- Brooks Koepka leads by seven going into day three
- Official leaderboard: get the latest from Bethpage Black
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Here we go, then, folks. It’s a gorgeous day at Bethpage Black. It’s Moving Day! The leading bunch won’t be out for a couple of hours, so let’s while away the time on the relative whimsy of the earlier starters. Rory McIlroy, the pre-tournament second favourite ahead of Brooks Koepka for some reason, was one of those. He just about managed to bodyswerve the cut yesterday with a blistering run of birdies towards the end of his round, at 4, 5, 6 and 8. All hope of winning gone, the shackles off, he’s giving it plenty today. Two big cracks to find the green at the par-five 4th, followed by a 35-foot putt, and that’s an eagle. Then a quite stunning 5-iron into the par-three 8th, a gentle fade that stops 21 inches from the hole. Too little, too late, of course, but it’d be good to see the Players champion finish strongly with next month’s US Open in mind. He’s up to level par.
It seems like only yesterday when Gary Woodland set a new record for the best 36-hole score at the PGA Championship, starting 64-66 at Bellerive last August. But Brooks Koepka is rewriting everything. At Bethpage Black – where a combined total of six players finished under par in the 2002 and 2009 US Opens – he’s shot 63-65. That’s overtaken Woodland’s 130 by two; Koepka’s cakewalk is, at 128, the lowest 36-hole total in major-championship history.
It doesn’t end there. Here’s the defending champion’s last five rounds in PGA Championship competition: 63-66-66-63-65. His current seven-shot lead is the largest at this stage in PGA Championship history, knocking Nick Price’s five-shot 36-hole advantage in 1994 out of the park. And putting the tin lid on it, since the 2016 PGA, Koepka’s cumulative score in the majors is 67 under par. This is absurd. Preposterous. Homeric. The man is on a plane of his own right now.
Written by Scott Murray
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2019/may/18/us-pga-championship-2019-third-round-live-brooks-koepka under the title “US PGA Championship 2019: third round – live!”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
