PGA Championship 2023: Viktor Hovland, Scottie Scheffler among 4 golfers catching up with Brooks Koepka

RICHMOND, NY — Three months ago, Brooks Koepka appeared on the Netflix show “Full Swing” as a man whose mental breakdown and physical limitations were so limited it seemed he could never compete. Another big championship. Three months later, Koepka was set to play a second consecutive final at the pro tournament. At the 2023 PGA Championship on Saturday, he became only the third player in the last 37 years to hold an all-out 54-hole lead in the first two major tournaments of the year.

It will take more than he provided in the final 18 holes at the Masters in April, where he hit 75 points in the final round after a two-point lead on those final 18 holes, to appear. this Sunday with the Wanamaker Trophy. Koepka (-6) leads Viktor Hovland and Corey Conners by one with a substantial standings behind them.

Earlier this week, Koepka revealed that he stayed up all night after that Masters, thinking about how he competed on Sunday and what he learned from that experience.

“Just never thought the way I thought when I got to the finals,” Koepka said. “That’s a big thing for me, but beyond that, I think even learning what I learned at Augusta [National] kind of help today. Like I said, I won’t do it again for the rest of my career.”

Koepka’s final pairing partner this time around happened to play in his own second final in the last three major tournaments. Hovland shot 74 points in the final round of the Open Championship at St. Andrews last summer, where he was burned by Cameron Smith, Cameron Young and Rory McIlroy. It still resulted in him breaking into the top 10 for the first time at a major, and at last month’s Masters he took second place.

While there are other golfers who can catch Koepka at Oak Hill Country Club, Hovland is the most likely. He leads the field in approach and from tee to teeing ground, this while he is heading towards his first big win in quite some time. The question in front of him is a conundrum: Can he stare at one of the big winners of the past 50 years and prevent him from joining a list of five-time major champions that includes people like Seve Ballesteros and Byron Nelson?

There is precedent that says this is out of the question.

Since winning her fourth major championship (the 2019 PGA Championship at Bethpage Black), Koepka has faltered at the 2019 US Open, the 2020 PGA Championship, the 2021 PGA Championship, and most recently the 2023 Masters. It’s not that Koepka can’t close doors anymore — I doubt anyone really believes that — it’s just that he Not yet recently.

As for what Hovland has learned from his own recent near misses at majors? He preaches patience and focuses on using his elite approach play to his advantage by playing in the middle of green areas and not ripping every flag.

“Any chance you have to play in the last group on Sunday of a major tournament, that’s pretty special,” Hovland said. “But the thinking would be, I play my own game and obviously I want to win, but I’m just going to play what I think is right on each hit. And if I’m beaten, I’ll take it. was defeated, but the plan was not to give up. So hopefully just by implementing the strategy, I will have a chance… when I get past round 18.”

Winning the big championship is extremely difficult. Do so by killing one of the greatest major champions of all time as he takes the lead and the cards go into the finale? The higher the difficulty level, the better.

However, Hovland did not seem to be discouraged. He’s not caught up in the history of the moment, is almost certainly unaware of Koepka’s chance to tie things up with Ballesteros and Nelson, and wouldn’t be confused if Brooks started stomping around Oak Hill soon to find flexible way to fifth.

No, Hovland – the only player with a realistic chance of winning (not including a completely neutral or even extra round from Koepka that could cause others to contest) – will throw that Norwegian metal put on headphones and hit around Oak Hill just like he did all week.

Few golfers are better off staying in their lane. Few golfers are better off with an iron in hand right now. And few golfers find a date with Koepka on the first tee of the final set more comfortable than Hovland. He’s ready to take his first win. Now he has to go do it.

Here are three other golfers who could catch Koepka on Sunday.

Bryson DeChambeau (-3, three return hits): The US Open 2020 champion is live as the winner. I couldn’t be more impressed with DeChambeau’s level of attention who seemed distracted by everything But golf in recent months, was received this week. He still does silly things on the field (he moved up to 18th with a punch after Koepka landed a 40-foot smack in the face on Saturday) and makes ridiculous statements (he talks about the different shapes his body takes after Round 3), but he’s leading the court in terms of shots taken from teeing ground, second in driving distance and fourth in accuracy. corpse. The good news for DeChambeau, who certainly knows what it feels like to retire with a major on Sunday, is that he’s ready for the moment.

“Nothing has changed,” he said Saturday. “Same person. A little more patience, I would say.”

If you’re not cheering for the Brooks-Bryson playoffs like we were with Justin Thomas and Will Zalatoris this time a year ago, I don’t know what to tell you.

Scottie Scheffler (-2, 4 return hits): The world No 2 player, who has stolen a page from a Koepka play over the past two years on his way to victory at the Masters and Players Championship, struggled a lot with Saturday’s putt when he hit 73 to drop four points back. leader. That scream reverberated in the last round for me. Scheffler is still hitting it superbly (he’s third on the field from tee to tee), and if the shot bounces, he wins or closes. Out of all the players in the current top 10, Scheffler might be the hardest to get rid of. Unfortunately for him, he can also step back a little too far.

“I didn’t try to get out of it on a day when conditions were tough and I didn’t have the best of myself,” says Scheffler. “I played there pretty well and didn’t post the number I wanted, but I still only have four back tomorrow, and if I go out and have a great inning, I think I’ll have a good chance. .”

Rory McIlroy (-1, five return hits): Although Conners and Justin Rose are also involved, McIlroy takes precedence over both of them because his playing ceiling is much higher. I don’t believe McIlroy has that level of play in his pocket this week – an extraordinary effort is required to win the majors, especially when coming back from five years back and McIlroy finishing 26th. on the tee (it sucks for him). However, I’m fairly confident that if he starts going downhill late Sunday, he can absolutely shoot 31 points in nine backs and claim his own fifth major title (first since 2014). ).

Rick Gehman joins Kyle Porter and Patrick McDonald for a wet and eventful day of moves at the 2023 PGA Championship. Brooks Koepka makes a move and Viktor Hovland remains near the top of the table. Follow and listen to The First Cut on Apple Podcasts And Spotify.