The 2022-23 season had 47 tournaments that were contested over 50 golf courses in eight different countries. Now that the season has concluded, the stats gurus at the PGA Tour have calculated the numbers to determine which ones were the most difficult.
Of those 50 courses, five had an average score of more than one stroke over par per round. Just one course was over par two strokes per round. Sixteen of the 49 had an over-par average. TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course, a par 71, had the average score closest to par at 70.98.
The golf courses which hosted the 2023 major championships check in at Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 6 on the list of most difficult venues.
What course proved to be the most difficult? What about the easiest golf courses? Check out this list below. Stats courtesy pgatour.com.
For all that has changed in golf, one thing has remained constant whenever Brooks Koepka wins a major.
For all that has changed in golf, one thing has remained constant whenever Brooks Koepka wins a major championship: his ornery refusal to submit to the customary show and tell tour of television talk shows. A few hours after winning the Wanamaker Trophy on Sunday, he headed home to Florida, where he spent Monday celebrating with his buddies on a boat before taking the silverware to a Panthers game. Meanwhile, a man who tied 15th appeared on the Today show, Good Morning America and CNN.
If Koepka was uninterested in using his PGA Championship victory as a platform for point scoring, there was no shortage of scavengers eager to do so in his stead.
His swing instructor, Claude Harmon III, was first out of the blocks, exploiting the moment to air his grievances about those in media (chiefly Brandel Chamblee, with a drive-by caress of yours truly) whose criticisms of LIV Golf are at odds with his avaricious burrowing into the Saudi trough. Harmon has been an occasional friend for 20 years, but even his pals know he’s peerless in marketing himself on the accomplishments of others, a skill honed from the cradle. His attack featured all the whataboutery you’d expect from one more apt to flatter royalty than to inquire after those they torture. (In CH3’s defense, no one should be subjected to a Chamblee reply that is ungoverned by Twitter character limits).
Alert to any opportunity to remind his Saudi overlords that he’s a loyal supplicant, Phil Mickelson leapt on the Brooks bandwagon and sought to portray the win not as proof of Koepka’s brilliance but as evidence of the superiority of the circuit he helped engineer. “Love LIV or hate it, it’s the best way/Tour to be your best in the majors,” he tweeted. “Enough events to keep you sharp, fresh and ready, yet not be worn down from too many tournaments or obligations. 14 LIV events, 34 weeks left open to prepare for the 4 majors. Fact.”
That Mickelson cannot distinguish between statements of fact and opinion comes as no shock since he has long since blurred the line between fact and fiction too.
Greg Norman cheered the victory as one for LIV and organized a welcoming party for the champ at Trump National in Washington, D.C., that had all the spontaneity and genuine warmth of a Pyongyang parade honoring Dear Leader. No such theater greeted Jon Rahm when he arrived at the RBC Heritage fresh off his Masters win, but then no one was desperate to leverage the Spaniard’s success for their own interests.
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Even Bryson DeChambeau has been drafting on his former nemesis. “It validates everything we’ve said from the beginning. That we’re competing at the highest level, and we have the ability to win major championships,” he said, making two points, only one of which is demonstrably true, and even then only for a handful of his colleagues.
Koepka’s fifth major no more belongs to Norman or LIV than his previous four did to Jay Monahan or the PGA Tour, and in the immediate afterglow Koepka bristled at what he knew was coming. Have you heard from Norman? he was asked. “I called my wife, and that’s it,” he replied. “That’s the only person I’m really interested in talking to.”
“I definitely think it helps LIV, but I’m more interested in my own self right now,” he went on. “It’s a huge thing for LIV, but at the same time I’m out here competing as an individual at the PGA Championship.”
Koepka makes a poor patsy for LIV’s lickspittles. He was openly dismissive of regular PGA Tour events so the notion that he’s invested in 54-hole shotgun starts against the Andy Ogletrees of the world is fanciful. He was not a plaintiff in the Saudi-funded litigation, has chosen not to badmouth the tour he left, and has not been a particularly enthusiastic propagandist for the tour he joined. He gives the impression of a man checking the boxes required of him, nothing more.
