After coming so close to winning The Masters in April, and then bouncing straight back to lift the PGA Championship, Brooks Koepka will tee it up at the 2023 US Open as one of the hot favorites. He's also one of five LIV players to have won the US Open before.
A number of LIV Golf players have faced criticisms for joining the Saudi-backed circuit, which got off the ground last year. One of them, besides been accused of greed, is that they are past their best.
Koepka, however, has done his best to prove that no one can label him as washed up, and no doubt the other LIV players to have qualified for the 2023 US Open will be keen to do so in California this year.
Although the list of US Open entries has yet to be finalised, 12 LIV names have been confirmed on the USGA’s website. Of the dozen, four players have previously won the US Open – Bryson DeChambeau, in 2020, Koepka in 2017 and ’18, Dustin Johnson in 2016 and Martin Kaymer in 2014. Graeme McDowell has also won the US Open, in 2010, but he came up a shot short of making a playoff in qualifying for this year's edition.
That makes it five LIV players who have previously won the US Open, although only four will tee it up at The Los Angeles Country Club. Here, we take a quick look back at those victories.
GRAEME MCDOWELL – 2010
G-Mac was the last man standing at a devilish Pebble Beach, closing with a final-round 74, a score good enough to just hold off Grégory Havret of France. The Ulsterman showed nerves of steel to claim his first Major title, fending off the likes of Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods, and in so doing became the first British golfer to win the US Open since Tony Jacklin in 1970.
MARTIN KAYMER – 2014
The German was in a league of his own at Pinehurst, where he cruised to victory by an incredible eight shots. Kaymer, then 29, led from start to finish, displaying the same level of quality that had earned the man from Düsseldorf another huge victory at the Players Championship the previous month. History was also made that week, with Kaymer becoming the first man from continental Europe to win a US Open.
DUSTIN JOHNSON – 2016
For so long, Johnson carried the tag of ‘best player never to have won a Major Championship’ – but he removed the monkey from his back at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania.
Things could so easily have turned out differently had the American let news that a Rules incident would be reviewed on completion of his round – delivered by an official on the 12th tee – affect his play.
As it turned out, when he birdied the last hole, Johnson gave himself the luxury of a four-shot lead, which meant that even a penalty stroke(s) couldn’t take the title away.
BROOKS KOEPKA – 2017 AND 2018
After the American’s latest success at Oak Hill, it’s getting difficult to remember which Majors Koepka has won and when; it’s three PGA Championships (2018, ’19, 2023) and two US Opens (2017 and ’18).
His first Major title came courtesy of a final-round 67 at Erin Hills in Wisconsin, where he finished the tournament at 16-under-par, and tied Rory McIlroy’s US Open record. Then, a year later, at Shinnecock, he become the first player to win the USGA’s marquee championship in back-to-back years since Curtis Strange in 1988-’89.
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU – 2020
The big-hitting American had his doubters heading into Winged Foot, but he proved them all wrong with an incredible combination of long game power and skilful wedge play.
Even when he was ankle deep in rough, DeChambeau somehow managed to find the putting surface with his approach – and he would tidy up from there. Two shots behind Matthew Wolff going into the final round, he ended up winning by six.
