After the noise of the gallery, who gave the sensational Scottie Scheffler his dues for that world-class five-hole blast of field-scattering golf, a diminuendo end to the day courtesy of the final group. It’s a bogey-bogey-bogey finish for Matthieu Pavon; a par for Matt Fitzpatrick but a disappointing 72; and bogey for Jhonattan Vegas for an underwhelming 73. But this was all about Scheffler. What a performance. Is this already over? Not yet, too much can happen on any given major-championship Sunday. But in this form, and with a three-shot lead, it’s going to take something special to deny Scottie his third major tomorrow. See you then!
-11: Scottie Scheffler
-8: Alex Noren
-7: Davis Riley, JT Poston
-6: Jon Rahm, Kim Si-woo, Jhonattan Vegas
-5: Keegan Bradley, Tony Finau, Bryson DeChambeau, Matthieu Pavon, Matt Fitzpatrick
Scheffler posts 65
Scottie Scheffler is left with a nine-foot putt across 18 for his birdie. He strolls around it, sizes it up, and strokes in the right-to-left swinger for his third birdie in the last five holes. Throw an eagle into that stretch, and down the closing strait the world number one might have done enough to win this championship on day three! Bogey for Kim Si-woo, who suddenly finds himself five off the pace. The Wanamaker Trophy in Scottie’s hands!
-11: Scheffler (F)
-8: Noren (F)
-7: Riley (F), Poston (F), Vegas (17)
-6: Rahm (F), Kim (F), Pavon (17)
Divot? No problem. Scottie Scheffler sends a high fade into 18 from 165 yards, landing his ball pin high, 15 feet from the pin. Another birdie opportunity, and whether he makes the putt or not, what a closing stretch this has been from the world number one. He’s made the Green Mile look like a stroll in the park.
Back on 17, Jhonattan Vegas’s tee shot only just hangs on to the back-left portion of the green. A few more joules of energy and that was scampering into the drink. He’s left with a 70-foot putt that he rolls up to kick-in distance. Matt Fitzpatrick gets up and down from the swale front right for his par, too. But Matthieu Pavon can’t make a similar escape, leaving a Texas wedge from the bottom of the bank well short, and that’s consecutive bogeys for the French star. Meanwhile Rory McIlroy is in the hutch with a 72. He ends the day at +2. Exactly the same applies to the defending champion Xander Schauffele.
Scottie Scheffler belts his drive down the 18th fairway. His ball ends up in a shallow divot, but that shouldn’t be a huge problem for him. He’s in the zone, having made two birdies and an eagle in three of the last four holes, and come very close to birdie on the other. A feeling of mellow satisfaction as he strolls up to his ball.
A careless three-putt bogey for Matthieu Pavon on 16. Having found the green in two, he leaves a 75-foot putt 15 feet short. He slips back to -7 as a result. Meanwhile that’s where local lad JT Poston ends up, after draining a 30-footer across 18 for his second 68 of the week. And on 17, Scottie Scheffler is never missing his birdie putt. All of a sudden, he’s just the second man to get to double figures this week, after Jhonattan Vegas, and his lead is two!
-10: Scheffler (17)
-8: Noren (F)
-7: Riley (F), Poston (F), Kim (17), Vegas (16), Pavon (16)
-6: Rahm (F)
-5: Bradley (F), Finau (F), DeChambeau (F), Fitzpatrick (16)
Scottie Scheffler is in total control of his game right now. A 7-iron pinged into 17. Pin high. He’ll have a ten-foot look at birdie. Meanwhile back on 16, what a response to a potential unravel from Jhonattan Vegas! A wedge crisply sent from 66 yards to a couple of feet! He’ll surely salvage an unlikely par, and keep his title hopes on track.
Jhonattan Vegas is struggling a bit now. A tee shot at 16 sent into sand down the left; an 8-iron mishit and left well short of the green. After bogey on a hole that’s been coughing up birdies, he’s now making a meal of the first section of the Green Mile. He’s in danger of undoing an awful lot of good work.
Rory McIlroy has been the surprising non-event this week. He sends his tee shot into the water to the right of the 7th, but ends up saving his par by raking home a 50-foot tramliner. The crowd whoop and holler, but McIlroy isn’t of a mind to celebrate. He remains at +2, and with the weather set fair tomorrow, he’ll most definitely be going out early doors for the final round.
Scottie Scheffler takes full advantage of the bounce that kept him out of the fairway bunker at 16. He caresses his second from 194 yards to 12 feet. Not quite up there with Jon Rahm’s approach earlier, but that’s an absurdly high bar to set. It’s still one hell of an approach. But he can’t read the right-to-left swinger, and he drops his gaze to the floor in mild annoyance at the birdie that could have been. A no-nonsense four at the start of the Green Mile, though. He remains one clear of Alex Noren and Matthieu Pavon at -9.
Vegas does pretty well to whip his chip at 15 gently onto the green, letting it roll out to ten feet. Pin high, but well to the left, about the best he could do. He can’t make the par putt and drops back to -7. Meanwhile heading the other way, back on 15, Matthieu Pavon chips to six feet and should make the straight putt … which he does, though it requires his ball to take two journeys around the rim before dropping. He’s -8.
