LOUISVILLE -- Ten golfers have won six or more majors since World War II. They're all one-name players, legends, among the best to have ever done it.
Brooks Koepka is 72 holes from making this 10-player club an uneven 11 while adding to his already-ridiculous legacy.
Here are the names.
- Jack Nicklaus
- Tiger Woods
- Sam Snead
- Ben Hogan
- Gary Player
- Lee Trevino
- Nick Faldo
- Phil Mickelson
- Tom Watson
- Lee Trevino
With a win this week, Koepka joins that exclusive club. There are a number of potential historic outcomes this week -- Rory McIlroy winning a fifth major, Jordan Spieth completing the career grand slam, Scottie Scheffler continuing his bid for the annual grand slam -- but Koepka getting to six a year after earning his fifth would be right at the top of the list.
Here's the crazy part: Koeka just turned 34, which is the same age in which Mickelson (six majors) won his first. Koepka has more wear and tear than Mickelson at the same age, but suddenly, his claim that double digits is not a crazy number does not seem as, well, crazy as it once did.
"The majors are different than everything else," Koepka said. "The majors ... they just have a different feel than any other golf tournament. I've always enjoyed it and they are always tougher golf courses. That's something I get up for. It's the same thing, right? It's always the peak of our sport or the four times a year we play in majors. That's kind of the only thing. But there's no real difference."
Might win by 100 this week pic.twitter.com/O9PLiY72dE
— Patrick McDonald (@pmcdonaldCBS) May 15, 2024
Koepka, who is trying to join Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Walter Hagen with four or more PGA Championships to his name, has vowed to not finish similarly to how he did at the Masters (T45). Brooks noted several times that he was not going to let his team down this week.
Koepka has finished in the top two across four of the last six PGA Championships and nine times overall at majors since the start of 2017. Nobody else has more than four such finishes in that same window of time.
"I'm just looking forward to a major championship," he said Wednesday. "That ... gets my excitement going. Something I look forward to all year. So yeah, look, I always enjoy competing against these guys, and anytime you get the best, it's always good. You just want them to play their best, too. You want to go out and win it."
Interestingly, after Koepka won LIV Golf Singapore a few weeks ago, he explained that he is able to enter a different mindset and go to a place a lot of other players can't go in terms of commitment to shots and mental focus. He referenced that tunnel vision again Wednesday.
"I've heard from just kind of the people around me, it's just different," he said. "Like my demeanor and focus is just different. I can't explain it. I don't really know how to or what I really do different. But everybody on the team can kind of see it, and they kind of know I can walk right past them and I don't even know that they are there sometimes. It's just it's a grinding week.
"You've got to be fully locked in. I feel like you can't take one shot off."
Whether Koepka turns that insane club of 10 players into 11 remains to be seen. There is a lot of luck that goes into winning a major. But what seems unquestionable is that Koepka, who brings momentum and loads of PGA history into this week, is going to find himself in the mix at some point this week. And when that happens, it's rare for him to leave.
The majors may run through Scheffler right now, but the PGA belongs to Kopeka until further notice.
