US Open: Can Brooks Koepka use latest snub to spur him on to a hat-trick?

Hat-trick: Brooks Koepka is looking to become the first player in 114 years to win the Major three times in a row
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The only man to win the US Open three times in a row was dead at 31.

A Scottish immigrant to the United States, Willie Anderson achieved the feat 114 years ago and, examining the history, it is hard not to draw parallels between his golf and that of the American attempting to match that record this week, Brooks Koepka.

Anderson was praised for his “effortless power”, while one rival said of him: “You couldn’t tell whether he was winning or losing by looking at him.”

That the Scot is not better known is down to his premature death, attributed on his death certificate to epilepsy, although others believe he drank himself into an early grave.

His record is one that five men have attempted to emulate but none has achieved. On the back of his US PGA win, Koepka looks as well set as anyone over the years to achieve it.

But on the eve of these championships at Pebble Beach, he confessed he knew little about the player he is aiming to match. In fact, Koepka has done his level best to ignore the record books.

Asked about going for the hat-trick, the 29-year-old Floridian said simply: “I haven’t talked about three in a row, I’m not thinking about it. I know the odds are stacked against me. It’s hard to win the same event three times in a row. I don’t know how many times it’s even been done on the PGA, let alone a Major championship.”

The last man to achieve it at an individual Major was Peter Thomson at The Open in 1956, while no one has achieved the feat on the PGA Tour for eight years.

At the recent US PGA, where Koepka suffered a rare implosion of his game to see four bogeys cut a final-round six-shot lead down to two, he once again turned the proverbial chip on his shoulder to his advantage.

As chants of “DJ” rang through the Bethpage crowd in support of his pursuer, Dustin Johnson, Koepka used it to give him the resolve to finish the job.

His vexation this week has switched from fervent New Yorkers to Fox Sports and their tournament trailer in which he was the most notable absentee. Koepka only found out via social media and, understandably, took umbrage with the broadcaster, declaring his shock and suggesting someone should get fired over the incident.

"There's been a couple of times where it's just mind boggling. It's like, really? Like, how do you forget that? Just kind of shocked. They've had over a year to kind of put it out. So I don't know. Somebody probably got fired over it or should."

Koepka on Fox Sports omitting the world no.1 from US Open adverts

Other players would be derailed by such a slight. For Koepka, who still feels undervalued in the game, it merely seems to increase his desire.

There is history, too, for Tiger Woods this week — or at least a chance to repeat it. His 15-stroke victory at Pebble Beach in 2000 was, arguably, the greatest Major performance in the modern game. Runner-up Ernie Els suggested Woods was playing a different game to the rest of the world.

Even with another Masters title to his name this year, such a repeat is highly unlikely, although Woods recalls his four rounds like it was yesterday. “I remember most of the shots I hit that week,” said the 43-year-old. “I made everything.” And Pebble Beach ought to suit Woods infinitely better than Bethpage did, where he missed the cut as Koepka sealed the win.

A piece of Woods history will be on the course in the form of his former caddy from that 2000 win, Steve Williams, called in to be bagman for Jason Day, after the Australian deemed he had “severely underachieved” since winning the US PGA in 2015.

Meanwhile, the US Golf Association will be hoping to avoid a repeat of recent history over its harshly positioned pins and a failure to master the rules.

The last winner before Koepka — Johnson in 2016 — played his last seven holes with a possible rules infringement hanging over him. He was later penalised a shot for making his ball move on the fifth green, despite being initially absolved of wrongdoing. Rory McIlroy called organisers “amateur”, while Jordan Spieth said it was “a joke”.

There had been talk of a possible strike of the event by the top players, a threat which has since dissipated.

On current evidence, it might be the only way to derail Koepka, golf’s man of the moment, and his march to that historic hat-trick.

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