Jhonattan Vegas takes his penalty drop by the water down the left of 15 … then flies his third over the green and into thick rough down a bank at the back. With the green sloping dramatically away from him, he’ll have a heck of a job getting up and down to salvage his par.
Scottie Scheffler peers after his drive at 16 with a little anxiety. Is it heading for the bunker to the right of the fairway? Yes. Hold on. Maybe. No! The ball pings off the left-hand corner of the shoulder, and bounds down the fairway into prime position. He’s now had a couple of handy bounces today – the tee shot coming back out of the trees at 8 the most spectacular – but even world number ones need a bit of good fortune to get things done at a major championship. He smiles wryly, knowing he got away with one there.
Kim Si-woo chips up from the same swale on 15 as Scottie Scheffler before him. He nearly holes out for eagle, but that’s enough for birdie. He moves to -7 … but he’s still two off the lead, because seconds later Scheffler tidies up to go clear at the top. The leaderboard has been a glorious nonsense all afternoon, but now the world number one is imposing some order.
-9: Scheffler (15)
-8: Noren (F), Vegas (14)
-7: Riley (F), Kim (15), Pavon (14)
-6: Rahm (F), Poston (16)
-5: Bradley (F), Finau (F), DeChambeau (F), Thorbjornsen (15)
… so having just given Jhonattan Vegas his dues for that consistent run of golf, the new co-leader hooks into the drink down the left of the par-five 15th. Up by the green, Scottie Scheffler chips up from the swale to the front-right. He’s left himself a four-and-a-half footer for birdie and sole ownership of the lead.
Matt Fitzpatrick makes his bogey putt, so that’s a little damage limitation. But the 14th is a hole where birdie is expected, and eagle far from a pipe dream. He’s given up a couple to the field there, and slips back to -4. Birdie for his playing partner Jhonattan Vegas, though, and the Venezuelan reclaims a share of the lead! The least he deserves for once again steadying himself after some early travails: since that bogey-bogey start, he’s not dropped a stroke and has now made his second birdie. A shot also picked up by the third member of the final group, Mattieu Pavon, who has also turned things around nicely after that egregious yip on 9, with birdies at 10 and now 14.
-8: Noren (F), Scheffler (14), Vegas (14)
-7: Riley (F), Pavon (14)
Bryson DeChambeau makes his par putt at 18. He signs for a 69 that promised to be so much better. He was blemish free until powering a short par putt through the line on 16. Then the watery tee shot at 17. How quickly things can go south. See also: Matt Fitzpatrick, who sends his tee shot at the generous par-four 14th onto the high bank to the right of the green. Worried about the water on the other side, he fluffs his first chip, then blades his second through the green. The fringe stops the ball dropping into the drink, but the chip coming back stops six feet short, and suddenly he’s staring a double-bogey six in the face.
DeChambeau gathers himself and flips a wedge from 30 yards to two-and-a-half feet. He should get out of Dodge with par, but the Green Mile has taken a chunk out of him, and his mood is pretty dark at the moment. From leading this race, he’s right back in the peloton.
It’s unravelling a bit for Bryson, coming off the back of that double bogey. His drive at 18 finds a bunker to the right of the fairway, and he can’t reach in two. He waves his arms about in frustration. Those jubilant scenes greenside at 15 seem an awfully long time ago now. It was 40-odd minutes. But that’s golf.
Scottie Scheffler mops up what’s left on 14. Eagle, and an appropriate time to have a proper look at the beautiful ruins of the leaderboard in the wake of that manic last half-hour!
-8: Noren (F), Scheffler (14)
-7: Riley (F), Vegas (13)
-6: Rahm (F), Kim (14), Poston (15), Fitzpatrick (13), Pavon (13)
-5: Bradley (F), Finau (F), DeChambeau (17), Thorbjornsen (14)
Updated
Noren posts 66; Riley 67
Bryson can’t make the long bogey putt on 17, which breaks apologetically to the left. He tidies up for double before trudging off in a morose manner. He’s -5, and suddenly well off the lead, because up on 18, Alex Noren steers a 16-foot right-to-left curler into the cup for a fourth birdie in the last five holes! He’s now the sole leader of the PGA Championship, after a late-blooming round of 66! His partner Davis Riley gets up and down from greenside sand for a par and an (almost) equally impressive 67.
-8: Noren (F)
-7: Riley (F), Vegas (13)
The 13th hole was much kinder to Scottie’s playing partner Kim Si-woo, who clipped his tee shot to 11 feet before guiding in the left-to-right swinger for birdie. He’s -6. Then they move on to the driveable 14th … and Scheffler gently draws his tee shot from 305 yards to two feet and nine inches! A chance to instantly repair the damage of the previous hole, and then some!
Updated
Scheffler makes the putt coming back, but that’s a second bogey in three holes. Admittedly sandwiching a birdie, but the world number one is getting a little scrappy at the wrong time. Meanwhile from the drop-zone at 17, DeChambeau finds the green, but he’ll need to sink a 25-footer just to limit the damage to bogey.
