Defending champ last man standing at chaotic US Open

SOUTHAMPTON, New York－Brooks Koepka has the game to win a US Open on any course.

One year after overpowering the wide fairways of Erin Hills in a US Open remembered for low scoring, Koepka navigated his way through the brutal conditions of Shinnecock Hills and closed with a 2-under 68 on Sunday to become the first repeat champion in 29 years.

Curtis Strange, the last player to go back-to-back in this major, watched the entire final round while reporting for Fox Sports, and they shared a brief hug off the 18th green after Koepka tapped in for bogey and a one-shot victory.

"Man, it feels good to hold this thing again," Koepka said with the silver trophy in his arms.

Sunday's victory might not have been possible if not for Koepka grinding out a 72 on Saturday in conditions so severe the last 45 players to tee off in the third round didn't break par.

The USGA conceded the course was over the top and pledged to give it more water to slow it down.

Bogeys gave way to birdies, and no one took advantage like Tommy Fleetwood of England. He made eight birdies, but missed an 8-footer on the final hole for a 63, only the sixth player in US Open history to shoot that low.

"Yeah, but I wanted a 62," said Fleetwood, who finished one shot back.

Fleetwood was one shot behind when he finished, and Koepka still had 11 holes to play as Shinnecock Hills began to get crisp under another sunny sky.

Koepka never lost the lead.

With a hot putter and calm demeanor reminiscent of Retief Goosen when he won the previous US Open at Shinnecock Hills in 2004, the 28-year-old Koepka began the back nine with three pivotal putts－one for birdie, one for bogey, one for par.

The biggest might have been his bogey on the nasty par-3 11th.

Koepka pulled his tee shot to the left, down the slope and into thick grass. He chopped his second up the slope with so much speed that it raced across the green and into the bunker. He blasted that out to eight feet and made the putt to keep his lead at one shot.

"I think that was like making a birdie, maybe even making an eagle," he said.

"It could have been a big momentum shift, and we could have been playing tennis just going back and forth. To make bogey there was pretty incredible and I think kind of the reason why we won."

Koepka wasn't through.

He hacked out of the hay over the green at No 12, pitched beautifully to seven feet and made par. Two holes later, after another drive into grass so thick he wasn't sure he could get it out, Koepka rolled in an eight-footer for another par save.

He seized control with a wedge to 3? feet for birdie on the par-5 16th for a two-shot lead and never flinched until it no longer mattered.

Koepka finished at 1-over 281, 13 shots higher than his winning score at Erin Hills last year.

It was the first time since 2013 at Merion that no one broke par in the US Open.

"I enjoy the test," he said. "I enjoy being pushed to the limit. Sometimes you feel like you are about to break mentally, but that's what I enjoy. I enjoy hard golf courses."

That it was, starting on Thursday, and especially on Saturday.

Koepka opened with a 75, the highest first-round score by a US Open champion since Raymond Floyd at Shinnecock Hills in 1986.

He was seven over for the championship through seven holes of the second round when he ran off six birdies for a 66 to get back in the game.

Dustin Johnson, part of the four-way tie for the lead to start the final round, couldn't keep up with one of his best friends.

Johnson was one shot behind at the turn until a trio of three-putt bogeys on the back nine.

A birdie on the final home gave him an even-par 70 to finish alone in third and remain No 1 in the world.

AP