prize at Valhalla in 2014, having also won The Open at Royal Liverpool the previous month and a WGC as well in between, but the Northern Irishman has been stuck on the four majors mark since then.

McIlroy was in brilliant form earlier in the year, but it’s been spluttering stuff since the PGA Tour’s restart in June, leaving him needing to move up a few gears if he aims to taste success once more at this venue. “He’s playing poorly, that’s the bottom line,” said McGinley. “The main problem is his iron play. Technically he’s not swinging the club very well and we’re seeing him hit a lot of blocks with his irons in particular and not hitting the ball as close to the flag.

“He’s not making enough birdies and not competing at the top level, but his coach, Michael Bannon, is over there at the moment and, as we saw from Brooks Koepka, they can turn these things around very quickly. All it takes is a little bit of a lesson, whether that’s an alignment or a little feel that ignites him, then he’s off and running.”

At 44, Woods will be trying to become the oldest PGA Championship winner since Lee Trevino in 1984. In his only outing since the Genesis Invitational in February, the Masters champion never really hit his stride as he finished in a tie for 40th in the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village last month.

“I wouldn’t really be fancying Tiger this week for two reasons,” admitted McGinley. “He has played so little post-lockdown and it’s hard, even if you’re Tiger, to raise your game against the quality of players he’ll be up against this week. Those players have all played a lot of golf, whereas he’s played just one event. There’s obviously some issues with injuries and his body as to why he has not played more tournaments leading up to this.

“The second thing is the weather forecast is not particularly warm this week. We’re down to the low 60s in San Francisco and the course is on Lake Merced, not far from the ocean, so it’s going to be quite cool. What we have seen – and what Tiger has talked about – is that he needs a bit of heat for his back to give him the flexibility that he needs to play. Although you can never discount a player of his calibre, I would be surprised if he was contending on the leaderboard come Sunday.”

Since adding 40lbs to his bulk during lockdown, DeChambeau has been contending on most leaderboards since the PGA Tour’s restart in June, but he’s still unproven in majors. In contrast, Thomas won this event three years ago and he will be aiming to use that success last Sunday as a springboard for another big week.

Making his debut in the PGA of America’s flagship event, Bob 
MacIntyre has been paired with Patrick Reed and Kevin Na in the opening two rounds, with notable absentees in this year’s Wanamaker Trophy tussle including former winners Padraig Harrington, Vijay Singh, Y E Yang and John Daly, who withdrew earlier this week because he said he didn’t feel comfortable flying due to a high number of coronavirus cases in California.

Others not taking part include 2018 Open champion Francesco Molinari and Lee Westwood.

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