Disaster for Bryson DeChambeau on 17. He whacks a high draw into the green at the par-three … but there’s too much right-to-left action. And too much right-to-left wind. With the ball in mid-air, he holds his arms out wide, palms wide open, as if to ask: what’s happening here?! What’s happening is, his ball clanking off the wall surrounding the left of the green and into the drink. Meanwhile back on 13, Scottie Scheffler is nowhere close with his splash out of sand. He can’t make the 22-footer, and leaves himself a six-footer coming back. The wheels suddenly threatening to come off the Big Two bandwagon here. I probably shouldn’t have mentioned that potential final-day mano a mano showdown. Sorry Bryson. Apologies Scottie.
For the second time in four holes, Bryson DeChambeau powers a short putt through the break. It cost him a birdie on 13; this time it’s cost him a shot on 16. There goes sole ownership of his lead. He’s back to -7 … and now alongside Alex Noren, who swishes his tee shot at 17 to eight feet and walks in the birdie putt! Everything changing at pace, with 13 players within two shots of the lead. A typically hectic PGA Championship.
-7: Noren (17), DeChambeau (16), Riley (16), Scheffler (12), Vegas (12)
-6: Rahm (F), Fitzpatrick (12), Pavon (12)
-5: Bradley (F), Finau (17), Higgo (15), Poston (14), Kim (12)
Bryson DeChambeau gets himself out of position on 16, sending his tee shot into the rough down the right. He can’t generate any spin with his second, which nearly topples off the green to the left without ever threatening to scamper into the water. Meanwhile back on the par-three 13th, Scottie Scheffler dunks his tee shot in a bunker guarding the front of the green. Perhaps that final pairing showdown will be Riley v Vegas after all?
Bounce-back birdie for Scottie Scheffler! He wedges straight at a pin on 12 tucked away dangerously back-left of the green, sand to the side, and gets the reward for his aggressive play. A nine-foot birdie chance that he tickles straight into the cup. And with the greatest of respect to everyone else at the top of this quality-drenched leaderboard … a fair few people will be salivating at the prospect of a Bryson v Scottie showdown in the final pairing tomorrow. A long road to travel before we can contemplate that, of course.
-8: DeChambeau (15)
-7: Riley (16), Scheffler (12), Vegas (11)
-6: Rahm (F), Noren (16), Fitzpatrick (11)
Rahm shoots 67
Jon Rahm plays the hardest hole on the course – the 18th – without any fuss. He’s a bit disappointed that his second shot didn’t bite and spin back to realistic birdie range, but this is a hole on which 39 double bogeys (or worse) have been made this week. So par is not to be sniffed at. He’s the new clubhouse leader at -6, having made a significant move today.
Bryson is a people-pleaser all right. Having sent his tee shot at the par-five 15th into thick rough down the right of the hole, he lashes a 5-wood from the thick stuff, and he’s inches away from clearing the bunker at the front of the green and finding the dancefloor. His ball slams into the sand, but that doesn’t stop the gallery spluttering variants of “Is there anybody else who could do that?!” in the possibly lubricated style. He then nearly holes out from the sand for eagle, before walking in the four-footer he leaves himself and waving his hands in the air to get the punters roaring. That’s his fifth birdie of the day, without blemish. The man’s box-office. The man’s in the lead!
-8: DeChambeau (15)
-7: Riley (15), Vegas (11)
Updated
The 2011 champion Keegan Bradley makes a rare birdie on 18 and signs for a 68! The US Ryder Cup captain is the early clubhouse leader at -5. He won’t be far off by the end of play tonight. Meanwhile birdie at last today for Matt Fitzpatrick, at 10, and for his playing partner Matthieu Pavon. They’re back in the picture again. And what a picture! Flash, bang, wallop what a leaderboard.
-7: Riley (15), DeChambeau (14), Vegas (10)
-6: Rahm (17), Noren (15), Scheffler (11), Fitzpatrick (10), Pavon (10)
-5: Bradley (F), Highsmith (16), Finau (16), Poston (12), Thorbjornsen (11), Kim, (11)
Updated
Davis Riley suffers a horrible break, his second into 15 landing on the fringe before taking a 90-degree spring into the bunker on the left. But he gets up and down for birdie and a share of the lead. Meanwhile Kim Si-woo chunks a chip from the deep rough at the back of 11, and the resulting bogey takes him back to -5. And it’s bogey for Scottie Scheffler, who can’t make his putt from the fringe at the back of 11.
Scottie Scheffler gets loose on 11. A tee shot that drifts into the rough down the left. A second short of the green. Then a hot chip that races past the cup and nearly topples off the back. Work on here to salvage par and retain a share of the lead. At the moment, Bryson DeChambeau – blemish-free today so far – looks the player most in control of his game.
Having hit the lead for the first time this week, Jon Rahm immediately drops back into the pack. A weak tee shot into the par-three 17th topples down the valley to the right of the green. He can’t get up and down and he’s back to -6. Elsewhere, Alex Noren holes out from a bunker on 15 and suddenly, having also birdied 14, the Swede is back in the mix! He’s -6 too.
