FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – Stepping into the cauldron of the final group in the final round of a major, Harold Varner III showed just how quickly things can spiral out of control.

Varner played his way into Sunday’s anchor pairing alongside Brooks Koepka with three rounds of steady play, entering the finale at Bethpage at 5 under, seven shots off the lead. He got to within five after a clinical dissection of the opening hole, combining a birdie with a bogey from Koepka.

But that was as close as he’d get, as Varner bogeyed No. 3 before disaster struck on the par-5 fourth. He pulled his drive into thick rough and then his second shot found more trouble, bounding into trees and leading to a lost ball. He made a double bogey and didn’t make another birdie the rest of the way, signing for an 11-over 81 that dropped him into a tie for 36th.

“I was super excited, man. It’s a great opportunity. I just don’t know how you can’t get up for that,” Varner said. “I just didn’t play very well. I didn’t do what I was supposed to do. But I’m excited I had the opportunity, and I’m excited to learn from it and get better.”

Varner won the Australian PGA Championship in 2016, but he remains in search of his first PGA Tour win and entered the week ranked 174^th in the world. While his first brush with contention on a major stage didn’t go as planned, he took plenty of positives from the experience with the hopes of returning in the not-too-distant future.

“It’s hard, but I still had a good time. That’s kind of what you play for,” Varner said. “So it’s all right. Obviously I’m a little pissed right now. You want to do well. I don’t know who else doesn’t. But I’m going to get a lot better from it.”

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – After playing the first two rounds alongside Tiger Woods and building a seven-shot lead through 54 holes, Brooks Koepka received plenty of support from the raucous crowds gathered at Bethpage for the PGA Championship. But around these parts, even the Yankees get booed during a losing streak.

Such was the case Sunday, as Koepka’s seemingly insurmountable lead dwindled to a single shot after the defending champ rattled off four straight bogeys on Nos. 11-14. It left Koepka in a state of “shock,” with Dustin Johnson closing the gap two holes ahead of him, and it sparked an abrupt turn among the fans lining the closing stretch on the Black Course.

While some shifted their support to Johnson, who had closed the gap with a birdie on No. 15, others opted to vocally root against Koepka as he trundled down the large hill toward the 15^th tee box.

“I thought it was pretty weird how they were telling Brooks to choke. That’s not my cup of tea,” said Harold Varner III, who played the final round alongside Koepka. “I was pulling for him after that. I have a few choice words for that.”

Koepka steadied the ship with a par on No. 15, and after a pair of Johnson bogeys he eventually won by two shots. Admitting that he “half-choked” during his back-nine bogey barrage, Koepka shared that the negative energy from the fans actually fueled him over the final few holes as he sought to keep Johnson at bay.

“I think I kind of deserved it. You’re going to rattle off four in a row and it looks like you’re going to lose it; I’ve been to sporting events in New York. I know how it goes,” Koepka said. “I think it actually helped. It was at a perfect time because I was just thinking, ‘OK, all right, I’ve got everybody against me. Let’s go.’”

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – It turns out Brooks Koepka will have the final word in a spat with Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee that began at last month’s Masters.

Chamblee had taken a hard line on Koepka, first criticizing a recent weight loss and then questioning his toughness.

“His talent is undeniable,” Chamblee said during “Live From The Masters” following Round 2. “But I’ve heard people say this. You extrapolate from accomplishment, you infer qualities from a human being like, ‘He’s really tough.’ Maybe he is, I don’t know. I've got to say, I still need to be convinced.”

After his fourth major victory on Sunday in his eighth Grand Slam start Koepka was asked if a particular criticism stood out to him.

“Telling me I wasn't tough. That pissed me off. That really pissed me off,” said Koepka, who beat world No. 1 Dustin Johnson by two strokes at Bethpage.

The dispute escalated earlier this month when Chamblee was asked during a podcast with Jaime Diaz if Tiger Woods was currently the game’s best player. In a perceived slight by omission, Chamblee said Rory McIlroy and Johnson were the players “who could hang with [Woods].”

