The PGA Championship is over and we're heading to The 73rd Hole to break down US Open and British Open predictions, Brooks Koepka and LIV Golf, and more.
Brooks Koepka, for the third time, is holding the Wanamaker Trophy as the PGA Championship winner. And there was no doubt. He held the 54-hole lead, but Viktor Hovland didn't let up until a costly mistake sunk the ship. Make no mistake, though, Brooks Koepka had the chance to go out and take his fifth major, and he did just that.
So now what? What does that mean for LIV Golf and its viability in the golfing landscape now that one of the members has won a major championship since joining the tour? What does it mean for the 2023 US Open and 2023 Open Championship and how we look at those fields and the potential winners? What does it mean for some other players in the field who didn't hold up the trophy after 72 holes?
We're onto the 73rd hole to break that down with predictions, takeaways and more after the PGA Championship.
PGA Championship: 5 predictions and takeaways after Brooks Koepka wins Oak Hill
5. What Brooks Koepka's PGA Championship means for the validity of LIV Golf
There was no LIV Golf party on the 18th green as Brooks Koepka won the first major championship as a non-PGA Tour member since several prominent members of the PGA Tour (and some less prominent ones) joined the new league, creating a fracture in the golf world. But that didn't mean there weren't some LIV players speaking on the effects of the win for establishing the validity of LIV Golf.
Bryson DeChambeau, who faded from real contention but still finished T4 for the week, perhaps summed that feeling up the best, via Bob Harig of SI Golf.
"It validates everything we've said from the beginning," DeChambeau said. "We're competing at the highest level. And we have the ability to win major championships. I really hope people can see the light now that we're trying to provide golf something new and fresh. At the end of the day, both sides are going to have to come together at some point. It's for the good of the game"
Koepka, for his part, noted that it was a boost for LIV Golf, but spoke more to his personal journey, which golf fans got a front seat to during his episode on Full Swing, the Netflix golf documentary that followed the now-five-time major champion prior to his decision to bolt from the PGA Tour.
"Yeah, I definitely think it helps LIV, but I'm more interested in my own self right now, to be honest with you," Koepka said, via ESPN's Mark Schlabach. "Yeah, it's a huge thing for LIV, but at the same time, I'm out here competing as an individual at the PGA Championship. I'm just happy to take this home for the third time."
But what does this mean for the validity of LIV Golf, which has often been called into question?
There are always going to be jokes about 54 holes, shotgun starts, the lack of viewership and so on. One thing that may have wrongly been questioned by many, though, is that Koepka, at times DeChambeau, Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson and others on LIV Golf are still some of the elite players in the game of golf today.
Perhaps it's somewhat damning that they aren't regularly contending during LIV events but, at the same time, if they can peak for major weeks — as we've seen many players on the PGA Tour try to do as well — and don't mind the results week-to-week, who cares?
That's plenty enough validation to prove that they can still compete with the best.
At the same time, though, Koepka's performance and the talent of the players like DeChambeau, Smith, DJ and the like against the best players on the PGA Tour only heightens the simple fact that it sucks for golf fans that we don't see this more than four times per year at the major. It brings the fracture in the golfing world more into focus in an extremely negative way.
I'm not smart enough to propose any kind of solution for how to fix that divide at this point. That's above my pay grade. But as a lover of golf, a fan of golf, and someone who enjoyed the PGA Championship to the utmost with some of the best characters that golf has to offer that we don't see in the spotlight as regularly as we once did compete at the top of the leaderboard together, the simple truth is that I've missed that. And any way to get it back more often is good with me.
4. Viktor Hovland puts his stamp on major championship resumé
It was widely discussed that, after registering no previous Top 10 finishes in majors prior to last year's trip to St. Andrews, Viktor Hovland had gone back-to-back inside the Top 7 at his last two major starts.
But the onus for the Norwegian from fans wanting to see the best from the uber-talented 25-year-old was to see him do what it takes to close the deal. At Augusta, he shot 2-over in the final round to fall from outright third to T7. At St. Andrews, he shot an equal 2-over round to go from tied for the lead to T4 on the leaderboard. Hovland needed to finish the job.
On Sunday at Oak Hill, he did that. Obviously, he didn't win his first major championship, but it was not Hovland fading into obscurity for Brooks Koepka to run away with his fifth major. Outside of the disastrous break that led to a double-bogey on the 16th hole, he was aggressive and ballsy in big moments, took his medicine to avoid most big mistakes, and pushed Koepka until almost the very end.