But while Koepka goes about his business, his triumph is used as a smokescreen by charlatans. Criticisms about Saudi sportswashing, or about the viability of the LIV product, are not nullified because he can still deliver in majors. Sunday reminded us that Koepka is a formidable predator who chooses to swim in a shallow pond, but the days since have revealed the extent to which he is surrounded by pilot fish trying to subsist on his success.
Club pro Michael Block wasn’t the only one who cashed the biggest check of his life at the 105th PGA Championship on Sunday.
His caddie, John Jackson, did the math on the calculator app of his phone Sunday evening after Block finished T-15, the best result by a club pro since 1986, and earned $288,333. Jackson’s take home: $20,183.31.
In a video that was posted on social media, Block looks at the figure (7 percent of Block’s winnings) on Jackson’s phone, smiles widely, slaps him five and gives him knuckles.
“It’s been unreal, surreal, literally a dream, a movie, whatever,” Jackson said Sunday as Block was honored at the 18th green for being the low finisher among the club pros. “Mike and I were pinching ourselves going down the fairways. It was weird. The whole thing is crazy.”
Such a cool moment between Michael Block and caddie John Jackson 🤜🤛
Jackson did the math on what his paycheck will be from this week. Their reaction is priceless.
Jackson’s regular job is caddying for resort guests at Spyglass Hill in Pebble Beach, California, where he’s looped full-time since 2017. In college, Jackson played for the Cal State Monterey Bay Otters and was part of the NCAA Division II National Championship team in 2011.
Block was one of 20 PGA professionals to qualify for the PGA Championship. He is a 10-time Southern California PGA Player of the Year and the reigning PGA Professional of the Year. Jackson and Block met as competitors at a California State Open around 10 years ago. Block played at the TaylorMade Pebble Beach Invitational one year and Jackson got on his bag and they almost won.
Jackson had previously worked a few majors, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am – but only for amateurs – and the PGA Tour Champions Pure Insurance Open for the last 15 years. Jackson caddied for Block at the PGA at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma, last year during the practice rounds but got promoted to full status at Oak Hill.
“He called me and said, ‘Do you want to do the whole week this year?’ And we made it the whole week,” Jackson said.
Of Block’s hole-in-one, Jackson noted that he hadn’t made a putt all day. “I said, ‘Just hit it closer,’ ” Jackson recalled.
He did, flying a 7-iron at 15 directly into the cup.
“I wasn’t helping much because I was pumping him up,” Jackson said.
Some insight into the club choice on 15 and why Michael Block’s caddie John Jackson thinks this story is resonating with so many people 🙌 #PGAChamppic.twitter.com/rXDsU602XA
Initially, Jackson planned to decompress on Monday and Tuesday and get back to reality. He said he had some vacationers who had requested work. That all changed when Block was offered a sponsor exemption into the PGA Tour’s Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas, which got underway Thursday. Jackson is back on the bag for another Tour start and a chance for another gigantic payday.
“I’d do it again right now if I could,” Jackson said Sunday.
“Oh, my God. What I would shoot from where Rory hits it, would be stupid.”
Michael Block is golf’s feel-good story of 2023.
A PGA pro from California finishing T-15 at the PGA Championship to automatically earn himself a spot in the 2024 PGA at Valhalla. And it wasn’t just the accomplishment, it was the way he did it.
Electric on-course TV interviews, viral clips and a Sunday hole-in-one playing alongside the No. 3-ranked player in the world.
And this week, Block is in Fort Worth, Texas, to play in the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial after receiving an invite just moments after completing his final round at Oak Hill — he was also given a spot in the RBC Canadian Open in a few weeks.
Since his rise to the spotlight, Block has appeared on SportsCenter, Good Morning America, the ForePlay podcast and several other media outlets including Bob Menery’s “RipperMagoo” podcast.
During his episode, Menery asked Block about the difference between his game and Rory McIlroy’s.
“He’s a lot longer than I am. That’s what it is,” he said.
Block would go on to say: “Oh, my God. What I would shoot from where Rory hits it, would be stupid. I think I’d be one of the best players in the world.”
Anyone who cares about the Ryder Cup should not be happy if Brooks Koepka is not a part of the team.
What is Zach Johnson going to say now:
“It’s two weeks?”
The U.S. Ryder Cup captain had a very uncomfortable week at the PGA Championship answering questions about LIV golfers — particularly Brooks Koepka — making his team.