Kim Si-woo sends his second at the par-five 10th, driver off the deck, just through the back. But those Arnold Palmer stylings aren’t good enough for birdie. Par a disappointing outcome. See also his partner Scottie Scheffler, who chips up from the swale at the front to six feet, but uncharacteristically pulls the short putt. And so up on 14, Bryson DeChambeau joins the party with birdie, wedging from 80 feet to seven and stroking in the putt. Look at this leaderboard: the cream has risen to the top.
-7: Rahm (16), DeChambeau (14), Scheffler (10), Vegas (9)
-6: Riley (14), Kim (9)
-5: Highsmith (15), Finau (15), Noren (14), Poston (11), Fox (10), Thorbjornsen (10), Fitzpatrick (9), Pavon (9)
Some admin, upon the publication of that latest updated leaderboard. There’s no Matthieu Pavon on it; a yip from three feet on 9 cost the 32-year-old from Toulouse a bogey. He turns in 36 and drops to -5. His spot at -6 is taken by Davis Riley, who has birdied 8, 9 and now 14. Barring a top-15 finish at the 2022 PGA, the 28-year-old from Mississippi doesn’t have much of a record in the majors yet … but he did tie for 21st at Augusta last month, so he’s clearly found some form in time for major season.
The hardest holes on the course this week? The Green Mile: 18, then 17, then 16. Jon Rahm’s coming down the third most treacherous, the 535-yard par-four 16th, and proceeds to make mincemeat of it. A drive crashed 364 yards down the track onto prime real estate, then an iron arrowed with laser precision straight at the flag, to two-and-a-half feet. This hole is averaging 4.324 this week, so he’s just gained nearly a shot-and-a-half on the field. A third birdie on the bounce, and he’s hit the top of the leaderboard for the first time this week. A PGA Championship to go with his Masters jacket and US Open title? He’ll be going for that career slam at Portrush at this rate!
-7: Rahm (16), Scheffler (9), Vegas (9)
-6: Riley (14), DeChambeau (13), Kim (9)
Bryson DeChambeau becomes the latest player to turn down a chance of the lead. He caresses a glorious iron into the par-three 13th, only to hammer his birdie putt through the gentle right-to-left break. It horseshoes out to three feet. He spends a long time over the par putt. Time well spent. He remains at -6.
Updated
Cam Davis hung around the top of the leaderboard on Thursday and Friday, before dropping down the standings. Seemingly out of it at +1, he’s just revived his bid in outrageous circumstances. Birdie at 13, another at 14, and then a wedge at 15 from 60 yards that lands just to the left of the cup, taking a little skip to the right before disappearing into the hole like a mouse being chased by a cat. Eagle, and suddenly the 30-year-old from Sydney has reinserted himself back into the story! He’s -3.
Scottie Scheffler finds the monster par-four 9th (527 yards!) in two, and his birdie putt from 22 feet shaves the lip. Par, but that’s beyond Kim Si-woo, whose wild drive into trees down the left, and whose second sliced into trees down the right, leads to an almost inevitable bogey. There goes his share of the lead. A dropped shot for Max Homa, too, as he yips a short one.
“Jhonny be good!” A member of the gallery channels his inner Chuck Berry as Vegas goes for his eagle on 8. The putt’s never going in … but he’s left himself a two-footer for birdie and sole leadership of the tournament again. But he stabs with great uncertainty at the ball, shoving it right, and that’s a big miss. He remains at -7. Meanwhile Jon Rahm closes in on him with another birdie, this time at the par-five 15th. He’s a shot off at -6.
Two groups before Vegas came down 8, Ryan Fox enjoyed one of the big breaks at the hole. He carved his tee shot into the bunker on the right, only for the ball to slap against the face and spring out at a right angle, rolling out to 30 feet. Two putts later, it was his second birdie in as many holes … but he’s just handed one of those strokes straight back to the field at 9. The 38-year-old Kiwi turns in 34 at -5.
Bryson DeChambeau belts a 366-yard drive down the 12th … then under-hits his wedge from 95 yards. He gives it way too much air, and it doesn’t make the top tier of the green, where the flag resides. The ball topples back down the green and he’s left with a difficult two putts from 50 feet, over a ridge, with the downwind creating all sorts of havoc. Meanwhile back on the short par-four 8th, Jhonattan Vegas, who has suddenly rediscovered his mojo, drives the green and sets up a 25-footer for eagle. Movement ahoy!
Scottie Scheffler has the good grace to look slightly embarrassed at where his ball has ended up after that wild drive on 8. But he soon gets his gameface back on. A chip up to ten feet leaves a straight birdie putt … but he lets it drift to the right and now he’s looking a little bit miffed. In fairness, birdie there would have been an egregious nonsense. But then again that’s golf. Par probably about right in the great scheme of things.
Jhonattan Vegas’s round is beginning to take a similar shape to yesterday’s. He started that one in skittish fashion, only to pull himself together as the round went on, and the same appears to be happening today. Having steadied the ship after those two opening bogeys with a run of four pars, he’s now found the back of the par-five 8th in two. A chip and a putt, and the Venezuelan veteran has a share of the lead again! Birdie too for his playing partner Matthieu Pavon, who repairs the damage of the previous hole.
