Follow Tiger Woods’ third round at the PGA Championship with shot-by-shot updates from TPC Harding Park.
It all comes down to the putter.
Tiger Woods struggled mightily on the greens during a second-round 2-over 72 at TPC Harding Park at the PGA Championship. He took 31 putts, and the longest one he holed was 10 feet for a birdie on No. 10.
“They looked faster than what they were putting,” Woods said after Friday’s round.
Aside from that, Woods has looked confident in his swing and in his game. He’ll start the third round at even par, eight shots off Haotong Li’s lead, and with his work cut out for him on the weekend.
We’re tracking his round, shot by shot, so keep up below.
Pre-round
Tiger has arrived. Check out some practice-range action.
Just over 30 minutes until @TigerWoods tees it up for Round 3.
The PGA Championship heads to the weekend at TPC Harding Park.
The season’s first major is heading to the weekend.
The PGA Championship continues Saturday at TPC Harding Park, and with several intriguing storylines in place.
The field is chasing leader Haotong Li, who fired his second-round 65 early on Friday then camped out on the practice facilities for the rest of the day. At 8 under, Li has a two-shot cushion on six players tied for second – a group that includes two-time defending champion Brooks Koepka and Jason Day, the 2015 PGA champion.
Tiger Woods is still around, too, after firing a second-round 72 that got him to the weekend but only barely.
ESPN+ has the exclusive streaming, while ESPN and CBS will tag team the TV coverage starting at 1 p.m. ET. (Details below tee times)
Third round Featured Group 1 (one morning, one afternoon): 11 a.m. – 10 p.m., ESPN+.
Third round Featured Group 2 (one morning, one afternoon): 11 a.m. – 10 p.m., ESPN+.
Third round TV coverage: 1 – 4 p.m., ESPN.
CBS Sports special “We Need To Talk”, breaking down the PGA Championship. Panelists Tracy Wolfson, Swin Cash, Amanda Balionis and Dottie Pepper will be joined by Michelle Wie West and PGA of America President Suzy Whaley: 3 p.m., CBS.
Final round coverage: 3 – 10 p.m., SiriusXM (Channel 208 or 92).
Final round Featured Hole (No. 18): 3 p.m. – 9 p.m., ESPN+.
PGA Championship Clubhouse Report: 9 p.m., CBS Sports Network
We recommend interesting sports viewing and streaming opportunities. If you sign up to a service by clicking one of the links, we may earn a referral fee.
Koepka shot 2-under 68 despite needing to have a physical therapist give him treatment during the round on three occasions.
As Brooks Koepka pursues a three-peat at the PGA Championship, he’s also making a case for the Ben Hogan Award.
That’s the award given by the Golf Writers Association of America to an individual who has remained active in golf despite a physical handicap or serious illness, and on Friday, Koepka needed his physical therapist, Marc Wahl, to stretch out his left hip and tensor fascia latae (TFL) muscle, which tightened on multiple occasions.
“It’s fine,” Koepka told ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi. “It’s just tight.”
“It’s nothing to be worried about,” he said later during his post-round press conference after shooting 2-under 68.
It didn’t look that way as he lay on his back on three separate occasions for treatment, the last of which occurred after hitting his tee shot on the 12th hole.
While Keopka’s travails pale in comparison to Hogan, who was hit by a bus and returned a year later to win the 1950 U.S. Open, Koepka required a stem-cell treatment on his left knee in September following the Tour Championship, and slipped and reinjured the knee at the CJ Cup in November.
Koepka missed the Presidents Cup in December and has struggled most of the season since his return, recording only two top-10 finishes. Last week in Memphis, Keopka conceded he might need another stem-cell treatment, but he said after the second round at TPC Harding Park that it wasn’t his knee that was the issue.
Koepka said his TFL bothered him when he woke up. He worked out and had it stretched prior to the round, but it tightened up during play.
“It’s usually tight but it’s never this tight,” he said. “It won’t be an issue. I’m not really worried about it.”
When ESPN showed a highlight of Koepka’s left leg being stretched, he downplayed the significance again as if this sort of thing happened all the time.
“It hurts me just looking at it,” ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi said.
