PITTSFORD, N.Y. – Brooks Koepka had a 4-under 66 – the low round at Oak Hill for the second straight day – and leads the 2023 PGA Championship by one shot over Viktor Hovland and Canada’s Corey Conners heading into the final round.
But Koepka won’t have it easy.
Conners played Oak Hill like a U.S. Open – that’s what this PGA Championship feels like – by opening with two birdies and 13 pars that kept him in front for so much of the wet, gruelling day. And then one swing changed everything.
He was in a bunker right of the 16th fairway when he hit the ball so thin that it disappeared into the lip of the soggy turf. It was plugged deep in the sod, and Conners had to drop it in gnarly rough on top of a mound framing the bunker. He did well to advance that toward the green into more thick grass and took double bogey.
Conners, in control for so long, had to settle for a 70.
ROCHESTER, NEW YORK – MAY 20: Corey Conners of Canada and PGA Rules Official Mike Raby locate Conners’ imbedded ball on the 16th hole during the third round of the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club on May 20, 2023 in Rochester, New York. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/PGA of America via Getty Images)
Hovland overcame mistakes early with three birdies in a five-hole stretch around the turn. But then the Norwegian failed to take advantage of the scoring stretch – Nos. 13, 14 and 15 – and took bogey from the bunker on the 18th hole for a 70.
He will be in the final group of a major for the second time. Hovland was tied with Rory McIlroy at St. Andrews last summer and closed with a 74.
Missing from all this activity was Scottie Scheffler, the No. 2 player in the world, who started with two straight bogeys and didn’t make a birdie _ his only one of the round – until the 14th hole. He shot a 73, but is still very much in the mix.
So is Bryson DeChambeau, who played with Koepka and took double bogey on the sixth hole for the second straight day. He ground out a 70 and was three shots behind.
McIlroy was about like the weather _ promising and then bleak _ during a wild round that ended with a par save for a 69. He was among only seven players under still under par, but still five shots behind the four-time major champion Koepka.
Oak Hill in pleasant weather has been a brute. Rain came down at the start of play and never really let up except for a brief burst of sunshine and shadows, and then the showers returned. Fairways were framed by umbrellas. The rough was thick and wet. McIlroy was among players who wore their caps backward to keep rain from dripping off the bill.
Fellow Canadians Adam Svensson and Taylor Pendrith are sitting tied for 20th at +3, 9-shots back of leader Koepka.
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