Koepka responded to Chamblee’s comment on Twitter, with a picture of him wearing a clown nose.

Asked on Sunday at Bethpage who questioned his toughness Koepka didn’t mention Chamblee by name. “I think we all know,” he said.

Late on Sunday, Chamblee gave the champ credit, saying, “He’s made a believer out of me.”

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – Brooks Koepka’s stoic demeanor has become as much a part of his persona as his powerful drives, But late on Sunday at the PGA Championship, as his lead was slashed to a single stroke, that calm resilience was tested.

“I wasn't nervous. I was just in shock, I think. I was in shock of what was kind of going on,” said Koepka, who won his fourth major title and second PGA.

What was going on was a borderline collapse from Koepka, who saw a seven-shot lead slipping away as he bogeyed Nos. 11, 12, 13 and 14.

“I can't tell you the last time I made four bogeys in a row,” Koepka said.

His anxiety likely reached its peak on the par-3 14^th hole, when his tee shot sailed through the wind and over the green. As Koepka prepared to hit a delicate pitch, Dustin Johnson, playing in the group ahead, birdied the 15^th hole to cut Koepka's advantage to just one.

Although he stopped short of calling it nervousness, Koepka’s caddie Ricky Elliott said it was the first time he’s seen his boss anxious on the golf course.

“I just got the feeling we were dropping so many shots. Anybody would get nervous,” Elliott said. “When [Johnson] birdied 15, we heard the roar and we were making a mess of 14. We just talked going down the hill, 'Listen we’re still there, we’re still in the lead, he’s got tough holes to play. You’ve bogeyed four in a row so there’s a good chance you’re going to par a few.'”

Koepka stopped the slide with pars at Nos. 15 and 16 and scrambled for a par at the last hole for a two-stroke victory.

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – It wasn’t long ago that Brooks Koepka was merely the lovable sidekick, the harmless challenger to Dustin Johnson’s throne. They played golf together. They lifted weights together. They boated and fished and vacationed together. But a viable threat to his supremacy? Oh, no. Unlikely.

And yet there was Johnson, in the scoring tent at Bethpage Black, glancing up at a TV monitor as Koepka closed in on another major, on the verge of eclipsing him even further.

In a 25-mph wind, on a brutish course that turned wayward drives into hack-outs, Johnson had played majestically for 15 holes, slicing into Koepka’s massive advantage and trailing by only one as he stood over his 194-yard approach into the 16^th green.

But the next 45 minutes at the PGA Championship epitomized why the extravagantly talented Johnson has only a single major in 40 starts, while Koepka just bagged his fourth in his past eight attempts. The answer was right there on the scorecard he was double-checking with Sharpie marker, the consecutive bogeys late that nullified his remarkable round of 69 and left him second in a major – again.

After signing his card, Johnson meandered over to a TV tent for an on-camera interview. While waiting to go live, Johnson watched Koepka navigate the 18^th hole. There was still a slight chance of a playoff, especially after Koepka’s drive sailed left, into the native area, but then he chopped back into play and wedged to 6 feet. It was over.

“We can start now,” Johnson said to the interviewer.

Entering the final round seven shots behind, Johnson knew that he needed a special round – and some help – to earn his first major title since the 2016 U.S. Open, the breakthrough that was supposed to open the floodgates. He raced off to a dream start, making the turn in 3 under to turn the PGA into a two-man race, but the wind switched when the final groups headed to the back nine and turned the closing stretch into a test of survival.

After looking unstoppable for three-and-a-half days, Koepka began sliding down the leaderboard. Errant drives on Nos. 11, 12 and 13. An airmailed tee shot on 14. Coupled with a Johnson birdie on 15, the seven-shot lead was now down to a single stroke, and for the first time, Koepka’s caddie, Ricky Elliott, noticed his normally unflappable boss looking anxious.

“I wasn’t nervous,” Koepka said. “I was just in shock.”

