The Final Round of the PGA Championship will take place on Sunday afternoon from the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island.
The Final Round of the PGA Championship will take place on Sunday afternoon from the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island.
Phil Mickelson had an incredible round on Saturday and currently sits a 7-under while Brooks Koepka is hot on his heels sitting at 6-under going into the Final Round.
The leaderboard is stacked and while Phil and Brooks are leading, we all know anything can happen on Sunday. This should be a fantastic day of golf, here is everything you need to know to catch the action today:
PGA Tour odds courtesy of BetMGM Sportsbook. Odds last updated Sunday at 10:00 a.m. ET.
B. Koepka +160
P. Mickelson +300
L. Oosthuizen +550
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A complete list of the gear Louis Oosthuizen is using this week at the 2021 PGA Championship:
DRIVER:Ping G400 (9 degrees set at 8.75), with Fujikura Ventus Blue 6 S shaft
FAIRWAY WOODS:TaylorMade SIM2 (15 degrees), with Fujikura Ventus Red 7 X shaft; Ping G425 (20.5 degrees at set 19.25), with Fujikura Ventus Red 9 X shaft
IRONS:Ping Blueprint (4-PW), with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shafts
WEDGES:Ping Glide 2.0 Stealth (50 degrees bent to 48, 54 degrees bent to 55), Glide Forged prototype (60 degrees bent to 59), with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 Black shafts
Brooks Koepka didn’t worry when Phil Mickelson was five ahead Saturday at the PGA Championship and he’s not worried about a windy Sunday.
KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – Standing on the tee of the 12th hole on The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island in Saturday’s third round of the 103rd PGA Championship, Brooks Koepka was five shots behind leader Phil Mickelson.
Think Koepka was worried?
Yeah, that would be a resounding no.
The big, bad man fears nothing, sweats nothing and treats dealing with pain in both his knees this week as basically no big deal.
He likely hasn’t even done a double take seeing the many alligators lurking in the waters throughout Pete Dye’s masterpiece by the sea.
As for urgency, that’s really not a word in his vocabulary. The native Floridian knows major championships are marathons to grind through instead of sprints to high-step through. So a five-shot deficit? No biggie.
“I saw Phil was at 10 (under) and I was at 5, but just go about my business,” he said. “I can’t control what he’s doing, I just need to play better. Simple.”
It’s that matter-of-fact approach – united with his enormous physical talents and supreme confidence – that has served Koepka well in the game’s four biggest tournaments. Come Sunday’s final round, he’ll be gunning for his fifth major since the calendar turned to 2017 and his third PGA title in four years.
While Mickelson – who has stunned the golf world with his star turn when few people expected the 200-1 shot to have any chance – came back to the field a bit, Koepka turned in a back-nine 34 and despite three-putting from just off the green on the final hole for bogey, signed for a 2-under-par 70.
At 6 under after rounds of 69-71-70, he’ll start the final 18 alongside Mickelson in the final group, the two separated by one shot.
“At least I can see what Phil is doing and then I don’t have to turn back and look and see what he’s up to,” Koepka said. “Looking forward to it. Got a chance, and everybody will be in front of me, so I know what I’ve got to do.”
One thing he knows he’s has got to do is putt better.
“I left a lot out there. I’ve got a chance to win, so that’s all I wanted to do today is not give back any shots and be there tomorrow with a chance, and I’ve got that,” he said. “But that was the worst putting performance I’ve ever had in my career. Can’t get much worse. I thought 70 was about the highest I could have shot.
“I’m right where I want to be, and we’ll see how tomorrow goes. Just be within three of the lead going into the back nine and you’ve got a chance.”
As for his knees that were bandaged in the third round, he hasn’t had many problems. He’s toned back his workouts and said the strength in both knees, especially his surgically repaired right knee, has increased. He hasn’t had any issue pushing off the knee when hitting driver, something that, while he didn’t fear it, was a bit of a concern.
What isn’t a concern is the forecast for the final round, which calls for a completely different wind direction than the players have seen all week. You guess it; wind doesn’t bother him much, either.
“It doesn’t matter. Just got to go out and go play good golf,” he said. “Doesn’t matter what direction the wind is going. The goal is still the same. Just need to putt better. Simple. If I strike it anything like I did the last three days, I’ll have a chance.
“It’s a tough golf course. I thought it definitely played easier for sure, but this golf course you can make one little mistake and it can be costly. That’s why it’s a major championship. I think this place is perfect for it, and it will be fun to watch.”
Everything you need to know for the final round of the PGA Championship.
