Through 36 holes this PGA Championship has shown how the conditions can wreak havoc. The guys who had the late tee times in round 1 and the early tee times in round 2 had the more favorable draw. Most of those guys are near the top of the leaderboard. The players who had the late tee times in round 2 had to deal with a lot of wind, more than the afternoon guys in round 1. As the tournament goes on and the wind kicks up, expect the leaders to come back to the rest of the field. I wouldn’t be surprised if the lead is around 4 or 5 under par going into Sunday.
Haotong Li has come out of nowhere. Nobody expected him to contend this week. Not even him. That’s what he said to ESPN yesterday after a near last place finish in the WGC event in Memphis. He even spent an extra six hours at the range trying to figure his swing out. It will be interesting to see if he can hang on or if he will collapse like many people (including him) are expecting.
There are some notable names near the top of the leaderboard. Fairway Jesus, Tommy Fleetwood, is tied for 2nd and he is looking to win his first Major. Former Major Champions like Jason Day and Justin Rose find themselves near the top of the leaderboard as well.
The gym hardo’s Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau are lurking too. Koepka is -6 and DeChambeau is -2. There is a little work to be done, but I’d love nothing more than a Bryson vs. Brooks matchup down the stretch. These guys HATE each other, with Brooks always chirping Bryson to the media. However, Koepka could get a little taste of his own medicine. If Bryson doesn’t lay on the ground and have someone work on his legs like Koepka did yesterday then I will be very disappointed.
Other notable names who are on the course as I write this are Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson, and Tiger Woods.
JT shot a 2-under 68 during his third round to move him to -1 for the tournament. He made the cut on the number yesterday, and today he was at one point 5-under par for his round. As the conditions worsened he dropped some shots, but if the leaders come back like I’m expecting, then Thomas has played himself right back into this tournament.
Rory McIlroy was my pick to win this week and early on yesterday it was looking like a really good pick. That is until he imploded on the 12th hole and made a triple bogey. He has since worked his way back to 2-under for the tournament. He’s gonna need to pick up a couple more strokes to get into a late pairing tomorrow. Hopefully he can figure it out and make me look good.
Phil Mickelson was making a bit of a mini run today. He, like Thomas, made the cut on the number and was making the most of it, But after back to back bogeys on the back nine, his chances of winning are probably gone.
Tiger Woods. Yuck. That is what describes his putting this week. He hasn’t been able to hole a putt since Thursday. Some people have speculated that it’s the putter change that’s caused his putting woes, but that can’t be the whole problem. There is something broken in the mechanics of his stroke. This has been a steady problem since he’s come back to competing almost three years ago. When he putts well, he wins (cc: Tour Championship, The Masters, Zozo). When he doesn’t, then he plays like what we’ve seen this week. Those wins are the only three weeks that he’s actually been consistent and putted well. As this season goes on, he needs to find the same kind of consistency with the flat stick that he had during his last three wins. If he can do that, then he will be in contention for wins again.
Even though Tiger won’t be competing for the win this weekend, this is still a very entertaining leaderboard with some interesting stories. Hopefully this PGA Championship will start the Major Championship season off with a bang.