PGA Championship 2024: 3 Instant Reactions to Saturday ...
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The 2024 PGA Championship leaderboard is loaded headed into the final round.
Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele and Sahith Theegala traded shots from the final threesome on Saturday while countless other golfers worked their way within a few strokes of first place.
Morikawa and Schauffele are tied for the lead at 15-under. Theegala used a push on the back nine to take sole possession of second place at 14-under.
Shane Lowry moved himself into third place with a record-tying round at Valhalla Golf Club. He recorded the fifth major-tournament round of 62 in history.
Bryson DeChambeau, Viktor Hovland, Justin Rose, Justin Thomas and Tony Finau are among the other players with double-digit under-par scores through three rounds.
Two names are noticeably not anywhere close to the top. Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka, two mainstays of major championship golf in recent years, struggled and likely will not in contention on Sunday.
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Morikawa and Schauffele used birdies on the 18th hole to put themselves in a tie for the lead at 15-under.
The pair of leaders rarely slipped up throughout their round alongside Theegala on Saturday.
Morikawa bogeyed the second hole and Schauffele had a double bogey on the par-four 15th. Those were the only strokes dropped by the leaders.
The two golfers remained calm in the final threesome while a plethora of low scores brought plenty of competitors close to them on the leaderboard.
Both golfers have been in major contention plenty of times in their careers. Morikawa is a two-time major winner with eight top-10 finishes. Schauffele owns 12 top-10 major finishes in his career, but he has never won.
Each player needs similar rounds on Sunday to remain at the top, and it may take a few more birdies to hand them the Wanamaker Trophy.
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Shane Lowry was inches away from breaking the single-round scoring record at a men's golf major on Saturday.
The Irishman came up just short with his birdie putt at No. 18 to settle for a 62 that tied him with three other golfers. Xander Schauffele carded a 62 for the second time at a major in Thursday's first round.
The nine-under 62 pushed the 2019 British Open champion within two shots of the lead.
Lowry was not the only player in his group to go low on Saturday. His former Ryder Cup teammate Justin Rose produced a seven-under 64 to get to 12-under for the tournament.
The third member of that group, Jason Day, only carded a two-under 69. The threesome as a whole shot 18-under for the day.
Lowry's low round stole the headlines, but he was far from the only player to surge up the leaderboard. Fourteen players shot 67 or better.
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Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka tumbled down the leaderboard while many others surged up it.
Scheffler's round seemed doomed after he dropped four strokes over his first four holes.
Scheffler had an uncharacteristic double bogey at No. 2 and he failed to recover from that mistake with consecutive bogeys at Nos. 3 and 4.
The unusual round from the Masters champion likely took him out of contention for the Wanamaker Trophy. He is seven shots off the lead with over 20 players to leap over.
Koepka's day was even more disastrous. He did not record a birdie until the 17th hole.
Although he finished with back-to-back birdies, the reigning PGA champion sits at four-under for the tournament.
Koepka's 74 was tied for the third-worse score on the course. He will be an afterthought during Sunday's final round and now has to look forward to the U.S. Open to secure his sixth major crown.