And when asked before the tournament, Johnson downplayed Koepka’s runner-up finish at the Masters by saying, “It’s one week.”
Then, Koepka proved he’s more than a one-week wonder and won his fifth major Sunday at Oak Hill Country Club outside of Rochester.
Although LIV golfers have been suspended by the PGA Tour, they remain members of the PGA of America, which makes them eligible to play for the U.S. in the Ryder Cup, which this year will be in September outside of Rome. The PGA of America runs the PGA Championship and the Ryder Cup.
And by winning, Koepka actually is doing Johnson a big favor. Having vaulted to No. 2 in the Ryder Cup rankings, Koepka could take that sticky decision out of Johnson’s hands. The top six in the rankings are automatically on the team. It’s the next six, selected by the captain, that will be dissected and put Johnson on the spot.
But not when it comes to Koepka if he maintains that spot in the top six. The only events remaining that will earn him Ryder Cup points are the U.S. Open and British Open.
Koepka second, first in Masters, PGA Championship
Koepka, who joined LIV 11 months ago, has played in two majors this year, the only PGA Tour events he’s eligible for, and finished second and first. Perhaps he was onto something when asked prior to the tournament what would it take to pressure Johnson to add a LIV golfer to the team.
“Go second, first, first, first,” he said about the majors. “It would be kind of tough not to pick, right?”
Not really. In fact, it would be very easy. Koepka, who held the No. 1 spot for 47 weeks, most recently in 2020, once again is the best golfer in the world. Forget what the world rankings say. Given what we’ve seen in the only two events he’s played that matter, nobody believes he’s No. 13, his current world ranking.
Koepka has two more chances to impress Johnson in majors. But even Johnson recognizes that when healthy Koepka has been the best golfer in the world over the last seven years when lights shine brightest.
Starting with his fourth-place finish at the 2016 PGA Championship, Koepka has played in 23 majors with five wins, four times as runner-up and 11 times in the top five. He finished in the top 10 more than 60 percent (14 of 23). And his worst stretch — last year when he was 55th twice and missed the cut twice — came when he wondered if he’d ever be elite again after a long recovery from major knee surgery.
“What I appreciate about Brooks is just how he goes about his work in massive tournaments,” Johnson said. “He’s a rare breed mentally where he just is able to bring out his best in the most difficult and trying of circumstances.”
Johnson understands how much chemistry matters on a team like this. The most documented example occurred in 2004 when Hal Sutton paired Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson when their relationship was frosty. They lost both their matches on opening day to kick start Europe’s easy victory.
“Chemistry is important on any team,” Johnson said. “It’s important with anything you’re trying to construct if you want to go out and win. My No. 1 goal as the leader is to go put these guys in a position to win, whatever that looks like.”
Check that one off, too. Nobody on the Tour would have an issue with Koepka, or even Dustin Johnson, being a part of the Ryder Cup team. Zach Johnson’s bigger issue may be deciding on Dustin Johnson.
After all, we’re not talking about Patrick Reed or Bryson DeChambeau, two LIV golfers who did not endear themselves to their peers during their time on the PGA Tour and certainly are not missed.
“When you talk about the LIV golfers that left the PGA Tour to go play over there, you never hear a bad word from those players about Brooks Koepka.” Golf Channel analyst Brad Faxon said on air Sunday following the PGA Championship.
“I think Brooks would be a fantastic addition to the team, particularly inside the locker room. Zach would be foolish not to consider him.”
Chamblee says including Koepka ‘slap in the face’ to those who stayed
Faxon’s fellow analyst, Brandel Chamblee, said including Koepka would be “a slap in the face to the players that didn’t go, that didn’t take the money and go to LIV, that somebody who took the money could now have their cake and eat it too?”
Koepka made his decision about a year ago to leave the PGA Tour for LIV, which is financed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, when his head was in a much different place. Now, he clearly has questioned that move.
Following the Masters, Koepka was asked if the decision to join LIV would have been more challenging had he felt this good, and were playing this good, at that time.
“Honestly, yeah, probably, if I’m being completely honest,” Koepka said. “I think it would have been. But I’m happy with the decision I made.”
Koepka cannot be happy that he is relevant four times a year and in between goes back to playing on LIV.
The debate will rage — and follow Zach Johnson — throughout the summer. But anyone who cares about the Ryder Cup should not be happy if Brooks Koepka is not a part of the team.
