Brooks Koepka has plenty of reasons for looking relaxed leading into the final round of the PGA Championship. (Andres Kudacki / Associated Press)
Brooks Koepka woke Sunday morning with a commanding seven-stroke lead in the PGA Championship and it seemed that only an epic, Greg Normanesque collapse or a nearly impossible run from another golfer could prevent him from winning a major for the fourth time.
The winds at Bethpage State Park’s Black Course on Long Island picked up, gusting up to 20 miles per hour just as Koepka and the golfers chasing him teed off in the early afternoon. Harold Varner III, Koepka’s partner, was tied for second along with Jazz Janewattananond, Luke List and Dustin Johnson.
On the eve of the final round, Koepka was having no crisis of doubt about whether he could win.
“No,” came the two-letter answer after his even-par-70 performance Saturday as Koepka continued to display the kind of unquestioning confidence Tiger Woods showed in his heyday.
[PGA Championship leaderboard]
How’s this for historical dominance? With a victory, he would become the first golfer to simultaneously hold back-to-back titles at two majors (the U.S. Open is the other; he won the PGA last August). His seven-stroke lead is the largest by any player in a major since Rory McIlroy led the 2011 U.S. Open by eight.
[Perspective: Brooks Koepka finds golf's mountaintop after stops around the world]
Hard to blame him for having a serene sense of destiny. No leader after 54 holes has lost a lead of seven or more strokes going into the final round and Koepka hardly seems vulnerable. “He’s doing what he said he’d do,” Xander Schauffle, who is nine strokes off the lead, told reporters. “He’s talked s--- in the media room and he’s backed every word of it up.”
Could anything derail Koepka? Certainly not a trophy curse, judging by the Instagram account of his girlfriend, actress/model Jena Sims.
Mickelson’s thumbs are just fine. Really.
Phil Mickelson finished way, way, way back of the pack at 12 over, but he had fun giving thumbs up signs to all the Phil fans. He had so much fun, in fact, that he joked Saturday about “thumb activation” in a hilarious social media post and cracked about it again Sunday, saying he’d broken the one-day record at Bethpage with his gestures to fans. “If the putts go down, the thumbs are coming up,” he cracked. There was no such luck Sunday.
“My game struggled because of it,” he told TNT.
Really?
Nah.
“I’m just kidding,” he told TNT. “That’s not why I struggled.”
Here’s how to watch (all times Eastern)
Online: 11 a.m.-7 p.m. on PGA.com
TV: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on TNT; 2-7 on CBS, CBSSports.com, CBS Sports App
Tee times:
7:35 a.m. — David Lipsky, Rich Beem
7:45 a.m. — Max Homa, Joos Luiten
7:55 a.m. — Corey Conners, Marty Jertson
8:05 a.m. — Kevin Tway, Kurt Kitayama
8:15 a.m. — Ross Fisher, Andrew Putnam
8:25 a.m. — Rafa Cabrera Bello, Beau Hossler
8:35 a.m. — Pat Perez, Rob Labritz
8:45 a.m. — Charley Hoffman, Henrik Stenson
8:55 a.m. — Justin Harding, Cameron Smith
9:05 a.m. — Matt Fitzpatrick, Lucas Herbert
9:15 a.m. — Paul Casey, Phil Mickelson
9:25 a.m. — Cameron Champ, Alex Noren
9:35 a.m. — Graeme McDowell, Ryan Vermeer
9:45 a.m. — J.T. Poston, Thomas Pieters
9:55 a.m. — Kelly Kraft, Daniel Berger
10:05 a.m. — Brandt Snedeker, Mike Lorenzo-Vera
10:15 a.m. — Thorbjorn Olesen, Jason Kokrak
10:35 a.m. — Bronson Burgoon, J.J. Spaun
10:45 a.m. — Gary Woodland, Keegan Bradley
10:55 a.m. — Francesco Molinari, Zach Johnson
11:05 a.m. — Billy Horschel, Webb Simpson
11:15 a.m. — Emiliano Grillo, Joel Dahmen
11:25 a.m. — Matt Kuchar, Charles Howell III
11:35 a.m. — Aaron Wise, Tyrell Hatton
11:45 a.m. — Haotong Li, Adam Hadwin
11:55 a.m. — Rory McIlroy, Tony Finau
12:05 p.m. — Abraham Ancer, Jason Day
12:15 p.m. — Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Adam Long
12:25 p.m. — Louis Oosthuizen, Shane Lowry
12:35 p.m. — Jimmy Walker, Scott Piercy
12:45 p.m. — Justin Rose, Sam Burns
12:55 p.m. — Chez Reavie, Tommy Fleetwood
1:05 p.m. — Lucas Glover, Lucas Bjerregaard
1:25 p.m. — Danny Lee, Danny Willett
1:35 p.m. — Sung Kang, Rickie Fowler
1:45 p.m. — Jordan Spieth, Erik van Rooyen
1:55 p.m. — Patrick Cantlay, Adam Scott
2:05 p.m. — Matt Wallace, Xander Schauffele
2:15 p.m. — Dustin Johnson, Hideki Matsuyama
2:25 p.m. — Jazz Janewattananond, Luke List
2:35 p.m. — Brooks Koepka, Harold Varner III
Read more from The Post:
Koepka simply ‘playing on a different level’ at the PGA Championship
Hack. Hack. Hack. Someone added strokes to Trump’s official golf scores.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/05/19/pga-championship-brooks-koepka/
2019-05-19 17:37:30Z
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