Lessons Learned Before Turning Pro Paved Koepka’s Path to PGA Championship

Brooks Koepka

By ADAM STANLEY, Sportsnet

FARMINGDALE, New York — When Brooks Koepka was grinding on a developmental tour in Europe seven years ago, he called his childhood coach and told him he was going to pack it in. He was going to come home.

Warren Bottke told him to stay out there. He told his longtime pupil he had “it.” There were those dreams as a teenager to try to tee it up in the Masters, remember? Koepka had to finish the race.

He stuck it out. Koepka would win three times on that tour in 2013 after he got mentally re-set. Those wins came by a combined 20 strokes.

The margin of Koepka’s victory at the 101st PGA Championship, which wrapped up Sunday at Bethpage Black, wasn’t quite that robust. It started at seven shots but ended at two after Koepka shot a 4-over-par 74.

But Koepka, now a four-time major champion, was bred for the big stage.

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