The last man to win back-to-back U.S. Opens was Curtis Strange in 1988-89. Brooks Koepka repeated that feat at Shinnecock Hills, in a tournament that certainly kept the "Strange" theme alive.

Snub-Par

Brooks Koepka finished as No. 1 at +1, Tommy Fleetwood No. 2 at +2, Dustin Johnson No. 3 at +3, Patrick Reed No. 4 at +4, Tony Finau No. 5 at +5 and Xander Shauffele, Tyrrell Hatton, Henrik Stenson & Daniel Berger T6 at +6. Strange, right? But that's just the start.

Controversy

So nobody broke par over the course of the tournament. And of course, that was due to the course. The opening day was an absolute horror show. England's Scott Gregory shot a 92 on the par-70 in his first Major as a professional. However, it was Thursday's marquee group that stole the unwanted headlines as Rory McIlroy went 10-over, Jordan Spieth went 8-over and Phil Mickelson got round in 7-over.

Rory and Spieth did dramatically improve on Day 2; shooting par and +1 respectively, but missed the cut along with Tiger Woods (+10), Jason Day (+12), Sergio Garcia (+14), Jon Rahm (+15) and a whole host of big-name players. Mickelson, however, did manage to make the 8-over-par cut and, thus, prolong his misery. But many still feel that Lefty shouldn't have finished the tournament. Celebrating his 48th birthday, Mickelson caused uproar on Saturday as he jogged after a ball and hit it whilst moving to prevent it rolling off the green. The inevitable calls for disqualification fell on deaf ears as the USGA decided a two-stroke penalty would suffice. This left the birthday boy with a sextuple-bogey 10 for the hole, an 81 for the round and +16 for the tournament.

The USGA faced serious backlash for a lot of issues over the course of the week- including the Mickelson issue- but course management was, without question, the pick of the bunch. Sure, the wind provided a reasonable excuse on Thursday. Friday then saw some more respectable scores (although the bar wasn't set too high), but when so-called "Savage Saturday" rolled around there was simply no hiding and the organisation were forced to apologise for laying out a near-unplayable course. Pin positions were all over the shop and players may as well have been putting on conveyor belts as ball after ball failed to stop rolling. Players, fans and pundits alike united against the USGA. No, we were not entertained.

The Finale

Everything else aside, congratulations to Brooks Koepka. The tournament will be remembered for the controversies and likely branded something along the lines of Shinnecock-up Hills, but Koepka deserves a lot of credit. To win a U.S. Open is something, but to win back-to-back U.S. Opens is something else. He knew even-par would be enough down the stretch and that's exactly what he did. He got the job done.

That said, did you see Tommy Fleetwood?! Wow! The Englishman shot a -7 63 to surge towards the top of the leaderboard and ultimately miss out on top spot by a single stroke. That round equalled the best ever at a U.S. Open, putting himself alongside names like Vijay Singh, Justin Thomas and, of course, Jack Nicklaus. He sat outside the Top-20 at +9 after a Saturday 78, yet finished ahead of World No. 1 Dustin Johnson and Masters Champion Patrick Reed as he claimed the runner-up spot.

Foremost Picks

Maybe it wasn't the tournament we'd all hoped for, but I said prior to the tournament that players had to avoid mistakes before they could think about playing good golf. On that note, Dustin Johnson, Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose jumped out at me. On Thursday-Friday Rose and Stenson shot 71-70 to keep themselves hanging around the top of the leaderboard. DJ, meanwhile, was on -4 heading into the weekend and leading the way. Unfortunately Rose closed with 73-73 and Stenson with 74-71, but both finished inside the Top-10 as predicted. DJ's three bogeys on Sunday's back nine cost him dearly as he fell to +3 for third place. Still, not a bad showing by any means.

Brooks Koepka - What's in the Bag?

Driver: TaylorMade M4

3-Wood: TaylorMade M2 Tour

3-Iron: Nike Vapor Fly Pro

Irons: Mizuno JPX 900

Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM7

Putter: Titleist Scotty Cameron Tour-Only T10 Select Newport

Golf Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

Written by Joe Carabini

joe.carabini@foremostgolf.com