-7: Kim (7), Scheffler (7), Vegas (7)
-6: DeChambeau (11), Fox (8), Pavon (7)
-5: Rahm (14), Hisatsune (12), Riley (12), Poston (9), Fitzpatrick (7)
A huge break for Scottie Scheffler at 8. Possibly a little bit het-up at having to wait so long on the tee, he carves a hysterical drive into the woods to the right of the hole. That ball’s surely a goner … but it connects flush with a thick branch, and rebounds back into play, sitting up nicely in the apron! Yes, yes, the more you practice, the luckier you get, but there are limits.
Jon Rahm becomes the latest to go close with his tee shot at the short par-four 14th. From 305 yards to nine feet. The eagle putt that remains has a gentle left-to-right drift, but he gets a tad too aggressive and plays through the break. A tap-in for birdie isn’t to be sniffed at, though. He’s -5 again.
A lot of hanging around. It’s gonna be a slow one.
Ryo Hisatsune overhits a chip from the back of 11 and doesn’t get particularly close with the one coming back. He does well to roll in the five-foot bogey putt that remains, limiting the damage. He drops back to -5. Meanwhile back on 7, Scottie Scheffler underhits his eagle putt, leaving eight-feet’s worth of work. But he rolls in what remains with steely determination, and the world number one takes a position to match.
-7: Kim (7), Scheffler (7)
-6: DeChambeau (10), Vegas (6)
-5: Hisatsune (11), Noren (11), Riley (11), Poston (8), Fox (7), Fitzpatrick (6), Pavon (6)
Plenty of players in the field can’t reach the par-five 10th in two. Bryson DeChambeau flies the green with his second. He then swishes a soft-hands lob to six feet, only to pull the birdie putt. That’d have given him a share of the lead. As it is, it’s Scottie Scheffler who now has that in his sights, having lashed a 5-wood into the heart of 7, setting up an eagle putt from the best part of 65 feet.
Play is slower than it would have been with the normal two-ball format. But the weather came in this morning, and here we are with three-balls. And so the final group are having to do quite a lot of hanging around. As a result, momentum isn’t with them, and the quality is suffering slightly. None of Jhonattan Vegas, Matt Fitzpatrick or Matthieu Pavon are able to find the green at the long par-three 6th; the first two manage street-fighting up and downs to save their pars, but Pavon leaves his putt from the bottom of a bank at the back well short, and drops his first stroke of the day. Like Fitzpatrick earlier, he drops out of the second-placed group and into the bunch at -5.
… although having said that, and to be scrupulously fair, Rory then nearly chips in from the apron with his second ball. It would have been a second-ball eagle and an actual par, but that’s a bogey on a hole these pros expect to make birdie every time. Having effectively handed two shots to the field, McIlroy slips back to +1 and now he’s off for a trot around the Green Mile.
Rory McIlroy’s driver has been misbehaving all week. Now he flays a wild drive at the par-five 15th out of bounds down the right. If anyone was still harbouring hopes of his completing a calendar slam, it’s probably finally time to turn them in.
Maverick McNealy’s glorious run – three birdies and an eagle in five holes – comes to an unlucky end at the par-three 17th. His tee shot isn’t all that, disappearing down the swale to the right of the green, but he chips up from 56 feet to eight, and looks for all the world like he’s made the par saver. But his ball somehow performs a gravity-defying journey around the lip and teeters at the back, stubbornly refusing to drop. That’s a shame. He looks genuinely stunned, and no wonder. He slips back on this very crowded leaderboard. The one bright point for McNealy: unlike everyone else on it, he’s got two-thirds of the Green Mile out of the way.
-7: Kim (5)
-6: Hisatsune (9), DeChambeau (9), Scheffler (5), Pavon (5), Vegas (5)
-5: Finau (10), Noren (9), Fitzpatrick (5)
-4: Rahm (11), Highsmith (10), Riley (9), McNealy (8*), Poston (6), Fox (6), Homa (5)
Ryo Hisatsune nervelessly rattles in a 12-foot par saver on 9, and turns in 32. The 22-year-old from Japan already has the French Open on his CV, plus a top-20 finish at last year’s PGA Championship. Don’t rule him out for an early breakthrough into the big-time. He’s one off the lead at -6. Meanwhile Jon Rahm ends up with bogey on 11 after that spectator-bothering approach. He’s back to -4. And a first birdie of the day for Rory McIlroy, at the generous par-four 14th; he moves to level par for the tournament.
Some big birdies here. Bryson DeChambeau follows up his birdie at 7 with another at 8. Scottie Scheffler cards another at 5. Most spectacularly, Maverick McNealy holes out from a greenside bunker at 16, starting the treacherous Green Mile in style! But Matt Fitzpatrick drops his first shot of the day, the result of under-hitting his tee shot at 4, and being unable to get up and down from the swale.
