I once got an email from a student asking for advice about getting into this writing lark. I presumed that they’d perhaps caught a glimpse of one of my columns and figured that if a ham-fisted oaf like me can eke out a living by witlessly pawing and jabbing at the keys of a laptop until I reach 900 words, then there’s hope for anyone.
One of the perils of having your work appear in a public forum such as the back page of a sports supplement is that you can say something about this, that and t’other one week, only to have your observation swiftly blown out of the water as spectacularly as a frigate that’s just sailed directly into a tangle of bobbing naval mines.
Not so long ago, your correspondent wrote a column about Brooks Koepka slithering into competitive irrelevance while suggesting that he had become something of a forgotten man. But what do I know, eh?
No sooner was that opinion committed to print, Koepka nearly won the Masters. Now, he’s the PGA champion for a third time after a commanding, clinical triumph at Oak Hill on Sunday night.
From those bleak days when it looked as though injury would curtail his career, Koepka is alive and kicking again. The emotion amid the redemption was understandable. “Pardon my language, but it’s been all the f****** s*** I had to go through,” he said amid a relieved, jubilant outpouring. Funnily enough, those words echo what a frazzled sports editor often gasps when he’s finished proof-reading this column.
After that thrilling burst of four major wins in two years between 2017 and 2019, Koepka has underlined his standing as one of the greats and his success sees him become just the 20th player to win five majors.
Having endured a series of crippling aches and pains, Koepka’s ailing frame was creaking and crumbling like an outhouse door with dry rot being buffeted by a stiff breeze. Accepting the eye-watering sums to defect to the controversial LIV Golf series led to all and sundry suggesting that Koepka was simply cashing in before his body had to call in the receivers.
In the Netflix documentary, Full Swing, the 33-year-old openly questioned his ability to compete with the best in the business ever again. Far from a spent force, he’s
a force to be reckoned with once more.
Now galvanised, Koepka is the first player from that rebel circuit to win a major title. Whatever you want to say about the competitive merit of LIV’s 54-hole, no-cut, guaranteed cash beanfeasts – and we’ve all questioned them – there is no denying the competitive gusto of Koepka and the other LIV players. Talent doesn’t evaporate just because they’re competing in shotgun starts under odd team names such as Smash, Ripper
or Crushers. As Open champion
and LIV defector Cameron Smith said after a closing 65 on Sunday: “We haven’t forgotten how to play golf.”
In his previous pomp, Koepka would always rise to the major challenge. Regular, hum-drum PGA Tour events, on the other hand, were often viewed with the same kind of shrugging indifference you’d get from a sullen teenager who’d just been presented with a list of chores from a nagging parent.
In effect, LIV gave Koepka a shed load of money to stop playing tournaments he didn’t really care about and replace them with a few shorter tournaments he probably doesn’t give two hoots about either. As for the ones he genuinely cares about? Well, Sunday night proved that Koepka is the major player of his generation.
It’s 10 years now since Koepka won in the home of golf at Aviemore – yes, I know, we always bring this up – when he was making his mark on the second-tier European Challenge Tour during an intrepid period of golfing exploration and development.
Even then, the Floridian possessed a nonchalant yet convincing air of authority. “This is just the beginning, and I know that may sound cocky, but I have high expectations of myself,” he said as he hurtled up through the professional ranks.
As the years passed, and the haul of silverware grew, he developed a strut that could’ve been accompanied by the Stayin’ Alive tune that John Travolta paraded along to.
With injuries, though, came insecurity and introspection.
Oak Hill, however, showed that the belief, the mental strength and the killer instinct were all very much intact. So too was that swagger.
Roll on the US Open.
While Koepka celebrated, there were many raising a glass to the exploits of Californian club professional, Michael Block.
A tie for 15th, a hole-in-one in the company of Rory McIlroy and a massive pay day proved that those notoriously callous golfing gods
can occasionally reveal their soppy side. The gushing adulation and dewy-eyed coverage of the 46-year-old, which at times was jaw-droppingly syrupy, has gone through the roof.
At this panting rate, I’ll probably have to get in touch with West Kilbride pro Graham Fox, who lost to Block in the foursomes of the 2015 PGA Cup, to get his slant on the American’s inspiring efforts.
At a time when golf in its upper reaches has been riven by division, Block provided an uplifting, unifying tale that everybody could get behind. It’s not a bad old game is it?
