Brooks Koepka Wins the 2014 Turkish Airlines Open

With an excellent closing round of 63 (1 eagle and 5 birdies), Brooks Koepka wins the 2014 Turkish Airlines Open at the Montgomerie Maxx Royal golf resort in Antalya, Turkey, with a score of 17-under (-17), good enough for a one shot win over Ian Poulter, in this his first European Tour win. It may have been his first win, but it was probably one of the most important for Koepka, as it gives him European Tour exemption until 2016.

Koepka wasn't the only player to go low today. The low round of the day was a 62 which was shot by Henrik Stenson (3rd) and 2013 winner Victor Dubuisson (T15), but there were many players who shot low rounds as well. Ian Poulter for example, came back from a Saturday 75 with a 67 earlier today. I'm betting this probably had something to do with those thunderstorms and softened everything up for the final round.

Despite there being one playoff event left in the 2014 European Tour season, Rory McIlroy has won the Race to Dubai point race. He claims this title since over 2 million points separated him and runner up Henrik Stenson, but the final playoff event, the DP World Tour Championship, offers just under 1.7 million. This caps off an excellent year, if not his best so far, for the young man from Holywood, Northern Ireland.

Rory may have won it all, but we'll still be covering the DP World Tour Championship next week, with picks and all. Keep in mind that only 600,000 points separated second place from eight in the Race to Dubai rankings, so players will without a doubt be battling for second place.

Also, I personally think that some of the best golf on the European Tour is played in the Middle East. It brings out the competitiveness in the players more that the normal European Tour event, probably since both the closing and starting tournaments of the European Tour are played there.

So there's bound to be good golf played next week; stay tuned for it starting with our picks on Wednesday.


-Nick
Toronto Golf Reviews

Brooks Koepka wins the 2014 Turkish Airlines Open (Getty Images)