Brooks Koepka continues to go from strength to strength at the PGA Championship and climbed Saturday to first place in the tournament. In a round that was, again, very competitive, the star of the LIV Golf Tour closed with -4, the best score of the day, to lead the leaderboard with an overall 6-under 204.
On the day, Koepka made a bogey on the seventh hole but managed to get five birdies to maintain the upward progression of his pace in the PGA Championship. However, he will have to keep up the pace on the closing day, as his closest pursuers are just one stroke away.
They are Corey Conners and Viktor Hovland, who continue to have a great PGA Championship, although they fell from T1 in the second round to T2 in the third. Fourth place is occupied by Bryson DeChambeau, also very close to the leader with -3 overall.
Justin Rose and Scottie Scheffler share fifth place with discordant performances, as Rose moved up from T8 while Scheffler fell from T1.
A golfer from whom much is always expected is Rory McIlroy, who has followed an upward trajectory during these three rounds of the PGA Championship and is currently in seventh place. Although four strokes separate him from Koepka, it is still not out of his reach to fight for the title.
On the negative side, Dustin Johnson has continued to fall as the tournament has progressed. From occupying top positions in the first round, he dropped to T19 in the second and T33 in the third.
Phil Mickelson, Jon Rahm and defending champion Justin Thomas, who are currently at +10, +6 and +10, respectively, remain underperforming.
The East Course at Oak Hil Country Club in Rochester, New York is proving to be a very difficult course. Only seven players remain playing for overall scores under par, while in the third round, only nine players managed to do so.
2023 PGA Championship Leaderboard after three rounds
This is the 2023 PGA Championship Leaderboard, after Round 3:
1- Brooks Koepka
T2- Viktor Hovland
T2- Corey Conners
4- Bryson DeChambeau
T5- Justin Rose
7- Rory McIlroy
T8- Michael Block
T8- Justin Suh
T10- Tommy Fleetwood
T10- Stephan Jaeger
T10- Victor Perez
T10- Erick Cole
T10- Shane Lowry
T10- Min Woo Lee
T16- Patrick Reed
T16- Kurt Kitayama
T16- Ryan Fox
T16- Cam Davis
T20- Hideki Matsuyama
T20- Sahith Theegala
T20- Patrick Cantlay
T20- Adam Svenson
T20- Sepp Stracka
T20- Keith Mitchell
T20- Taylor Pendrith
T27- Tyler Hatton
T27- Cameron Smith
T27- Chris Kirk
T27- Hayden Buckley
T27- Keegan Bradley
T27- Matt NeSmith
T33- Alex Smalley
T33- Xander Schauffele
T33- Thomas Pieters
T33- Chez Reavie
T33- Collin Morikawa
T33- Beau Hossler
T33- Harold Varner III
T33- Mito Pereira
T33- Dustin Johnson
T42 Jordan Spieth
T42- Dean Burmester
T42- Jon Rahm
T42- Tom Hoge
T42- Lucas Herbert
T42- Sam Stevens
T42- Nicolai Hojgaard
T42- Adam Scott
T42- Adam Hadwin
T42- K.H. Lee
T52- Denny McCarthy
T52- Patrick Rodgers
T52- Thriston Lawrence
T52- Max Homa
T52- JT Poston
T52- Callum Tarren
T58- Yannik Paul
T58- Thomas Detry
T58- Tony Finau
T58- Adrian Meronk
T58- Pablo Larrazabal
T58- Padraig Harrington
T58- Matt Wallace
T58- Sihwan Kim
66- Zach Johnson
T67- Rikuya Hoshino
T67- Lee Hodges
T67- Justin Thomas
T67- Phil Mickelson
T71- Taylor Montgomery
T71- Taylor Moore
T71- Joel Dahmen
T74- Kazuki Higa
T74- Ben Taylor
76- Mark Hubbard