Ow. Jon Rahm, from the centre of 11, yanks an awful approach towards the gallery by the left of the green. His ball clatters hard into some poor chap sitting behind the rope. The impact makes a proper TOK and the ball deflects dramatically back towards the green and off the other side at pace. Ugh. Thankfully, it looks on second viewing that the gentleman turned away just in time – Rahm did clearly shout fore, just to be fair – and the ball hit his shoulder as opposed to his head. That’ll still hurt, but it looks like the chap is made of strong stuff. He’s smiling, if smarting. Thank the golfing gods for that close shave. That could have been nasty.
Ryo Hisatsune and Alex Noren are feeding off each other’s momentum. Both men have just birdied 7 and 8, to move to -6 and -5 respectively. Meanwhile birdie for Jon Rahm at 10, and suddenly the big man is on everyone’s shoulder at -5. And in further Big Man On Shoulder news, Bryson DeChambeau birdies 7 to join Rahm at -5. He came close to leapfrogging him on the leaderboard, in fact, nearly chipping in from a bank to the left of the green. But birdie is always welcome. This leaderboard, which looked bang-average midway through the second round, is suddenly jam-packed with delicious star-name goodness.
-7: Kim (4)
-6: Hisatsune (8), Pavon (3), Fitzpatrick (3), Vegas (3)
-5: Rahm (10), Finau (9), Noren (8), DeChambeau (7), Scheffler (4)
Kim Si-woo doesn’t have a top-ten finish in any of the majors. But the 29-year-old from Seoul has four wins on the PGA Tour, the most prestigious of all the unofficial fifth major, the Players Championship, of which he became the youngest-ever winner at the age of 21 in 2017. He’s got the game. Currently unflappable, he splits the fairway at 5.
Scottie Scheffler nearly joins this week’s hole-in-one club at the 177-yard par-three 4th. A gentle fade, a couple of bounces, a tap-in for birdie. Kim Si-woo, whose tee shot to five feet had previously looked magnificent but has now been downgraded to highly decent by comparison, nevertheless cleans up for his birdie and grabs full ownership of the lead! Meanwhile Matt Fitzpatrick and Matthieu Pavon get up and down from either side of 3 for their pars. Maverick McNealy backs up his eagle at 14 with birdie on 15. That’s four under in four holes, and this leaderboard is now in full Concertina Mode.
-7: Kim (4)
-6: Pavon (3), Fitzpatrick (3), Vegas (3)
-5: Finau (8), Hisatsune (7), Scheffler (4)
-4: Rahm (9), Noren (7), DeChambeau (6), McNealy (6*), Poston (5), Fox (4), Thorbjornsen (4), Homa (4)
The wind is picking up, and the players are beginning to suffer. Matt Fitzpatrick sends his approach at 3 wide left; Matthieu Pavon into a bunker on the right. Ryan Fox allows himself to be buffeted around on the 5th green and misses a tiddler for par. He drops back to -4. All that early talk of a possible low score may have been wide of the mark. Having said that, Ryo Hisatsune is doing as well as anyone out on the course, two under for his round now with birdies at 4 and 7; he’s -5. See also Tony Finau, whose back-to-back birdies at 7 and 8 take him up to -5 as well.
Jhonattan Vegas wasn’t 80 yards out on 2; he was just 58. Yet he still doesn’t find the green with his wedge. That’s a dismal mistake, and his putt up from the fringe never looks like dropping. A bogey-bogey start, and there goes that lead. He was four clear three holes ago. Meanwhile Jon Rahm hits the turn in 33. The two-time major winner is right in this. Here, should he win this week, he’ll have a chance of joining Rory et al in the career-slam club at Portrush. But we’re getting a wee bit ahead of ourselves here.
-6: Kim (2), Pavon (2), Fitzpatrick (2), Vegas (2)
-5: Fox (3)
-4: Rahm (9), Finau (7), Hisatsune (6), DeChambeau (6), Stevens (4), Poston (4), Thorbjornsen (3), Scheffler (2), Homa (2)
Updated
Now then, Dame Laura Davies and Henni Zuël know of what they speak. Because now Maverick McNealy goes even closer than Nico Echavarria with his tee shot on the short par-four 14th. His effort ends up two feet and five inches away from the hole, which is soon filled with the ball for eagle. The 29-year-old McNealy is beginning to come good on the promise flagged early in his career, with a couple of decent showings at last year’s PGA and this year’s Masters, plus his first PGA Tour win coming last November at the RSM Classic. He’s -3 through five of his holes today, and properly involved in this championship now.
More trouble for Jhonattan Vegas. The leader started nervously yesterday, but got away with some early scrappy play, before hitting some form. He’s begun in skittish form again here, and now clatters his drive into trees down the left of 2. He’s got no option but to take his medicine and chip back out into the fairway. Unless he gets up and down from 80 yards, the leader will find himself hauled back into the pack in the shortest of orders.
Max Homa nearly aced the driveable par-four 14th yesterday. Now it’s Nico Echavarria’s turn. It’s playing at 305 yards today (as opposed to yesterday’s 341) and the 30-year-old Colombian creams his tee shot to three feet and nine inches (as opposed to Homa’s one foot and nine inches). In goes the eagle putt, and Echavarria is level par now for his tournament. On Sky, both Dame Laura Davies and Henni Zuël raise the possibility of a hole-in-one here today. Given Si-woo Kim’s antics on 6 yesterday, and indeed at Troon last year, he may just be our man.
