SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. At the bottom of an 18-month battle with left knee and hip problems, Brooks Koepka wondered if he would ever come back, let alone reclaim the magic that had brought him to four major championships.
“It has been a wild ride for the past year and a half and very frustrating,” said Koepka. “I’ve had times when I didn’t know if I would be the same, if I could even come back.”
He looked as good as ever on back Sunday nine Sunday at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, looking for a win that seemed possible not so long ago.
“I’ve been through it mentally,” said Koepka. “I think that’s probably the hardest part of which you don’t know if you’ll ever be the same competitor you were. You’re going through some really dark places, and it’s not a fun place to be.”
It was a sunny and fun Sunday in the desert, especially on the 17th hole. That’s where he came in from 32 yards for his second eagle of the day to break a tie for the lead. A routine par on the 18th earned him a 1 stroke victory.
Five strokes behind Jordan Spieth and Xander Schauffele entering the round, Koepka shot a 6-under 65 to finish 19-under 265. He also won at TPC Scottsdale in 2015 for the first of his eight PGA Tour titles.
The five-strokes comeback was the largest of any tournament winner in the past two seasons, according to research from ESPN Stats & Information.
At the 334-yard 17th, Koepka hit a fairway wood 305 yards to the fairway short and to the left of the green, then held out for the crowd’s biggest roar of the day limited to 5,000 a day.
“I felt like the chip, if I just caught him in the pony, he would check on me, and it worked perfectly,” he said. “I took a nice little right kick and looked nowhere but the hole.”
The crowd was a fraction of its usual size, but the largest to tour during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I missed the fans,” said Koepka. “Just being around fans is another thing. I love it. I’ve played my best golf with fans, so I just have to find something when they aren’t there.”
Koepka came off a career-worst three consecutive missed cuts, rebounded Koepka from a bogey on second with a 24-foot eagle putt on par-5 third and birdied Nos. 13, 14 and 15.
“I live for those moments when you got too close, you had to do some good shots, quality putts,” said Koepka. “I just like to show off, I guess.”
Schauffele birded the par-4 18th for a 71 and finished in second place with Kyoung-Hoon Lee (68). The fourth-placed Schauffele finished second in Torrey Pines last week.
“It was a good day to learn from a number of mistakes,” said Schauffele. “It felt like I was pretty patient all day long.”
Lee birdied 17 to pull in one of Koepka, but drove into the right rough on the par-4 18th and had his 34-foot birdie try to slide down the high end.
“I’m pretty excited this week,” said Lee. “All right – irons, driver, birdieing, everything – and lots of saves.”
Steve Stricker, the 53-year-old US Ryder Cup captain who tried to become the oldest winner of the PGA Tour, finished in 67 and finished in fourth place with Spieth (72) and Carlos Ortiz (64) with 17 under.
“It was a lot of fun,” said Stricker. ‘That’s why I still come here to play. I haven’t shown that in the past, but I’ve been playing better lately. I also feel a little better physically. ‘
Spieth and Schauffele struggled from the start, with Spieth pushing the first hole after nearly driving into a desert bush. They each had two bogeys on the front nine, with Schauffele making the only birdie between the two on the front at number 9.
Schauffele and Spieth each drove into the water at 17 to end their chances, after which they both birdied 18.
Spieth shot 61 for part of the lead on Saturday. Winless since the 2017 Open, the 27-year-old Texan is trying to recapture the form that took him to 11 PGA Tour victories – three of them majors – in his first five seasons on tour.
So fourth place is something Spieth can build on after considering skipping the tournament altogether.
“I may have just wanted to go home and felt like I was really far from where I needed to be,” said Spieth, “and this golf course in general is not a great golf course for me historically, so I thought I would then could do.go to Pebble [Beach] a little fresher. Boy i’m glad i came. “
James Hahn, 3 strokes ahead in the middle of the round, bogeyed four of the last eight holes for a 69. He finished 10th on 15 under.
ESPN’s Josh Weinfuss and The Associated Press contributed to this report.