Koepka has field playing for 2nd
There should have been some joy from Xander Schauffele, who shot a nice 2under 68 in the third round of the PGA Championship on Saturday at Bethpage Black.
But the joy for the rest of the field has been pretty well sucked out of the tournament by the smothering performance of Brooks Koepka, who goes into Sunday’s final round with a seven-shot lead.
“I don’t know if the tournament is just less fun because I’m 15 shots back or what it is,” Schauffele said, echoing the sentiment of so many other players though he actually sits just nine shots back at 3-under. “But it’s very melancholic after today, I’d say, just because every time I look up, I’m 10 to 12 back. So no one likes to play for second, but that’s sort of what he’s doing to us.”
To humble such proud athletes is quite the task, but Koepka has not only brought the monstrous Black Course to its knees, but has done so to the rest of the field. While bombing 330-yard drives in the middle of the fairways and flipping short clubs into the greens for easy looks at birdie, Koepka has made the whole process seem pretty simple.
“He’s a good golfer, isn’t he?” joked Englishman Matt Wallace, who shot an even-par 70 and is at 4-under, eight shots back. “That’s pretty much plain and simple. When you’ve got the ball under control like he does, and chipping and putting and everything’s perfect, that kind of happens.”
Wallace then remembered a similar performance, when Tiger Woods won the 1997 Masters by 12 shots — and what touring veteran Colin Montgomery said to him about it.
“I remember Monty saying, nobody was ever going to catch Tiger at that Masters that he won,” Wallace said, “and this is pretty much the same.”
There is some firepower lurking behind Koepka, but there has been all tournament it hardly made a difference. It seems the only chance anyone has is if Koepka somehow becomes a different player overnight.
“I’m going to need some help from him,” said good pal Dustin Johnson, who shot 1-under 69 on Saturday and is 5-under for the tournament. ”Then I’m going to have to play very, very well.”
Under more normal circumstances, there might be a chance for someone to go out early, post a good number, and get Koepka thinking. But, again, this are not normal circumstances. This is a domination, and the rest of the field knows it.
“I’m a little too far back to where, you know, I can’t really worry about him,” said Rickie Fowler, who shot a third-round 71 and is 11 shots back. “I would need for him to come back for me to have a chance, basically.”
Unlike Friday, when a couple players made a run up the leaderboard and it seemed like there might be a challenger lurking, Saturday was rather benign besides watching Koepka plod his way around. His playing partner, Jordan Speith, fired a blah 72 and dropped to 3-under for the tournament — and then declined to speak to reporters.
At one point it seemed like Johnson would make a run, shooting 32 on his front nine. But four bogeys on the back nine undid that idea, and now it’s just a field playing for second.
“Coulda, shoulda, woulda,” Johnson said. “Go out and do it [Sunday].”