Defending PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka has a chance to win his third major in his last five starts this weekend at Bethpage Black, and he may have put himself in position to run away with the tournament after a sensational opening-round 63 on Thursday.
Koepka birdied his first hole of the day and set the pace in his star-studded group throughout the afternoon, as both Tiger Woods and Francesco Molinari struggled to avoid costly bogeys. Koepka drilled a 33-foot birdie putt at the ninth hole to card a course-record 63, on a day when Bethpage Black wasn’t surrendering many low scores. He took a four-shot lead into the clubhouse, with Tommy Fleetwood in solo second place after the morning wave of golfers completed their rounds.
According to Koepka, he could have gone even lower.
“I parred two par-5s and missed about a five-footer on No. 11, so it could have been a hell of a round. Don’t get me wrong, it was great. I’ll take it everyday, but just need to clean a few things up.”
Golf twitter was blown away.
