WITH wonky teeth firmly gritted and bald head in hands, it’s fair to say Sunday’s final round of the US PGA Championship put extra pressure on my already creaking body.
It was clear from a long way out that Brooks Koepka was going to win his third Wanamaker Trophy and fifth Major in all at Oak Hill, and the frustration definitely turned the air blue.
Indeed, the only consolation was that I was working from home, so there was nobody within earshot to hear the expletives.
Even before the off the case for Koepka was strong, and indeed it was mentioned in last week’s column. The 2023 renewal of the PGA was most likely to resemble the 2019 event, also played in New York State, played at Bethpage Black and won by none other than Koepka.
And still I managed to leave him off the shortlist, while almost all of the selections – with the exception of Jon Rahm – played their way onto the fringes of things at one stage or another before falling away again.
Some consolation comes from the fact Shane Lowry’s 12th was enough for an each-way return if you backed him at 66/1 with Coral, but that doesn’t go close to easing yet more post-Major pain.
While I continue to lick my wounds, Koepka heads on to Washington DC this week to tick a box in his LIV Golf commitments.
Donald Trump’s National course in the US capital hosts the Saudi-backed circuit from Friday, and the former president and Greg Norman will surely by vying for ‘most photographed man’ honours, while Koepka is bound to be simply making up the numbers.
He has bigger fish to fry, with a tilt for a third US Open in Los Angeles – for which he is no bigger than 14/1 – just around the corner, and a Ryder Cup appearance seeming ever more likely.
Koepka (below) is now second in the US standings for the contest in Rome at the end of September, and while skipper Zach Johnson seemingly would rather not have any of the LIV men at his disposal, he will have little choice should Koepka keep ripping up trees in the Majors to force his way in automatically.
Scottie Scheffler leads the US rankings as it stands, and on the back of finishing joint-second on Sunday night, he firmly stated that he wanted the PGA winner on the plane to Rome.
Meanwhile, Scheffler himself was straight back on a plane to his Texas home after events at Oak Hill to get ready to lead the field in the Charles Schwab Challenge this week.
Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth has been hosting this event in its various guises since 1946, and that sense of tradition has always maintained a decent standard of field, while the fact Scheffler and Jordan Spieth are from the Dallas-Fort Worth area has made sure of a bit of star quality in recent years.
That said, the line-up in general this week is very classy for a non-elevated, post Major tournament, with Tony Finau, Collin Morikawa, Max Homa and defending champion Sam Burns also teeing it up.
Viktor Hovland, fresh from a second consecutive near miss at a Major, is also in the field, and will hope to quickly get shot of some scar tissue having come up short as the only realistic challenger to Koepka on Sunday night.
Scheffler is a hot favourite at 9/2 here as he seeks to go one better than 12 months ago, when he led by seven shots at one stage before eventually losing a play-off to close friend Burns.
You can almost guarantee the newly-restored world number one will give a fine account of himself as he does every time he plays, having finished no worse than 12th in 11 outings in 2023, a run that includes wins in Phoenix and at Sawgrass.
I’m just not interested in the 9/2 as he has been tending to find one or two too good of late, with struggles on the greens to blame for that.
It was the case the week before last, when Scheffler looked all over the winner of the Byron Nelson Classic, also played in the Dallas area, before finishing fifth to Jason Day.
While the Byron Nelson was a low-scoring shoot-out, the test at Colonial will be slightly tougher on a tree-lined, old school test where precision and placement off the tee sets players up, before razor sharp approach play takes precedent.
Spieth is almost always a factor here, winning in front of his home fans in 2016 and leading the all-time earnings, but he’s still struggling with a wrist injury.
Of the market leaders, 2020 runner-up Morikawa might be of most interest at 16/1 as he seeks to turn some highly promising signs into tangible reward.
That said, I’ll go a bit further down the list and hope that Justin Rose can emulate his 2018 win here and build on a fine effort at Oak Hill over the weekend.
The Englishman was on the first page of the leaderboard most of the way before finishing ninth, but his long game was actually well below his normal standards.
That he finished in the top-10 owed much to fine approach play and exceptional putting, skills that will need to be in evidence at Colonial, where he was third in 2020 to back up that win from two years before.
Rose loves this test and will relish not having to take the driver out of the bag on almost every tee this time around.
It has been a great comeback season for the 42-year-old, winning at Pebble Beach to put a Ryder Cup return firmly on the horizon, and another good showing here would make that a near certainty.
As long as fatigue isn’t a factor, Rose can go very well and the 28/1 quoted by Paddy Power is very enticing indeed.
Meanwhile, Cam Davis rocketed through the field in the final round on Sunday, a closing 65 giving him a share of fourth, by far his best Major result.
He should be riding the crest of a wave heading to Texas, where Aussies always tend to play well with gusting winds and conditions meaning it feels a lot like home, as Day showed 10 days ago.
Davis is known as a bit of a bomber, but there is much more to his game, as he showed on Sunday on a course that was penal if you missed the short grass, while a seventh at the RBC Heritage the week after The Masters also showed he can plot his way round tight lay-outs with the best of them.
He was also seventh here last term, and he can go well at 40/1 on his return to Colonial.
At bigger odds, course specialist Brendon Todd might just be worth an each-way flutter at 80/1 with Sky Bet.
A short hitter, Todd is also a short game wizard who tends to shine on the same courses year on year, and Colonial is definitely one of those.
He missed out on the play-off by a shot last term and finished eighth in 2021, while it’s worth noting that the first of his three PGA Tour wins came at the nearby Byron Nelson in 2014.
Todd narrowly missed the cut at Oak Hill on a course that was too long for him, but his previous effort saw him share eighth at Quail Hollow on the back of great play approaching and on the greens.
He could just outrun those odds, while I’ll also take a bit of a flyer on Austin Eckroat at 150/1 with William Hill.
Colonial is a course that generally rewards experience, with no first-timer winning since Sergio Garcia in 2001.
It might be asking a bit much of Eckroat to emulate the Spaniard, but he could easily place given his recent form and apparent liking for the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The tour rookie was second in the Byron Nelson, and on Monday booked his place in the US Open with another runner-up finish in the Dallas qualifying, with the
afore-mentioned Garcia amongst those just behind.
It’s a speculative bet, as you would expect at 150/1, but on the back of a Major, and with another one just around the corner, stranger things have happened.
CHARLES SCHWAB CHALLENGE SELECTIONS
Justin Rose, e/w, 28/1 (Paddy Power);
Cam Davis, e/w, 40/1 (Paddy Power);
Brendon Todd, e/w, 80/1 (Sky Bet);
Austin Eckroat, e/w, 150/1 (William Hill); top-20 finish, 11/2 (Unibet)