While all it means is yellow on the Wikipedia page for the third straight major for Viktor Hovland (and a big payday), the truth of the matter is that the still-young budding star proved that he has major pedigree. And rather than wondering if he has it, Hovland proved that it might just be a matter of time before he gets one and doesn't just get beat on Sunday.
3. Stop letting Patrick Cantlay's finish fool the process in majors
Speaking of yellow on the Wikipedia page, Patrick Cantlay added some to his and added to a string of finishes at majors that is, on the surface, solid. He now has four total Top 10 finishes in majors, including two of his last three, and has finished T14 or better in each of the last four major championships. When you just look at that, you would still think a player of his talent maybe should have a win by now, but he's not been uncompetitive.
Except that he has. His finishes, for the most part, are a mirage, and the PGA Championship was no different.
Sitting at T18 after a 3-under second round and being +1 for the tournament, Cantlay had the opportunity to make a move on Saturday. Instead, he faded from the moment with a 2-over round that put him nine strokes off the lead and completely out of contention. He then shot 4-under in the final round to climb back into the Top 5.
At The Masters this year, Cantlay shot an impressive 4-under 68 in the third round to jump to solo fourth entering the final 18 holes only to eject with a 3-over round and fall to T14. The Open was no different, sitting eight strokes off the lead and firing off a 4-under round on Sunday to get onto the first page of the leaderboard.
For whatever reason, Patrick Cantlay is not a major championship golfer. He's fooled many into believing that he can contend with these finishes, but they are fool's gold. And until we see him deliver, even in the way that Hovland did on Sunday at Oak Hill, it won't be me buying into him at the four biggest events of the year.
2. Predicting the 2023 US Open winner at Los Angeles Country Club
Because of the Gil Hanse redesign of LACC since the 2017 Walker Cup was played there, the only true major event we've really seen in recent memory at one of the United States' oldest courses, particularly on the west coast, there are a lot of unknown factors about what kind of test it will offer.
What we can discern is that distance won't be a prerequisite to winning as much as it is about shot-making and the ability to decipher greens that should be baked extremely firm in a summer California sun and green complexes that on the surface and around it offer a similarly cruel and difficult test to that of Riviera for the Genesis Invitational.
So with that in mind and also taking into account form and pedigree, I'm left with two options in my mind for the 2023 US Open winner: Scottie Scheffler and Viktor Hovland.
In the end, Hovland gets the nod for me. While I do tend to favor the shot-making of Scheffler based on his track record slightly over Hovland in addition to longer-term around-the-green play, Hovland has improved that aspect of his game and, frankly, has been a better putter more often than Scheffler this year.
On these greens and with Hovland trending in the right direction while also playing well in California, specifically with three Top 20s and two Top 5s in three starts at the Genesis, I think he follows the trend to get his first major victory.
1. Predicting the 2023 Open Championship winner at Royal Liverpool
After The Open Championship not being played at Royal Liverpool in nearly 40 years, the R&A returned the British Open to Hoylake in 2006, with Tiger Woods fittingly capturing the Claret Jug in golf's return to an iconic venue. And then we got another fitting champion the next time it was played there in 2014 when Rory McIlroy took the crown, capturing his third major and what would be his first of the year.
At most venues for The Open Championship, though, the fact of the matter is that it can be extremely difficult to predict the outcome because, mainly, weather is such a crucial factor in how much teeth many of the courses in the rota have too them. We saw Royal St. George's offer little resistance when the wind was down, the same of which was also true at St. Andrew's last year.
Having said that — and I am nothing if not relentless in being a parody of myself — I'm getting up my hopes that Rory McIlroy returns to Hoylake and gets it done once again for his first major victory in nearly a decade.
Obviously, there is prodigious talent when it comes to Rory, but the major monkey has become burdensome on his back as everyone expects him to win another but he hasn't pulled through. At the PGA Championship, though, there was something that stuck out to me about McIlroy that really bolsters my confidence for his future in 2023 and even majors moving forward.
In most instances, we've either seen Rory front-run by going low immediately and then fading (see the 2022 PGA Championship) or just eject entirely (see this year's Masters, The Open at Portrush, etc.). But it's rare that we've seen him very clearly not have it as he did at Oak Hill, specifically with the driver, arguably his biggest weapon, and still piece it together to finish T7.
Sure, that's not a win, but it's showing a moxie that, frankly, hasn't always been there with McIlroy during this major drought. It buoys my confidence going into a Royal Liverpool track where he boat-raced the field in 2014 and cruised through Sunday to a win that he has the mentality coupled with the elite ability with a club in his hand to get back into the winner's circle at a major championship.
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