Brooks Koepka Wins The Waste Management Phoenix Open With A Pitch-In Eagle on 17

Brooks!!!

Man what an ugly day for the top of the leaderboard. We went into the day thinking it might be a duel between Spieth and Xander Schauffele with Scottie Scheffler hoping to apply some pressure on those two. All 3 of those guys really played some mediocre golf to let the field back into it. Hell, James Hahn came out of nowhere to lead by 3 at one point before falling back to the pack.

Lurking the entire time was Brooks Koepka, waiting for his opportunity to pounce. Part of what makes this such a great tournament (beyond the raucous crowds and the weather and the stadium 16th and should I keep going?) is how attackable the final 6 holes are. Holes 13-18 are always there for the taking and provide great theater down the stretch. With the way the 54-hole leaders were playing it was really just going to come down to who could take advantage and steal the damn thing. That person was Brooks Koepka. Hell, between Saturday and Sunday Brooks played the final 6 holes at a ridiculous -10. The cherry on top was the pitch-in at 17 that proved to be the difference. I said in my preview blog that the 17th hole is my favorite hole on this course and it delivered today in a big way.

Yesterday it looked like Jordan Spieth was making his triumphant return. His performance today casts some doubt on that. But really it is Brooks Koepka who is very much back. Obviously the depths of his struggles weren't as deep as Jordan's and had far more to do with injury than performance but we haven't seen the guy in the winner's circle since July 2019. 

This tournament was where he notched his first career W so maybe we should have seen this coming. Despite missing his last 3 cuts he continued to say that he liked the state of his game and that the results would soon show that. When he's healthy we all know what he's capable of. This marks his 8th career PGA Tour win and will vault him back into the world Top 10. 

The world is officially on notice. Brooks Koepka is back.