Meanwhile, the crowd, sensing a potentially historic collapse, shifted its allegiance to Johnson, loudly chanting, “DJ! DJ! DJ!” Just like that, Koepka was transported to another time, not so long ago, when Johnson was the main attraction and Koepka a mere bit player, when he’d venture over to Johnson’s place in South Florida and stare longingly at the U.S. Open trophy on his table.

“I think it actually helped,” Koepka said afterward. “It was at a perfect time, because I was just thinking, 'OK, I’ve got everybody against me. Let’s go.'”

Their rooting interest was understandable. There’s no one on the planet who plays as consistently excellent as Johnson. He’s a 20-time winner on Tour, with at least one title every season as a pro. He’s won against the best non-major fields, with 10 combined titles in World Golf Championships and playoff events. He’s been ranked inside the top 3 in strokes gained: total – the statistic that accounts for every aspect of a player’s game – in each of the past four seasons. But careers are inevitably defined by a player’s performance in the majors, and Johnson has a controversy-marred U.S. Open ... and a whole lot of heartache. That includes at last year’s U.S. Open at Shinnecock, when Johnson held the 36-hole lead and Koepka stared him down in the final round, head to head, and forever altered the dynamics of their brotherly relationship.

“He’s as competitive of a person as I’ve ever met,” said Koepka’s swing coach, Claude Harmon III, “and I think you need not necessarily rivalries, but people to push you and to inspire you. DJ has done a great job of that.” 

And so it mattered little that Johnson didn’t have a realistic chance at the beginning of the day – trailing by one on 16, that was his chance to punch back. Finally.

With 194 yards for his approach into 16, into the fan, Johnson debated between 4- and 5-iron and opted for the shorter club. His low draw still flew 203 yards, settling into the rough behind the green. He pitched to 8 feet and hit what he thought was a perfect putt, only for it to slice in front of the cup. Bogey.

“I don’t know what else to do there,” he said.

On the raucous 17^th, Johnson missed the green right and couldn’t get up and down. Another bogey. And on 18, he never gave himself a chance for a closing birdie, slicing his drive into the fairway bunker, hooking his approach wide of the green and needing to hole a 6-footer just to save par. It was the end of a demoralizing stretch that exposed Johnson’s crunch-time frailties. 

“I would have liked to have a couple shots back,” he said, “but that’s how it goes.”

Behind Johnson, Koepka showed his mettle, pounding perfect drives on 15 and 16 to set up stress-free pars that increased his cushion. Even though he fired a final-round 74, even though he saw his lead evaporate from seven shots to just one, Koepka was the one posing afterward with the Wanamaker Trophy for the second consecutive year.

“It doesn’t really matter how,” Harmon said. “He’ll get as much out of this as if he would have won by 15.”

So what’s the separator between the two best players in the world? Why has Johnson been prone to major let downs, while Koepka has thrived on the biggest stages, prevailing on a funky, links-style course, and on dastardly greens, and against Tiger Woods, and on one of the most beastly setups imaginable?

“He has showed over the last two to three years how mentally tough he is,” Harmon said. “To do what he’s done, he’s uniquely talented. He’s got huge balls. Like ... big balls. You have to be able to do that to win these things.”

Throughout his star-crossed career, Johnson has proven to be remarkably resilient, bouncing back from repeated failures only to get his heart broken again. Afterward, he was informed that he’d captured not his second major, but the final leg of a more frustrating title – the Career Runner-Up Slam.

“Yayyyyyy,” he said, with mock enthusiasm. “I’m so excited.”

Searching for silver linings in another late letdown, a reporter asked Johnson whom he believed was the best player in the world.

“I’m pretty sure I’m still ranked No. 1,” Johnson replied, “so I’d pick myself.”

Only that wasn’t true. Not anymore.

With his fourth major in 23 months, Koepka leapfrogged Johnson and reclaimed the top spot.

The little brother is the bully, now and perhaps forever.