Jhonattan Vegas finds a route from out of the trees down the right of 1. He just about manages to reach the edge of the green, but his ball stops on the lip of the bunker front-left, and he’s got next to no stance, balancing on tippy-toes when he tries to chip close. He doesn’t chip close, leaving it a good 25 feet short. He gives the long par putt a good chance to drop, but it breaks left just before the hole and rolls three feet past. He makes the one coming back, but that’s a bogey, and after the double on 18 yesterday afternoon, that’s a four-shot lead reduced to one in the blink of an eye.
-7: Vegas (1)
-6: Kim (1), Pavon (1), Fitzpatrick (1)
-5: Poston (2), Thorbjornsen (2)
-4: Bradley (8), Rahm (7), Hisatsune (5), Noren (5), DeChambeau (5), Higgo (4), Stevens (3), Fox (2), Scheffler (1), Homa (1)
Neither Scheffler nor McIlroy get close with their symmetrical chips at 1 and 10. Scheffler seriously underhits the uphill 20-foot putt he leaves himself, and that’s an opening bogey. His playing partner Max Homa drops a stroke too, the punishment for finding greenside sand. The third member of the group, Kim Si-woo, makes a sandy par save though. Over at 10, McIlroy nearly holes a chip from the fringe, but has to make do with par. He’s given his partner Xander Schauffele a read for opening birdie, though; the defending champ moves to level par.
-8: Vegas
-6: Kim (1), Pavon, Fitzpatrick
-5: Poston (2)
-4: Noren (5), DeChambeau (4), Higgo (3), Stevens (2), Fox (1), Thorbjornsen (1), Scheffler (1), Homa (1)
The leader Jhonattan Vegas takes to the tee. It’ll be understandable if he’s feeling the pressure, looking to become the first Venezuelan to win a major, and only the sixth player ever to win the PGA wire to wire. (Brooks Koepka was the last, in 2019.) He slices his opening drive into the trees down the right. His playing partners Matt Fitzpatrick and Matthieu Pavon find the short stuff.
… so having given Scottie Scheffler the grandstand introduction, he double-crosses himself and sends his approach at 1 towards the gallery to the left of the green. He’ll have a hell of a chip from there, from thick rough over sand. A pleasing symmetry to this.
… so having given Rory McIlroy the grandstand introduction, he carves his second at 10 towards the gallery to the right of the green. He’ll have a hell of a chip from there, from thick rough over sand. Meanwhile his playing partner, the defending champion Xander Schauffele, leaves his approach short and right, and immediately hollers “Mud ball!” Ah yes, mud balls …
By contrast, the world number one Scottie Scheffler is teeing off late on merit. He’s now the tournament favourite, and if he keeps striping them down the middle like he’s just done at the 1st, he’ll take some beating. He’s not even had his best stuff here this week; in fact he was strangely out of sorts for the first few holes on Thursday, hitting a series of weird clunkers, before snapping back into focus. And yet look where he is: -5, just three off the lead. Any sort of early surge from the big Texan could – nah, will – send shockwaves through the entire field.
Rory McIlroy takes to the tee, late on day three. Normally that’d mean he’s right in contention, but it’s the vagaries of the last-minute split-tee rejig that’s got him here. He only just crept under the cut line at +1, nine off the lead. Having said all that, a super-low number around here today – and he holds the course record here, shooting 61 en route to winning the Wells Fargo in 2015 – so nothing is out of his reach quite yet. And he crashes his first drive, at 10, down the right-hand side of the fairway. It’s on? Probably not. But then again, it’s Rory, so it’s not yet off.
Updated
Some short-game magic on display here. Ryo Hisatsune shortsides himself in a greenside bunker at 4, but elegantly holes out for birdie to move to -4. Meanwhile back on 3, Bryson DeChambeau wangs a wild tee shot over the trees on the left and onto the 4th hole, then sends his second back over those trees and behind the green, down a bank into thick grass. But he opens the face of his club and lobs smoothly onto the fringe, rolling out to six feet. He mops up for par, and that’s a big save. He remains -4.
Without things ever getting out of hand in the regular-Tour-event style, we’ve had some impressive low scoring this week. Jhonattan Vegas, Max Homa and the aforementioned Kim Si-woo have posted 64s, Matthieu Pavon carded a 65, Cam Davis shot 66. Keep it on the fairway, and Quail Hollow is there for the taking. That might be doubly true today, because after the morning rain, the rough may be lusher, but the greens will be a tad softer and more receptive. So there’s a score out there for someone to make their titular advance on Moving Day. Having said that, the wind is expected to get up as the day goes on, so nothing’s ever simple.