But this was anything but an ordinary occurrence. When asked during his press conference to recall the last time he needed treatment from his physical therapist mid-round, Koepka said, “I can’t remember if it was 2014 or 2015 at Arnold Palmer (Invitational). Just a rib came out, and that was the last time. But it’s been a while.”
Tiger Woods won the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines on one good leg in what became known as The Battle at Wounded Knee. Could this be Koepka’s version of overcoming physical adversity while bidding to become the first player in nearly a century to win the PGA Championship in three consecutive years?
“He just keeps fighting and believes in what he’s doing,” ESPN’s David Duval said.
Koepka, who signed for 66 on Thursday, wedged from the first cut to 5 feet for a birdie at the first on Friday, and tacked on birdies at the two par 5s – Nos. 4 and 10. He surrendered strokes at Nos. 6 and 13, but capped off the round with birdie at the last after sticking his 166-yard approach to 7 feet, ball above his feet, edge of a fairway bunker.
“That was as good as I saw all day,” Duval said of a nifty mid-iron.
Koepka’s 68 lifted him to 6-under 134 through 36 holes in a six-way tied for second and trailing only China’s Haotong Li by two strokes.
Koepka notched his sixth straight round in the 60s and his 18th round in the 60s in the majors out of his last 22, re-discovering his ball-striking ability at an opportune time. He ranks second in Strokes Gained: approach-to-the-green and second in proximity to the hole this week. Hogan would be proud.
“It could’ve been better today,” Koepka said. “I probably could be 10 (under).”
He also could be on his way to a historic three-peat at the PGA and his fifth major championship, but it may all come down to how his hip and TFL muscle feel when he wakes up the next two days and whether his physical therapist can work his magic.
“We’ll loosen it up again and it will be a lot better,” Koepka said.
Tiger Woods struggled to get anything going on Friday at TPC Harding Park for the PGA Championship.
After a smooth and seemingly effortless opening round of 2-under 68, Tiger Woods couldn’t get anything to go his way Friday in his second trip around TPC Harding Park in San Francisco. After a late tee off alongside Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy, Woods seemed to struggle for every small victory on the course. He ended the day with a 2-over 72.
He didn’t make his first birdie until No. 10, also the first hole where he dropped a legitimate putt.
Truly, Woods didn’t hole a putt outside of 3 feet on his front nine. This, a day after birdie conversions from 8, 32, 4, 14 and 12 feet in the first round.
Instead, Woods made two bogeys on the front nine. They came at the par-3 third, where he missed a 10-footer after blasting out of the sand, and No. 9, where he was in both a fairway bunker and a greenside bunker.
In fact, Woods found himself in an inordinate amount of bunkers on Friday, and with poor results. He was zero for seven when it came to getting up-and-down from the sand.
Birdies on Nos. 10 and 16 were the highlight of the back nine, but also very necessary. After Woods bogeyed Nos. 13 and 15 – the latter coming off an approach blown over the back of the green – he found himself sitting on the cutline of 1 over.
The birdie at No. 16 was crucial in getting to the weekend.
By the time Woods was trudging through the final holes, his body language suggested both disappointment and fatigue in his lackluster play. Still, he’ll live to play two mores rounds.
Follow Tiger Woods’ second round at the PGA Championship with shot-by-shot updates from TPC Harding Park.
Tiger Woods at a major will always turn heads (even if there aren’t all that many heads on property this week at TPC Harding Park to turn). When Woods showed up at the PGA Championship on Thursday, he looked fit, fluid and sharp – and pain-free – from the get-go.
Woods opened the first round with a birdie, added another on the 13th and then offset his three bogeys with three more birdies. His opening 2-under 68 left him very much in the conversation.
Woods drew an afternoon tee time for Friday, and once again will play alongside Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas. We’re tracking his second round, shot for shot, so keep with us here.
We saw some shades of old Tiger on Thursday at TPC Harding Park, but if you’re interested in how his swing has evolved over the years, take a look at this montage and get fired up for his Friday round.
On a crisp, sun-drenched Friday, Haotong Li turned in a 5-under-par 65 to move to the top of the leaderboard at the PGA Championship.
SAN FRANCISCO – Haotong Li is on history’s doorstep.