The 33-year-old formerly on the PGA Tour who now plays for the LIV Golf League claimed his fifth major title Sunday at the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York, earning a cool $3.15 million for his two-shot victory over runners-up Scottie Scheffler and Viktor Hovland, who will each take home $1.54 million.
Cam Davis, Kurt Kitayama and Bryson DeChambeau each finished T-4 at 3 under to claim $720,000 a piece.
Check out the prize money payouts for each player below at the 2023 PGA Championship.
Of the 16 players to tee it up, 11 made the weekend cut.
One of the big questions facing the players who took their talents to LIV Golf was how would the different schedule and competition level impact their preparation for major champions.
So far, so good.
Three LIV players finished in the top six at the Masters, and of the 16 players who competed at the 2023 PGA Championship, 11 made the weekend cut at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York. Brooks Koepka even went on to win the thing, and he was joined by four other LIV players inside the top 20 on the leaderboard.
Check out how each of the LIV Golf League players fared this week at the 2023 PGA Championship.
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The win is Koepka’s fifth major title and first since the 2019 PGA Championship, also held in New York.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – For Claude Harmon III, the biggest surprise was receiving a call from Brooks Koepka last July to help him with his swing again. After more than two years without speaking, Harmon watched him hit balls for 15 minutes at LIV Bedminster in New Jersey, but it was what Koepka said that left a lasting impression.
“I still feel like I can win majors, I still feel like I can be one of if not the best player in the world,” Koepka said. “You know, just gotta get my golf swing doing what I want it to do and just gotta get healthy again.”
Koepka completed a remarkable return to glory, shooting 3-under 67 on Sunday at Oak Hill to win the 105th PGA Championship by two strokes over Viktor Hovland and Scottie Scheffler. In doing so, Koepka became the 20th player to win at least five majors and joined Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only players to win the Wanamaker Trophy three times in the stroke-play era.
“This is probably the sweetest one of them all because all the hard work that went into this one, this one is definitely special,” Koepka said. “This one is probably it for me.”
— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 21, 2023
The 33-year-old Koepka was considered washed up, done in by injuries that included a torn patella tendon in August 2019, a hip injury in 2020, and a potentially career-ending injury to his knee cap and patella tendon in March 2021. His short-game coach, Pete Cowen, said Koepka couldn’t compress down on his left side and the result was a two-way miss.
“It was almost game over,” Harmon III said.
No one knows,” Koepka said during his winner’s press conference. “There’s a lot of times where I just couldn’t even bend my knee.”
But he gave the world a window into the self-doubt this supposedly ruthless, emotionless alpha-male was suffering from when he opened up like never before during interviews for “Full Swing,” the Netflix golf docuseries. He admitted he had lost confidence and that it was a tough thing to regain.
“My whole career has gone straight up and then suddenly I’m kind of on, I don’t want to say the other side of it but it’s like, ‘OK, well, we’re going down now.’ This is the worst I’ve ever struggled my whole life. I have to figure out how to get out of this thing before it gets too late,” Keopka said in Full Swing.
Perhaps the best advice of all came from his mom, Denise Jakows, who told him, “Sometimes you just have to put your big boy pants on and get back out there, right?”
“That’s what all the great ones do, right?” Koepka said. “Back’s against the wall, they get it done.”
Koepka’s now-wife, Jena Sims, recalled how in the early years of their relationship, Koepka powered through any struggles but she said, “Now, like In the back of his head, he’s hearing these voices of like, ‘You can’t do this. You won’t do this.’ I do worry about the future.”
What Koepka needed most was to regain his fitness, and one of the positives of joining LIV Golf in June was it allowed him to play less and he had a four-month off-season to rest and rehabilitate. He showed signs that his game was resurfacing, winning twice on LIV Golf, most recently in April in Orlando and held the 54-hole lead at the Masters but admitted he “choked,” shooting 74 and tying for second as Jon Rahm slipped into the Green Jacket.
Harmon told him that this was simply the beginning of Brooks 2.0. “If this is the second phase of your career, it’s a helluva start,” Harmon said.
