Brooks Koepka leads field into final day at 105th PGA Championship

Two-time winner Brooks Koepka led the 105th PGA Championship field into title Sunday by one shot at Rochester in New York, but there were plenty of interesting plots building up behind him.

Just seven golfers have managed to reach sub-par figures after 54 holes at Oak Hill and a further two are on level par 210 so far, meaning that 66 in a surviving field of 75 have gone over par at an event battered first by frost and later by rain.

It was time for the latter on Saturday as 2018 and 2019 champion Koepka shot a second straight 4 under 66 to aggregate 6 under 204 and lead Norway’s Viktor Hovland and Corey Conners of Canada by a stroke with Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, and Bryson DeChambeauallactive threats to his hopes.

A win on Sunday would make Koepka only the sixth to win three or more PGA Championships behind Jack Nicklaus and Walter Hagen (five each), Tiger Woods (four) and Gene Sarazen and Sam Snead (three each). 

Already a four-time major winner, Koepka was within touching distance of a fifth big win at the masters but failed to halt eventual champion Jon Rahm’s title march with a dreadful final round of 75 that fetched him shared second place alongside fellow LIV Golf member Phil Mickelson.

“Learning what I learned at Augusta kind of helped today,” Koepka said after Saturday’s round. “I won’t do it again the rest of my career. I’ll never have that mindset or that won’t ever be the reason if I don’t win.” His last major was the 2019 US Open.

The story of the tournament so far however has been that of California teaching professional Michael Block. With three straight level par scores, the 46-year-old has been on the ride of his life and will play Sunday’s final round alongside world number three Rory McIlroy.

“I'm sitting here right now absolutely blown away by this experience, but at the same time I'm blown away by how my game has actually shown up,” Block said later. “My game that I've always had.

“Before you know it you’re 60 years old and retired and I’ll look back at the videos on this thing and remember that was the best week of my life,” Block said on the PGA Tour website.

“It’s been really cool, and my biggest thing is just enjoying the moment for sure,” the head pro at Arroyo Traubuco Golf Club, who has the most birdies in the field (13) behind Saturday playing partner Justin Rose (14), added.

Incidentally, no teaching professional has ever finished in the top 10 at the PGA Championship.