On a crisp, sun-drenched Friday morning at TPC Harding Park, Li turned in an impressive 5-under-par 65 to move to the top of the leaderboard in the 102nd edition of the PGA Championship.
Through 36 holes, Li is at 8 under and was two clear of his nearest pursuer as the morning wave of players began to finish. His play through two rounds – he’s made just one bogey – has put himself in position to become the first man from China to win a major championship.
But Li feels no weight on his shoulders with history beckoning.
“Well, I’ve got no expectation actually, because you know, last few months, stay at home doing nothing. I just want to out here, have fun,” Li said. “Still got two rounds left. Long way to go. Just want to play my best. If it happens, it happens.”
Not much has happened for Li of late. He hasn’t had a top-10 since he finished second in the China Tour Championship in December. He’s missed four of eight cuts since then and beat only two players when finishing in a tie for 75th in last week’s World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational.
During this stretch he spent the COVID-19 induced lockdown in China.
He has no idea what has turned his game around this week.
“Nothing really. Just try to play golf,” he said when asked about the keys for his success so far. “I didn’t even think I could play like this this week, especially, like you said, got no confidence.”
Li didn’t have much to say, either, when asked about one of his sponsors, WeChat, a messaging service owned by Tencent, facing a possible ban in the U.S. On Thursday, President Trump signed an executive order banning U.S. transactions with Chinese tech firms Tencent and ByteDance, which owns TikTok.
The ban will take effect in 45 days.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Who knows?”
Basically, his mind is on trying to keep having fun in the first major of the season. Li, 25, isn’t an unknown – he was ranked as high as No. 32 in the world before falling to No. 114 presently. He’s a two-time winner on the European Tour, including the 2018 Dubai Desert Classic when he held off Rory McIlroy by one.
He also closed with four birdies to shoot 63 to finish third in the 2017 British Open. The finish earned him a spot in the 2019 Masters.
“Wow,” he said when told of the Masters invite. “What a gift.”
“It’s a long time ago,” he said. “Definitely good to have that experience in my mind, and definitely will help to play the next two rounds. I think it’s my best golf so far, best moment, the last four holes in Birkdale.”
But he has no expectations for the next two days.
“I don’t even know what I’m going to do,” he said. “Just play golf, mate.”
Jason Day is atop the leaderboard alongside a resurrected Brendon Todd after the first round of the 102nd PGA Championship.
SAN FRANCISCO – Hindered by an assortment of injuries since his reign as the best player in the world back in 2015 and 2016, Jason Day has struggled at times to keep his spirits up while his body’s well-being has been down.
Chief among his pains have been chronic back issues that have forced him to miss tournaments and severely cut into prep work in the weight room and on the practice ground. After winning 10 PGA Tour titles from 2013 through 2016, he’s won twice since – both coming in 2018. In 32 starts since the onset of 2019, he doesn’t have a top-3 finish. Earlier this year fell to No. 63 in the world and he recently he split with mentor and longtime coach, Collin Swatton.
But heading into the first major of the year, Day awoke and his body healed a bit. In his most recent three starts coming into this week’s PGA Championship, Day posted ties for fourth, sixth and seventh.
Now he’s at the top of the leaderboard alongside a resurrected Brendon Todd after the first round of the 102nd PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park.
“There was definitely a lot of momentum coming in off the previous finishes that I’ve had,” said Day, who won this championship in 2015, his lone major. “The game feels like it’s coming around. I’m pleased with it.”
Day shot a bogey-free, 5-under-par 65 while Todd, a two-time winner this season, negated his two bogeys with seven birdies. The two were one shot clear of a group that includes four-time major champion Brooks Koepka, two-time major winners Martin Kaymer and Zach Johnson, and 2013 U.S. Open champion Justin Rose.
Todd is riding some momentum, too. He’s held two 54-hole leads in the last four tournaments before falling back in the final round. But he has risen from the abyss with two wins in the fall after contemplating quitting the game a couple years back as he battled driver yips and missed 37 of 41 cuts. He has missed the cut in four of the eight majors he’s played, with a tie for 17th his best finish.
“I don’t really compare rounds, but it was one of my better rounds today,” Todd said. “I have a lot of confidence. I’m playing the game of golf really well, not a lot of golf swing going on. That’s the key for me.”
