Koepka’s Kop-Out, J.T.’s Excuse, Rory’s Roar And Other FedEx After-Thoughts

Why couldn’t Brooks Koepka just admit he got his butt kicked on Sunday at East Lake?

Why couldn’t he just admit that Rory McIlroy and that ballistic driver of his put the heat on and that Mr. Major and his wayward driver simply couldn’t handle the heat?

Why did the PGA champion simply give us this garbage after he played like a clod on Sunday?

“I mean, I can’t bring it every day.”

Really Brooks?  Really?  That’s all you’ve got after driving it crooked all day?

And Justin Thomas, the guy who got 10 shots to start off, this is what you offer:

“It was really weird and hard teeing off on Thursday ahead of everybody.  I don’t know how everybody else feels, but I had a pretty hard time playing the normal way that I play. It’s hard to just imagine everybody starts at zero when you don’t. So that was tough.”

Tough?  They basically made you a 10-handicapper, J.T.  You tried to blow a six-shot lead at the BMW and you blew this lead.

Felt “weird?”  What’s up with that, J.T.?

What’s better than a Gift-Horse?

And with that, the PGA Tour season came to a controversial close with a lightning strike that injured six spectators on Saturday,  taking the news headlines.

NBC  reported the lightning strike incident on its major news cast and simply referred to the Tour Championship as “a golf tournament.”  Someone needs to tell the news boss guys that the network forked out a helluva lot of money to broadcast the Tour Championship and that it was not your run-of-the-mill, every week “golf tournament.”

Let us not digress, back to the season-ender.  Here are a few thoughts looking back at what transpired, who stood out and who failed to impress anyone.

Rory McIlroy:  Great performance by Rory.  The guy was nails on Sunday and showed a lot of grit and determination.  Now that’s the Rory who needs to show up at major championships.  McIlroy made his case to the rest of the tour to try and earn their votes as Player Of The Year.  Close call between him and Koepka for that honor.  East Lake should also put a plaque on the sprinkler cover that may have saved Rory’s second shot from going into the water left of the green.  Just might be your basic $10 million sprinkler cover.

Brooks Koepka:  Fell short, gave us the lousy excuse already documented above.  Should have said:  “Rory played great and he basically kicked my (clothed) butt.”

Xander Schauffele:  Showed once again that he plays East Lake better than most.

Tony Finau:  Showed once again that he plays well enough to make a lot of money but doesn’t win.

Justin Thomas:  Ten strokes wasn’t enough.  What more is there to say?

Paul Casey:  The surprise guy of the top five.

Jason Kokrak:  Darn good showing by a guy most would consider your basic journeyman.

Jon Rahm:  End of the season underachiever.

Gary Woodland:  Someone needed to tell Gary that the season isn’t over when you win a major.

Rickie Fowler:  Please excuse Rickie while he makes another television commercial.

Justin Rose:  Not what you’d call a great title defense.

Dustin Johnson: Tied for dead-last with Lucas Glover?  Seriously?  Seems like D.J. decided to take the summer off.  At least he played like it.

And there you have it.

The 2018-2019 season is in the books.

Brooks Koepka is still No. 1 in the world and Rory McIlroy is now No. 2 and you’d think the way he played last week that maybe Brooks finally has someone breathing down his neck.

Final 2018-2019 season FedEx Cup Standings: