ROCHESTER, New York – Six weeks ago on Sunday, Brooks Koepka did not sleep. He had brooding to do and demons to chase.

After everything – the ghastly knee injury, the agony of unfulfilled ambition, the taunts and the splenetic rift in professional golf that he helped personify – he had rallied to a Masters lead, and then he had fizzled.

Collapsed really.

He ultimately vowed, he recalled over the weekend at Oak Hill Country Club, never to “think the way I thought going into the final round.”

On Sunday evening, Koepka found his vindication: a two-stroke win at the PGA Championship, earning him his first Major trophy since 2019.

The win gives Koepka – who finished third at the LIV Golf Singapore event in April – a fifth Major and third PGA Championship to go with back-to-back wins in 2018 and 2019.

The former world No. 1 is tied with big names like Seve Ballesteros and Byron Nelson on five Majors. He is also just the 20th male golfer to reach five Majors.

”This one is probably the most meaningful of them all with everything that’s gone on, all the crazy stuff over the last few years,” he said, adding that he had received about 600 text messages.

“But it feels good to be back and to get No. 5.”

The victory made him the first member of LIV Golf, the year-old breakaway league bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, to win a Major since joining the circuit.

And while Koepka’s triumph at Oak Hill may do little to staunch some of the criticisms of LIV, it definitively ended the wrangling over whether men who play a smattering of 54-hole tournaments can prevail on golf’s grandest, 72-hole stages.

Fair enough, for he silenced the notion, one that seemed a little more off-the-mark after the Masters, that his contending days were done by carding a three-under 67 on Sunday, taking him to nine under for the tournament.

But this is a 33-year-old player whose results in 2022’s major season looked like this: missed cut, tie for 55th, solo 55th, missed cut.

It had been easy to forget that in 2021, the sequence went like this: missed cut, tie for second, tie for fourth, tie for sixth.

“He is back to being healthy,” said Cameron Smith, who won the 2022 British Open and then joined LIV later that year.

“That brings a little bit of internal confidence as well, being out there and just being able to do your stuff.”

Koepka finished two shots ahead of over world No. 2 Scottie Scheffler and Viktor Hovland. With Koepka clinging to a one-shot lead, the turning point came at the par-four 16th where the big-hitting American had a birdie.

Hovland stumbled with a double bogey after trouble in a fairway bunker, opening up a four-shot cushion.

Scheffler began the day four shots back but, by the back nine, had put himself back in the chase. In the end, a terrible third round had put him in too big a hole that even the joint-best round of the day, a 65, could not dig him out of.

Hovland, bidding to become the first Norwegian man to win a Major, closed with a 68 to share second.

“It sucks right now, but it is really cool to see that things are going the right direction,” said Hovland, who now has had a tie for second at the British Open and tie for seventh at the Masters.

“If I just keep taking care of my business... we’re going to get one of these soon.”

Australian Cam Davis (65), Kurt Kitayama (65) and Bryson DeChambeau (70) finished six shots back in a tie for fourth.

For all the magic produced by golf’s biggest names at Oak Hill none could match what Michael Block, 46, an unknown club professional, conjured.

Already a fan favourite before the final round teed off, Block, one of 20 teaching professionals in the field, added to a Hollywood script.

His tee shot at the par-three 15th soared into the air and slammed straight into the cup without even rattling the flagstick.

The moment left Block, who was playing with four-time Major winner Rory McIlroy, in disbelief.

“No, no, no way. Rory did it go in?“ Block said on the tee, as spectators erupted in wild scenes around the green.

His legion of fans have not seen the last of the charismatic club pro who finished with a 71 – good enough for a tie for 15th and automatic entry into next year’s PGA Championship. NYT, REUTERS