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Koepka has won four of the last 10 majors he’s played and is trying to become the first to win the PGA Championship in three consecutive years since the tournament went to stroke play. Koepka has battled a left knee injury for more than a year (he had a stem-cell procedure last September) but looked fit and his usual powerful self in the first round.
“It’s only 18 holes right now. I feel good. I feel confident,” Koepka said. “I’m excited for the next three days. I can definitely play a lot better, and just need to tidy a few things up, and we’ll be there come Sunday on the back nine.”
Tiger Woods, seeking his fifth Wanamaker Trophy and 16th major, looks like he could be there on the back nine, too, after his 68. Woods has played just one tournament in nearly six months but looked spot on and pain-free. And he looked just fine with a new putter – a Scotty Cameron prototype – that he used instead of his Scotty Cameron that he’s used to win 14 of his 15 majors.
“I made some good putts,” Woods said. “For the most part of the day, I missed the ball on the correct sides. This golf course, you have to hit the ball in the fairway. You get a ball in the rough, into the grain, there’s no chance you can get the ball to the green. I felt like I did a decent job of doing that, and the golf course is only going to get more difficult as the week goes on.”
Getting better
Day has gotten better as the year has gone on. After a stretch of four missed cuts, one withdrawal and a tie for 46th in six starts, he reeled off his trio of top-10s.
“I shouldn’t say I’m not excited,” Day said. “I am excited to come out and play every day, but I know that I can improve, and mainly my putting can improve a little bit more.
Jason Day on the 10th green during the first round of the 2020 PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
“I feel like I’ve been working very hard in the off-weeks and especially when I come to a tournament to be able to get my putting back to where it is because it’s always been a strength of mine, and I feel like the game is slowly coming around, the confidence is coming around because I’m starting to see the results.”
And he’s starting to look forward to the next day. During his painful stretch, which has been mentally draining as well as physically uncomfortable, it’s been tough to get out of bed or off the couch. Now he can’t wait for the sunrise.
“I finally had enough of feeling sorry for myself, and it’s easy to do that in this game because it is so mentally tough,” he said. “You can start blaming everything else but yourself. Sometimes you’ve just got to pull your pants up and just move on, you know.
“I feel like the momentum that I’ve had over the last three starts has kind of seeped into this week. The funny thing is that every day I’m excited to go back to the golf course and play, whereas before I was struggling to get up and going, oh, do I want to kind of put myself through this again. To be honest, I’m excited to get out and play every week now.”
Harding Park will be the first TPC course to host a major championship. This year also marks the first time San Francisco has hosted a PGA Championship.
Tee times
1st tee
Tee time
Players
10 a.m.
Bob Sowards, Kurt Kitayama, Richy Werenski
10:11 a.m.
Haotong Li, Benny Cook, Jorge Campillo
10:22 a.m.
Byeong Hun An, Talor Gooch, Sungjae Im
10:33 a.m.
J.T. Poston, Joaquin Niemann, Harold Varner III
10:44 a.m.
Ken Tanigawa, Emiliano Grillo, Cameron Tringale
10:55 a.m.
Brian Stuard, Jim Furyk, Billy Horschel
11:06 a.m.
Matt Jones, Jazz Janewattananond, Kevin Streelman
11:17 a.m.
Jimmy Walker, Davis Love III, Keegan Bradley
11:28 a.m.
Cameron Smith, Denny McCarthy, Cameron Champ
11:39 a.m.
Troy Merritt, Wyndham Clark, Chan Kim
11:50 a.m.
Doc Redman, Jason Caron, Brendon Todd
12:01 p.m.
Judd Gibb, Lucas Herbert, Mark Hubbard
12:12 p.m.
Shawn Warren, Marcus Kinhult, Adam Long
3:30 p.m.
Scottie Scheffler, Danny Balin, Tom Hoge
3:41 p.m.
Mike Auterson, Rory Sabbatini, Nick Taylor
3:52 p.m.
Tony Finau, Danny Willett, Patrick Cantlay
4:03 p.m.
Martin Kaymer, Jason Dufner, Jason Day
4:14 p.m.