Brooks Koepka reacts as he walks off the No. 13 green during the final round of the 2023 Masters. (Photo: Katie Goodale-USA TODAY Network)
But Koepka took the defeat hard and said he didn’t sleep that night after the Masters. After much soul-searching he came to conclusion that the only thing that really matters when you get knocked down is what happens next.
“Thought about it for a few days after and really honed in on what I was doing and what went wrong,” Koepka said ahead of the PGA. “From there just never let it happen again. That’s the whole goal, right?”
Koepka held a one-stroke lead heading into the final round after shooting 72-66-66. He raced out of the gate, making three consecutive birdies starting at the second hole from inside 10 feet to build a four-stroke lead. He dropped shots at Nos. 6, where he drove in the water, and No. 7 and Hovland remained hot on his heels until late in the championship.
There would be no let up on the second nine. Koepka stuck his approach at No. 10 to 8 feet and rolled in the putt. After a bogey at 11, he knocked his second shot from the rough to 11 feet at the next hole and poured in the birdie putt. After Hovland rolled in a birdie putt at No. 13, Koepka sank a delicate 10-foot downhill putt for par to protect a one-stroke lead.
“When he is holing putts like he is at the moment, he is pretty dangerous,” Cameron Smith, the reigning British Open champion and a fellow LIV Golf member, said.
Koepka kept the gas down, nearly driving the 14th green to set up another birdie and Hovland was working hard just to keep pace. But Hovland finally blinked at 16, driving into a fairway bunker at 16 and embedding his second shot into the lip of the bunker en route to a double bogey. Koepka smelled blood and stuck his approach to 5 feet and made birdie to take a commanding four-stroke lead.
“It sucks right now, but it is really cool to see that things are going the right direction,” said Hovland, who made birdie at the last to tie for second. “If I just keep taking care of my business and just keep working on what I’ve been doing, I think we’re going to get one of these soon.”
A bogey and a par closed it out for Koepka and he signed for a 72-hole total of 9-under 271.
Brooks Koepka poses with the Wanamaker Trophy after winning the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club. (Photo: Adam Cairns-USA TODAY Sports)
Australians Cameron Smith and Cam Davis, Austria’s Sepp Straka and Kurt Kitayama tied with Scheffler for the low round of the tournament with 65s. Michael Block, the 46-year-old club pro from Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club in Mission Viejo, capped off his Cinderella story by making a hole-in-one at the 15th hole and shooting 1-over 71. He finished as the low club pro and his T-15 earned an exemption to the 2024 PGA Championship. Among the players he beat were reigning Masters champion Jon Rahm, who entered the tournament as world No. 1 but finished T-50.
“It’s golf,” Rahm said, “when you think, oh, I got this, it kicks you in the mouth, and you have to start over again. It happens to everybody.”
Scheffler’s strong finish vaulted him back to No. 1 in the world ahead of Rahm, but that was little consolation to him.
“Right now I’m a little sad that I wasn’t able to get the tournament done, but I’m proud of how I fought, I’m proud of how I played the back nine today to give myself a chance,” Scheffler said.
How did failure at the Masters lead to Koepka’s validating win at Oak Hill?
“I definitely wouldn’t have, I don’t think, won today if that didn’t happen, right?” he said, but as for what specifically he learned from the defeat, he’s not telling. “Definitely take it and keep using it going forward for each event, each major, any time I’m in contention, but I’m not going to share. I can’t give away all the secrets.”
Whatever promise to himself he kept in the final round, Koepka’s ball-striking clinic over the final 18 belied his frustrating warmup. Heading from the practice tee to the putting green on Sunday before his tee time, Koepka complained to Cowen, who said, “Your 70 percent of swinging (lousy) will still win.”
Cowen said he never doubted that Koepka would win another major because “he’s a man who’s comfortable in uncomfortable moments.” But does Koepka loves the game? Cowen said no, he loves winning and wants to be remembered as an all-time great. “He’ll win a lot more, he’ll want to win all four majors a couple of times,” Cowen said.
For Koepka, who won the U.S. Open twice and the PGA previously in 2018 and 2019, he’s in rare company with five majors and his crisis of confidence seems to be a distant memory. Koepka 2.0 may just be getting started.
“He likes climbing Mount Everest,” Harmon said. “He likes being in the death zone. Everybody says they like being up there. But you got to step over dead bodies to get to the top and then you got to step over dead bodies to get back down.”
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