Four months ago, Brooks Koepka’s career was threatened by a left wrist injury that forced him to miss 15 weeks on the PGA TOUR and prevented him from picking up a club for 91 days. On Sunday, he removed any doubts about his health and made a little history, winning his second straight U.S. Open Championship.

Clinging to a one-shot lead after England’s Tommy Fleetwood tied the championship record with a 63 two hours earlier, Koepka shot a 2-under 68 at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club and won the 118th U.S. Open for the second straight year. He finished at 1-over 281, the highest winning score at the championship since 2012, to clip Fleetwood by one shot.

Koepka became only the seventh player to win the championship in consecutive years, the first since Curtis Strange in 1988-89.

“This is incredible,” said Koepka, who shot 75 in the first round. “I don’t think I could have dreamed of this, going back-to-back. I always felt like I had a chance (despite the poor opening round). Make a couple birdies and make up a lot of ground. Keep grinding. I knew conditions would ease up and they did and I took advantage of it.”

The other three co-leaders never got on track. Dustin Johnson, the 36-hole leader, had another rough day on the greens and shot 70 to finish third at 3-over 283. Tony Finau shot 72, including a double-bogey on the 72nd hole and finished fifth at 5 over. Daniel Berger shot 73 and tied for sixth at 6 over.

Koepka proved last year he could win a birdie contest when the tied the championship scoring record in his victory at Wisconsin’s Erin Hills. This year he won at Shinnecock Hills, one of the most difficult venues to host the event.

Koepka began the final round in a four-way tie for first. He birdied three of the first five holes and turned in 33. He birdied No. 10 and salvaged a bogey at No. 11, then retained a one-shot lead with four consecutive pars. A birdie on the par-5 16th hole gave Koepka a two-shot lead and afforded him enough breathing room to finish with a bogey.

Fleetwood’s 63 matched the record shared by five others and was reminiscent of Johnny Miller, who shot a 63 at Oakmont in 1973 to deny Arnold Palmer the championship. Fleetwood, the No. 12-ranked player in the world, missed an eight-foot birdie on the 18th hole that would have given him the record and would have forced a playoff.

“I honestly never really thought I was out of it,” Fleetwood said. “All the way around, I always felt like I could get myself back in it. It’s funny, though, when you finish, you always feel like you’ve kind of missed your shot.”

A brilliant display of iron play has seen Aaron Baddeley take top Australia honours.

Baddeley fired a final round of 1-under 69 to finish T25 at Shinnecock Hills, his 12-under total two shots better than US Open debutante Ryan Fox (T41) and three better than Marc Leishman (T45). Tim Wilkinson was a further stroke back and T48.

Those four were the only survivors of a brutally difficult opening 36 holes which saw the cut made at 8-over and seven Australasians the wrong side of it.

Among them were pre-tournament favourite Jason Day and last chance qualifier Adam Scott, Day the victim of an opening 79 while Scott never looked comfortable on his way to 78-75.

Jason Scrivener made a heartbreaking double bogey on his 36th hole to miss by one in an otherwise gutsy performance while Matt Jones, Cameron Smith, David Bransdon and Lucas Herbert were all well outside the mark.

Baddeley’s performance was perhaps a surprise after he missed four cuts in five starts leading up to the tournament though was impressive in surviving sectional qualifying.

Normally regarded as one of the best putters on Tour his statistics don’t bear that out in 2018 (he is 127th in Strokes Gained) and it was his Greens In Regulation figures that impressed in New York

Baddeley finished T8 In that category with more than 63 percent of greens hit, a marked improvement on the rest of the season where he ranks 180th on the PGA TOUR.

While he will be pleased with his overall play perhaps the biggest bonus for Baddeley is his move in the FedEx Cup where he climbed from 128^th to 120^th.

Fox, too, will be happy with his first appearance at the year’s second major where he made the cut comfortably and produced consistent golf over the weekend.

He proved his reputation as one of the games longest hitters finishing atop the driving distance category and combined that with hitting just shy of 70 percent of fairways.

The numbers suggest an improvement in putting is what’s required for Fox who finished T52 of the 67 players who made the cut.

For Marc Leishman, it was a case of what might have been, the Victorian in good company in being blown off the course during Saturday’s diabolical afternoon conditions.

On greens that the USGA later admitted were running too fast for the day’s wind, a four-putt triple bogey at the 8^th hole Saturday effectively ended his week.

Opening 74-69 – one of only 14 sub-par rounds Friday – Leishman was well in the mix heading to the weekend but couldn’t come back from a Saturday 78.

With no chance of contending a Sunday 74 was less than his best golf but perhaps understandable after Saturday’s bruising experience.

The last of the Australasians to make the cut was New Zealand’s Tim Wilkinson, an impressive performance from a player most would not have considered a likely weekend player.

Wilkinson holed a gutsy six-foot putt on his 36th hole of the tournament to book a place in the final two rounds and while he struggled Saturday, like most, he will take some confidence from a Sunday 70.

Of those who missed the weekend, Jason Scrivener and Lucas Herbert will likely take the most from their experiences, Scrivener impressing many with his first 35 holes.

Making his first major appearance the South African born Perth native proved his game is ideally suited to the US Open examination and despite his final hole disappointment will take plenty from the week.

For Lucas Herbert, who will play next month’s Open Championship, it was a baptism of fire in the Grand Slam events and while his 17-over wasn’t what he wanted he took to social media to express his excitement at the opportunity.

“There’s nothing like seeing how a US Open course sets up from inside the ropes,” he wrote on Twitter.

“You can hit the shots that are required, they aren’t impossible, I still think it’s fair. +17 would suggest I didn’t hit many of them. Would love to give it another crack someday.”