Brooks Koepka Makes History with Back-to-Back U.S. Open Titles

Brooks Koepka fought his way through a dramatic week at Shinnecock Hills, becoming the first U.S. Open champion to repeat in nearly three decades.

What’s most important about this year’s U.S. Open is that they finished it without further controversy. However, this championship was also significant from an historic standpoint. Brooks Koepka became one of seven golfers ever to win back-to-back U.S. Opens, a huge accomplishment. The last to do so was Curtis Strange, 29 years ago.

“He’s trained for this his whole life,” Strange said about Koepka on Fox, where he was part of the broadcast crew this week.

Strange should know. He is the only one alive who understands what it feels like to win the national championship back-to-back; who knows how big a task it really is; who knows how big the pressure is to do so.

Strange accomplished it in 1988 at The Country Club, defeating Nick Faldo in a playoff, followed the next year by winning at Oak Hill against Ian Woosnam, Mark McCumber and Chip Beck, all of whom tied for second in 1989.

"“The farther it goes, you know, the more proud I get of it,” Strange said in 2014. “I was very, very fortunate that I was in the right place at the right time. It’s exciting. It’s nice to talk about it every year.”"

However, at that time, the spotlight was firmly on Strange. In contrast, Koepka came into this year’s U.S. Open as defending champion, but not with great expectations on him because he was out of commission with a wrist injury for most of the last year.

Prior to Strange’s successful defense, Ben Hogan won two in a row in 1950 and 1951; Ralph Guldahl, in 1937 and 1938; Bobby Jones, in 1929 and 1930 and Johnny McDermott in 1911 and 1912. Only Willie Anderson won three consecutive titles, from 1903-1905.

Brooks Koepka: Confidence was key to historic victory

Though he came into the competition under the radar, Koepka said after the third round that he more or less felt the title was his.

SOUTHAMPTON, NY – JUNE 17: Brooks Koepka of the United States kisses the U.S. Open Championship trophy during the trophy presentation after winning the 2018 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club on June 17, 2018 in Southampton, New York. (Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images) /

"“There’s nobody more confident,” Koepka said Saturday after play. “I won this thing last year. I feel really good. My game’s in a good spot. I feel like you got to kind of take it from me, to be honest with you.”"

There were unexpected challengers on Sunday, like Patrick Reed, Tony Finau and Daniel Berger. Also unexpectedly, Dustin Johnson was not able to outplay Koepka, who is his good friend.

“We’re good buddies, but tomorrow when we tee off, if I’m playing with Brooks, we’ll be friends after the round, not during,” Johnson noted after the third round.

All that said, the big question that will always hang over this U.S. Open, just as it did in the 2004 edition, is what would the outcome have been if the USGA had not let the golf course get out of control on Saturday? Had they not allowed greens that could not be held with shots from the best golfers in the world? With putts that simply would not stay on greens?

What will the USGA do coming out of this controversial U.S. Open?

For a while on Saturday, it looked like the whole place was becoming an unplayable lie.

The climax came when Phil Mickelson, perhaps out of sheer frustration, hit his ball while it was moving, on the 13^th green, because that was the only way he would not have to repeat two shots that he had just hit.

"“It was going to go down into the same spot, behind the bunker,” Mickelson insisted. “Wasn’t going to have a shot. I don’t know if I would have been able to save a shot or whatnot, but I know it’s a two-shot penalty, hitting a moving ball. I tried to hit it as close to the hole as I could to make the next one and you take the two shots and you move on.”"

Many suggested that the USGA had let the course burn up, making it impossible to stop balls on greens. Zach Johnson flat out said to Sky Sports that the USGA had lost control of the golf course. Fox replayed the interview.

Later that evening the USGA admitted that they had let conditions get away from them.

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"“I think everybody, without stating the obvious, it was a tale of two different golf courses today,” USGA CEO Mike Davis said on Saturday evening. “I will tell you that we felt good about the setup when we left this morning when we were done with the setup. We felt that it would work well given the forecast we had, but I think that, now that I’m sitting here, we would say that parts of this test of golf simply were too tough.”"

Then there was the Mickelson ruling. The USGA insisted that Rule 14-5 should apply after he hit a moving ball, assessing Mickelson two strokes. But many believed that Rule 1-2 should have been used, and that Mickelson should have been disqualified.

To lay people it seems that the USGA needs to do a better job with the rules so that there will not be questions. Either there is a penalty or a disqualification for what Mickelson did or there isn’t. Leaving any gray area tarnishes a player’s action, even when the USGA insists that they applied the rule fairly and that he should not have been disqualified.

Next: Players speak out on brutal U.S. Open conditions

So, while the USGA initially seemed not to notice the problems caused by the course, they made good on making it playable for Sunday. But where does Dustin Johnson go to recover the shots he lost on a tricked-up course on Saturday? He can’t ever get those back. Of course, others, including Koepka, were able to overcome the set up and advance, while he was not able to do so.

Perhaps the sentiment is best reflected by comments made by several people in the media center who said, “They’ve ( the USGA) ruined the U.S. Open.”

Hopefully they’ll make the needed changes before next year, when Brooks Koepka goes for three in a row.

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