Birdie for Eric Cole at 3; he moves to -3. Cole made one of the two aces we’ve had here at Quail Hollow this week, at the 4th on Thursday. That was real fine, but nevertheless pales in comparison to the one recorded by Kim Si-woo last night at the 252-yard 6th. A low power-fade with 5-wood into the front of the green, the ball rolling out on an inexorable journey into the cup. Off down the track he went at pace, and with feeling, in the club-flinging style. A magical moment. It was the longest hole-in-one in major-championship history, beating the record set by … Kim Si-woo, who aced the 238-yard 17th at Troon in the Open last year! Man sure likes a long par-three.
A couple of potentially significant early moves. Jon Rahm, who has been woefully out of sorts in the majors since defecting to LIV, but is finally looking his old self this week, has birdied 1 and 3 to move to -4. He’s joined there by Bryson DeChambeau, whose major-championship form, by contrast, has arguably been boosted since his move to LIV. He guides in a 30-foot right-to-left swinger up 1 for birdie, and to get off to a flier.
-8: Vegas
-6: Pavon, Fitzpatrick, Kim
-5: Homa, Scheffler
-4: Rahm (4), DeChambeau (1), Thorbjornsen, Bezuidenhout, Fox, Smalley, Poston, MacIntyre, Stevens, McCarthy, Gerard
The start of today’s play was delayed by thunderstorms, and so the tee times were put back by three-and-a-half hours, and switched from two-balls to three-balls on split tees. Had that not happened, the pre-tournament favourite Rory McIlroy and the defending champion Xander Schauffele, both of whom squeaked under the cut line last night, would be finishing up right about now. But now, due to the vagaries of the split-tee system, they’re not teeing it up until 6.38pm BST, so this blog will have some BONUS HOT RORY ACTION that it otherwise would have missed out on. Yay! Yay? We’ll see, he’s been up and down this week and no mistake. He’s probably too far off the pace anyway, but he’s come back from seemingly impossible situations at Quail Hollow before, so let’s write nothing off just yet. It is Moving Day, after all.
Preamble
Welcome to Moving Day at the 107th PGA Championship! After 36 holes, the top of the leaderboard looked like this …
-8: Jhonattan Vegas
-6: Matthieu Pavon, Matt Fitzpatrick, Kim Si-woo
-5: Max Homa, Scottie Scheffler
-4: Michael Thorbjornsen, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Ryan Fox, Alex Smalley, JT Poston, Robert MacIntyre, Sam Stevens, Denny McCarthy, Ryan Gerard
-3: JJ Spaun, Aaron Rai, Taylor Pendrith, Bryson DeChambeau, Richard Bland, Davis Riley, Alex Noren, Ryo Hisatsune, Tony Finau, Ben Griffin
… while these (selected) big names missed the cut …
Akshay Bhatia, Shane Lowry, Sepp Straka, Padraig Harrington, Jordan Spieth, Hideki Matsuyama, Ludvig Åberg, Justin Thomas, Min Woo Lee, Rickie Fowler, Jimmy Walker, Gary Woodland, Patrick Reed, Im Sung-jae, Patrick Cantlay, Jason Day, Will Zalatoris, Cameron Smith, Martin Kaymer, Shaun Micheel, Brooks Koepka. Justin Rose, Dustin Johnson, Jason Dufner, and all 20 of the PGA club professionals including the 2023 hole-in-one hero Michael Block
… and that left us with a tee sheet – revised from two-balls into three-balls off split tees, as a result of a three-hour weather delay – that looked like this (all times BST). It’s on!
Starting at hole 1
16.43 Joaquin Niemann, Tyrrell Hatton, Wyndham Clark
16.54 Keegan Bradley, Marco Penge, Lucas Glover
17.05 Viktor Hovland, Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm
17.16 Cam Davis, Adam Scott, Joe Highsmith
17.27 Tony Finau, Ben Griffin, Eric Cole
17.38 Davis Riley, Alex Noren, Ryo Hisatsune
17.49 Taylor Pendrith, Bryson DeChambeau, Richard Bland
18.00 Garrick Higgo, JJ Spaun, Aaron Rai
18.11 Sam Stevens, Denny McCarthy, Ryan Gerard
18.22 Alex Smalley, JT Poston, Robert MacIntyre
18.33 Michael Thorbjornsen, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Ryan Fox
18.44 Si Woo Kim, Max Homa, Scottie Scheffler
18.55 Jhonattan Vegas, Matthieu Pavon, Matt Fitzpatrick
Starting at hole 10
16.48 Rafael Campos, Matt Wallace, Tom McKibbin
16.59 Beau Hossler, Corey Conners, Luke Donald
17.10 Nicolai Højgaard, Harry Hall, Austin Eckroat
17.21 Byeong Hun An, Collin Morikawa, Cameron Young
17.32 Daniel Berger, Brian Campbell, Taylor Moore
17.43 Nico Echavarria, Harris English, Stephan Jaeger
17.54 Rasmus Højgaard, Thorbjørn Olesen, Maverick McNealy
18.05 Justin Lower, Tom Kim, Sergio Garcia
18.16 Brian Harman, Elvis Smylie, Kevin Yu
18.27 David Puig, Bud Cauley, Michael Kim
18.38 Chris Kirk, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele
18.49 Max Greyserman, Sam Burns
