Brooks Koepka leads into the final round of a major again – image PGA of America
Min Woo Lee finds himself in a share of 10th place as the PGA Championship enters tomorrow’s final round in Rochester, New York, the 24 year old West Australian adding a third round of 71 to be at 1 over par and seven shots from the lead held by Brooks Koepka, whose round of 66 has him leading a major into the final round for the second occasion in 2023.
Lee began the day with a bogey in the rainy conditions but by the turn he was back at even par for the round and the tournament and when he added another birdie at the 11th he was under par for the first time for the week and just four from the then lead held by Corey Conners.
A double bogey at the par 5 13th was a shaky reminder of the dangers that lurk at every corner of Oak Hill but, impressively, he was able to par the last five holes for a round of 71 and is well placed to improve on his previous best major finish of 14th at the 2022 Masters.
Lee leads the Australasians by one over Cameron Davis and Ryan Fox, Davis recovering from a slow start to the day to move under par for the round with birdies at the 14th and 16th before consecutive bogeys at 17 and 18th saw him finish with a round of 71 and an eventual share of 16th.
It was a disappointing end to what had been an encouraging day to that point for Davis but he, too, is well enough placed to improve considerably on his previous best major finish of 39th.
Fox has been quite a revelation given his disrupted preparation for the event as a result of pneumonia and the arrival of his second child.
Fox’s round of 71 continued a very impressive week and given that a share of 59th or better this week will earn him special temporary membership of the PGA Tour then he appears on track for a lot more golf in the US.
Cameron Smith’s round of 70 in perhaps the worst conditions of the day saw him improve 21 places to a share of 27th.
Adam Scott added another round of 74 to be tied for 42nd along with Lucas Herbert who was round in 72 today after an outward nine of 39.
Koepka leads by one over two of the 36 hole leaders, Viktor Hovland and Corey Conners, while the third of the leaders after round two, Scottie Scheffler fought back from a horror outward nine of 39 for a round of 73 and at 2 under is still a chance to win a second major title.
Koepka explained when asked what he saw as the difference between confidence and injury recovery when assessing his recent form.
“I think everyone misconstrues the confidence for just the injury. You ask any athlete if they are hurt, and they can’t do something. I mean, imagine if you can’t get out of bed or can’t walk. You’ve got a pebble in your shoe, you kind of start to adjust, and that’s the thing. I just got into bad habits. It’s tough. You can’t play. I came back too soon and played for too long. But look, I moved on from that now, so I’m pretty pleased.”
The issue of his last round demise at Augusta National was raised and when asked as to his mindset now he would say; “To just never think the way I thought going into the final round. I think that was a big thing for me but other than that I think even having — learning what I learned at Augusta kind of helped today.
“Like I said, I won’t do it again the rest of my career. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t go play bad — you can play good, you’ll play bad but I’ll never have that mindset or that won’t ever be the reason.”
