Palm Beach Gardens Residents Rory Mcllroy and Brooks Koepka Headlines Winning Weekend for Local Golfers

zz Dan Hauser
Posted by zz Dan Hauser
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Published in Events & Entertainment
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Palm Beach Gardens resident Rory Mcllroy won the European Tour's Dubai Desert Classic, while stateside fellow Gardens resident Brooks Koepka won the PGA Tour's Waste Management Phoenix Open, headlining a weekend of winning for local golfers.

Mcllroy continued to show his dominance and why he is the top ranked golfer in the world by winning his second Dubai Desert Classic in the last six years. This time around he won by three shots after shooting rounds of 66, 64, 66, and 70. His four day total of 22-under par tied the scoring record for the event.

When Mcllroy won in Dubai the first time in 2009, it was his first win as a professional. He returned this past weekend as the #1 ranked golfer in the world. The key to his Sunday 70 was playing steady and keeping the big numbers off the score card.

''I just wanted to keep my ball in play and not really make any mistakes and try and pick off some birdies when I could on the par 5s,'' McIlroy said. ''I did what I needed to do. It wasn't the best round that I've played this year but I got the job done and that's the most important thing.''

Meanwhile, back stateside another Palm Beach Gardens was making headlines of his own in Phoenix. Brooks Koepka came from 3 shots down to start the day to win the Waste Management Phoenix Open, his first win on the PGA Tour.

Just 2 months after his first win on the European Tour, Koepka has receieved a lot of praise lately for taking the less conventinal route to get to the PGA Tour.

Instead of electing to stay in the states and go through the Web.com Tour like so many before him, Koepka elected to take the road less traveled. He packed his bags and headed to Europe where he found himself on the Challenge Tour (Europe's equivalence to the Web.com Tour). He won three times on the Challenge Tour, got his maiden win on the European Tour in Turkey in Novemeber, and now has a win on the PGA Tour, all by the age of 24.

“I wanted to come out this year, get a win, make the Presidents Cup team and further down the road make the Ryder Cup,” said Koepka, who finished fourth at last year’s U.S. Open. “I don’t see why I can’t. I feel like my game is ready for that. I (am) ready for majors and to win them.”

Koepka says the road he took ultimately lead him to this win based off the experiences he has had.

“I have just learned a lot,” Koepka, 24, said. “But my drive, I think is what it is. I want to be the best player in the world. I’m not there yet, and I know it’s going to take time, but I want to get to that point.”

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