NEWS AND NOTES: BURMESTER FINISHES T12, EARNS INVITE TO NEXT YEAR’S PGA

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Dean Burmester produced the best result of his four PGA Championship starts, a tie for 12th at 12 under. He shot all four rounds under par, three rounds in the 60s – and thanks to his top-15 finish, he’s assured of a spot at next year’s PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, North Carolina.

But he wasn’t in much mood to celebrate Sunday. He had high hopes of making some noise at Valhalla but never seemed to ignite in shooting a 1-under 70 with just two birdies.

“I did not have my C game today,” said Burmester, the Stinger GC star who won LIV Golf Miami earlier this year. “It was not a good day. It was not pretty at all. Certainly, early on anyway. 

“And then it got better on the back nine and then I had my chances that I missed. So, it is what it is. Good week. A lot of learning and we'll take it into Houston.”

RELATED: BRYSON'S SUNDAY CHARGE COMES UP JUST SHORT AT PGA

Burmester was pleased with his putting, but it was the driver that let him down, never giving him much of an opportunity to score. 

Still, the T12 is his second top-15 finish in eight career major starts, and he hopes it’s an indication that better results are on the horizon.

“I wanted to prove myself and make some noise, but I'll learn and next time I'll probably do it a little differently and hopefully feel a little better about my game going into a Sunday,” he said. 

“But to be honest, I flushed it on the range, and I flushed it down the first fairway. So, I actually can't really put my finger on it, but I'll think about it and figure it out.”

RD. 4 NOTES

BROOKS ASSESSES HIS WEEK: Defending PGA Champion Brooks Koepka shot his best round of the week on Sunday, a 5-under 66. But the damage to his title defense had already been done after shooting a 3-over 74 in the third round that knocked him out of contention.

“Played good today. Played good the other two days,” the Smash GC captain said after finishing at 9 under for the week. “Yesterday I just didn’t have anything.”

Koepka had high hopes for winning his fourth PGA title after entered the week off his win at LIV Golf Singapore. But his second-round 68 was marked by several missed short putts. Then on Saturday, he gave up nearly two strokes to the field tee-to-green and nearly 2-1/2 strokes in putting.

“I don’t think I did one thing good at all. Usually when you play bad, you’ve got one thing you do OK. You might putt bad, you might drive it bad. Yesterday was just a combination of everything.

“I feel like I’m playing good. Yesterday was just kind of unfortunate timing.”

Koepka discussed earlier this week the punishment workouts his team, led by performance director Ara Suppiah, put him through after finishing T-45 at last month’s Masters. 

Asked if he expected more of those kinds of workouts in the lead-up to next month’s U.S. Open, Koepka replied, “I would say Ara will make me do a bunch.”

DJ’S BEST FINAL ROUND: Dustin Johnson's bogey-free 5-under 66 on Sunday is his lowest final-round score in any major.

Of the previous 46 majors in which he's made the cut, he shot 67 twice in the final round – the 2017 PGA at Quail Hollow and the 2021 Open at Royal St. George’s.

It's 14th time in 212 career rounds in majors that the 4Aces GC captain has shot 66 or better.

Johnson finished the tournament at 6 under.

FINISHING NOTES: Joaquin Niemann had four birdies in a six-hole stretch en route to his best score of the week, a 4-under 67 to finish at 7 under. The Torque GC captain was 9 under in the final three rounds … 4Aces GC’s Patrick Reed suffered two bogeys in his first three holes, then was bogey-free with four birdies the rest of the way to shoot 69 and finish at 5 under … Talor Gooch played the back nine in 4-under 32 to shoot 69 and finish at 4 under.

RD. 4 LEADERBOARD

How the LIV Golf players finished the 2024 PGA Championship