Daniel Berger, Xander Schauffele, Steve Stricker
4:25 p.m.
Henrik Stenson, Collin Morikawa, Zach Johnson
4:36 p.m.
Brooks Koepka, Gary Woodland, Shane Lowry
4:46 p.m.
Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose
4:58 p.m.
Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas
5:09 p.m.
Louis Oosthuizen, Max Homa, Matt Fitzpatrick
5:20 p.m.
Abraham Ancer, Charl Schwartzel, Joohyung Kim
5:31 p.m.
Corey Conners, Zach J. Johnson, Chez Reavie
5:42 p.m.
Scott Piercy, Alex Knoll, Andrew Putnam
10th tee
Tee time
Players
10:05 a.m.
Tyler Duncan, J.R. Roth, Christaan Bezuidenhout
10:16 a.m.
Lanto Griffin, Rich Berberian, Jr., Joost Luiten
10:27 a.m.
Jim Herman, Rob Labritz, Shaun Norris
10:38 a.m.
Adam Hadwin, Brandt Snedeker, Xinjun Zhang
10:49 a.m.
Kevin Na, Patrick Reed, Robert MacIntyre
11 a.m.
Matthew Wolff, Bubba Watson, Graeme McDowell
11:11 a.m.
Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland, Hideki Matsuyama
11:22 a.m.
Rickie Fowler, Bryson DeChambeau, Adam Scott
11:33 a.m.
Jon Rahm, Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia
11:44 a.m.
Paul Casey, Ian Poulter, Webb Simpson
11:55 a.m.
Matt Wallace, Matt Kuchar, Marc Leishman
12:06 p.m.
Sepp Straka, Ryan Vermeer, Si Woo kim
12:17 p.m.
Sebastian Muñoz, Justin Bertsch, Benjamin Hebert
3:25 p.m.
Brian Harman, Jeff Hart, C.T. Pan
3:36 p.m.
Andrew Landry, Rod Perry, Nate Lashley
3:47 p.m.
Sung Kang, John O’Leary, Dylan Frittelli
3:58 p.m.
Erik van Rooyen, Russell Henley, Carlos Ortiz
4:09 p.m.
Ryan Palmer, Kevin Kisner, Michael Thompson
4:20 p.m.
Bud Cauley, Lucas Glover, Tyrrell Hatton
4:31 p.m.
Alex Beach, Rich Beem, Shaun Micheel
4:42 p.m.
Rafa Cabrera Bello, Ryo Ishikawa, Jason Kokrak
4:53 p.m.
Bernd Wiesberger, Danny Lee, Alex Noren
5:04 p.m.
Keith Mitchell, Marrhias Schwab, Brendan Steele
5:15 p.m.
Joel Dahmen, Luke List, Victor Perez
5:26 p.m.
Mike Lorenzo-Vera, Marty Jertson, Tom Lewis
5:37 p.m.
David Muttitt, Mackenzie Hughes, Harris English
TV, streaming information
Friday, Aug. 7
Second round Featured Groups: 10 a.m. – 10 p.m., ESPN+.
Second round TV coverage: 4 – 10 p.m., ESPN.
Second round coverage: 4 – 10 p.m., SiriusXM (Channel 208 or 92).
PGA Championship Clubhouse Report: 10 p.m., CBS Sports Network
Third round Featured Group 1 (one morning, one afternoon): 11 a.m. – 10 p.m., ESPN+.
Third round Featured Group 2 (one morning, one afternoon): 11 a.m. – 10 p.m., ESPN+.
Third round TV coverage: 1 – 4 p.m., ESPN.
CBS Sports special “We Need To Talk”, breaking down the PGA Championship. Panelists Tracy Wolfson, Swin Cash, Amanda Balionis and Dottie Pepper will be joined by Michelle Wie West and PGA of America President Suzy Whaley: 3 p.m., CBS.
Final round coverage: 3 – 10 p.m., SiriusXM (Channel 208 or 92).
Final round Featured Hole (No. 18): 3 p.m. – 9 p.m., ESPN+.
PGA Championship Clubhouse Report: 9 p.m., CBS Sports Network
We recommend interesting sports viewing and streaming opportunities. If you sign up to a service by clicking one of the links, we may earn a referral fee.
