Brooks Koepka says the fightback from right knee surgery that sidelined him for most of the past two years has made his fifth major title the most special of all.
Koepka outdueled Scottie Scheffler and Viktor Hovland down the back nine at Oak Hill on Sunday to capture the PGA Championship for his first major victory since 2019.
"This one is definitely special," Koepka said. "I think this one is probably the most meaningful of them all with everything that has gone on, all the crazy stuff over the last few years.
"It feels good to be back and to get number five."
Since 1990, only Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have as many major triumphs as Koepka, who added a third PGA Championship to his two US Open crowns.
The 33-year-old American now ranks among the 20 all-time winningest men in major golf history.
"It's crazy. I try not to think of it," he said. "I do care about it. It's just tough to really grasp the situation while you're still in it.
"Right now I'm trying to collect as many of these things as I can. We'll see how it goes."
There were times Koepka doubted if he could continue his career after 2021 right knee surgery that rebuilt his kneecap. He missed most of two seasons during long, painful days of rehabilitation.
"This is probably the sweetest one of them all because of all the hard work that went into this one," said Koepka.
"A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into this one. All the pain. There were a lot of times I couldn't even bend my knee. I've worked my butt off."
Koepka admits he tried to return too fast off the operation, even though he managed a runner-up finish at the 2021 PGA Championship. In all, he has 18 top-10 finishes in 36 major starts.
Koepka also said he never spoke about how difficult and painful his recovery truly was.
"It was a lot worse than I let on to everybody," Koepka said. "It was hard. Cold weather, it was achy. The swelling didn't go down until maybe a couple months ago. That's almost two years. It has been a long road.
"If I couldn't play the way I wanted to play, then I was definitely going to give it up. I mean, the thought definitely kind of crossed my mind."
- Learned through failure -
Koepka, a LIV winner last month in Orlando, said he learned a valuable lesson by, in his words, "choking" in squandering a last-day lead to Jon Rahm at last month's Masters.
While he won't say more than it deals with his mindset, the impact was profound.
"I definitely wouldn't have won today if it hadn't been for that," he said, adding, "I'm not going to share. I can't give away all the secrets."
Koepka says he has learned more from more major runner-up finishes than in his five major victories.
"I think failure is how you learn. You get better from it," he said. "You realize what mistakes you've made. Each time I've kind of made an adjustment. It's more mentality than it is anything.
"You're going to play how you play, but mentally you can kind of figure things out, and I'm always trying to get better. Just trying to find that different little edge just to poke and try inside my head.
"Really, I think the big key is just being open and honest with yourself and if you can do that you'll be miles ahead of everybody else."
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