I’ll begin this championship recap with an anecdote that reminded me how certain people operate in this world. They are the ones that are 100% convinced that they have the answer, and they will not stray from their narrow, efficient path. On Sunday at Oak Hill, I was, ahem, removed from my inside-the-ropes photographers position by a member of some esoteric sect. It turned out that I, in fact, did not have ITR access, and my lanyard gave that designation away. Said agent was neither friendly nor understanding; I had transgressed, and I was to be dismissed. I followed procedure and shot from outside the ropes for the remainder of the afternoon.

I begin with this tale, to let you know how Brooks Koepka thinks. Like this evictor, Koepka has a rigid way of effecting. He does not waver from his path, and he knows no other. On Wednesday, he was asked if he still believed that only a dozen or so golfers in the field were capable of beating him. He responded

When you look at the major leaderboards over the last, I don’t know, maybe five, six years, I mean, it’s pretty repetitive on the guys who are at the top. So I think it’s still the same.

Between us, I don’t believe that Viktor Hovland is one of those twelve, at least in my take on Koepka’s eyes. Hovland is great, no doubt, but does not have major-championship chops. Case in point: with Koepka in the marsh on six, Hovland played too cautiously and found the right-front bunker. Buoyed by Hovland’s mistake, Koepka found the center of the clubface and put his third on the green. If Hovland gets the ball on the green, it releases to the back and he has a legitimate run at birdie. Instead, he gave Koepka room to breathe.

The next day, Koepka found himself six shots behind the leader, but I don’t think that he fears Bryson DeChambeau all that much. In his mind, Bryson played his best golf, and Koepka? Well, in his words …

I hit it, that was the worst I’ve hit it in a long time. Scrambled really well. Missed a couple putts early but scrambled really well late. Yeah, that was the worst I’ve hit it in a really long time.

Whatever he found on the practice range was the elixir that he needed. Koepka played magical golf the rest of the week: 66-66-67. We don’t have a transcript from his Friday interview, and that’s probably because he didn’t do one, or it wasn’t newsworthy. Things that were newsworthy that day, in order, were Cameron Young’s two-shot penalty and early departure, Michael Block’s second consecutive 70 and assurance that one PGA Professional would see the weekend, and Rahm, Spieth, and Thomas fighting back from poor first rounds to make the cut. On Friday, Koepka had five birdies and a bogey on the second nine, and all pars on the first nine. After successful rehabilitation from his knee injury, the Brooks Koepka of 2017-2019 had returned.

Saturday brought the constant rain, drizzle that it was, and the recollection that this was a major championship. Folks faded away, yet Michael Block the working man, somehow turned in a card with a third consecutive 70 on it. As for Koepka, he doubled down on his anthem, He did it his way, sung by the ghost of that great New Yorker, Frank Sinatra:

I love New York. It’s always fun. Like I said, you do something really well, they are going to let you know; and if you do something pretty poor, they are going to let you know, and I just love that. I love when the fans are on you, cheering for you, or you know, giving you crap if you screw up. That’s the beauty of it. You want that, or at least I want that atmosphere.

When a competitor says Bring It On to the fans, to the competitors, to the pilots of the blimp and the drones, he doesn’t give two anythings about thoughts or people outside of his narrative. For the third day, Koepka avoided the big number and laid five birdies against a solitary bogey. He took the lead over Hovland, by one shot.

The PGA Championship is brute’s delight. You don’t win on courses like Bellerive, Bethpage Black in May, and Oak Hill in May, without the strength of a smith and the grave in your belly of, well, a boy named Brooks. The Masters is the same course every year. The US Open has gravitated toward an Americanized version of links golf, and the Open championship is the most whimsical of all the majors. The PGA is hard work. Brooks Koepka seems to love hard work. He had to know that Corey Conners, Justin Rose, Justin Suh, and all the others in his wake, don’t love hard work like he loves it.

Brooks starting with a ?#PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/eKwpRknJYW

— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 21, 2023

He had to know, too, that Kurt Kitayama and Cam Smith and Sepp Straka and Cam Davis could throw all the 65s they wanted on day four (they all did, doncha know?) and it would not matter. There was one golfer who might get there, but he needed 63. Scottie Scheffler looked like a man worth considering on Friday night. On Saturday, after he failed to prove himself a worth mudder, Scheffler had slipped and slid to a 73, one shot higher than that forgettable round that Koepka had on Thursday. Scheffler was out of it, until he wasn’t. He made six birdies against one bogey on Sunday for a 65 of his own, but he had to regret his performance on the par-three holes. When you get to choose your lie, you have to make a birdie. Scheffler made four pars, and needed two more birdies.

So here came Koepka, making mistake after mistake on Sunday, unlike the previous two days. His drive on six went into the same marsh that dashed Tom Kite’s US Open bid in 1989. He escaped with bogey. On seven, with a perfect fairway lie, he flared an iron right, into a horizontal stance. He made bogey. On 11, the long par three, his tee shot pulled left, into a bunker. He could only escape to 13 feet and he missed the putt. On 17, his drive missed right and he had to pitch out from the suffocating rough. His par putt from ten feet missed, and he had a fourth bogey on the day. Four bogeys on day four of a major would do most people in.

Driver ?? Putter for Brooks ??#PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/FLrQgLyqWQ

— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 21, 2023

Fortunately for Koepka, he found stretches like holes two through four (all birdies) and twelve through sixteen (three birdies and two pars) and added one more, at the 10th. His seven birdies came at the right time, to dissuade all pursuers, including playing partner Hovland. The Norwegian was in hot pursuit, until a double bogey at the 16th, paired with Koepka’s birdie, dropped him from the chase. Hovland’s closing birdie brought him even with Scheffler, in a tie for second. It was Hovland’s best major finish to date, and hopefully, a heck of a tutorial.

Down the 18th strode Koepka. Driver to the fairway, 175 yards left. Approach to ten feet, and a walk up the final of Oak Hill’s many descents and ascents. A lag to inches, and major championship number five. Does this make him the favorite for the US Open at Los Angeles Country Club? You bet. It’s 2018 all over again.

This is how Brooks Koepka won the PGA Championship.@ROLEX | #ROLEX pic.twitter.com/UK1KJGeD6K

— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 22, 2023