One man stole the show on Saturday at the PGA Championship: Phil Mickelson. The 50-year-old kept his quest for a sixth career major title alive at Kiawah Island as he cruised through the first half of his day with five birdies in his opening 10 holes, then held it together over the back nine for a 70 that left him at 7 under. That’s one shot better than his closest pursuer, Brooks Koepka.
The possibilities for Sunday’s final certainly are exciting.
Here’s everything you need to know for that final round of the PGA Championship. All times listed are Eastern Standard Time.
Everything you need to know for the final round of the PGA Championship.
One man stole the show on Saturday at the PGA Championship: Phil Mickelson. The 50-year-old kept his quest for a sixth career major title alive at Kiawah Island as he cruised through the first half of his day with five birdies in his opening 10 holes, then held it together over the back nine for a 70 that left him at 7 under. That’s one shot better than his closest pursuer, Brooks Koepka.
The possibilities for Sunday’s final certainly are exciting.
Here’s everything you need to know for that final round of the PGA Championship. All times listed are Eastern Standard Time.
Phil Mickelson was the story of Saturday at the PGA Championship as he looks to win a sixth major title at 50.
KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – Yes, it really could happen.
Seriously, Phil Mickelson, who hasn’t won on the PGA Tour since 2019, hasn’t had a top 10 in a major championship since 2016 and hasn’t been thrilled with his play for some time now as he’s dropped to No. 115th in the world rankings, is in position to win his sixth major championship on Sunday.
Mickelson, 200-1 to win when the week started and 51 years old as of next month, squandered a five-shot lead midway through his round Saturday but gathered himself to sign for a 2-under-par 70 and get one clear of the field at 7 under.
Mickelson, who held a share of the 36-hole lead, made five birdies against no bogeys in his first 11 holes to bump his lead to five before making bogey on the 12th and double bogey on the 13th.
Mickelson’s main opposition? Brooks Koepka, who despite dealing with knee issues, will be going after his third PGA title in four years and his fifth major since the calendar turned to 2017. While he bogeyed his final hole, Koepka turned in a 70 to move to 6 under.
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Louis Oosthuizen, the 2010 Open champion, shot 72 to stay at 5 under.
Kevin Streelman shot 70 to get to 4 under.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Branden Grace each shot 72 to get to 3 under.
Bryson DeChambeau and Joaquin Niemann each shot 71 and Gary Woodland 72 to move to 2 under.
Paul Casey, Corey Conners and Sungjae Im all shot 73 to stand at 1 under.
A large bunch of players are at even par, including Jordan Spieth (68), Rickie Fowler (69), Tony Finau (70) and Patrick Cantlay (70).
There’s an ebb and flow to form in elite golf, writes Eamon Lynch, and Rory McIlroy has seemed to accept that with age and experience.
It was only 13 days ago that the Good Ship Rory appeared to have been righted when McIlroy won his 19th PGA Tour event at the Wells Fargo Championship, ending an 18-month drought that included missed cuts at the Players Championship and the Masters. Fast forward to the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island, and his ship seems to be, if not listing, at least unmoored.
The world No. 7 shot a pedestrian 74 in Saturday’s third round after opening 75-72. His five-over par total left him tied 55th. As he signed his scorecard, Phil Mickelson, the tournament leader and a man 20 years his senior, was headed to the first tee. Whoever wins the title he has claimed twice, McIlroy will likely be home in Florida long before the champion is crowned Sunday evening.
It has been another disappointing week that promised more and ensures his winless run in the majors will stretch to 25 events over seven years. McIlroy arrived at The Ocean Course with momentum, not least in the fact that he didn’t miss a single putt inside of six feet in that victory at Quail Hollow. Whether or not he arrived here with real confidence isn’t so clear cut.
McIlroy knew there were glaring weaknesses evident even in victory, in particular a driver that was proving about as trustworthy as a card shark. His comments earlier this week suggested a man who knew the win represented progress on the journey, not a destination. “It was a great sort of validation that I’m working on the right things, but it was just a step in the process,” he said.
“I’m happy with where my game is, so I guess if I go out and play my game and do what I know that I can do, then I can see myself shooting good scores on this golf course,” he added. “I’ve just got to go out there, play my game, and if I play my game somewhat close to the best of my ability, I’m sure I’ll have a good chance.”
McIlroy is one of the most transparent athletes in sport, exhibiting the trait that makes agents and PR reps wince: He actually answers the question he’s asked, and thoughtfully so. But on the question about his prospects at Kiawah Island, the tenor of his voice seemed more rote than realistic, as though he were talking about something that could happen, without believing that it would happen.
That difference between belief and execution is the gap between the job descriptions of two men McIlroy has been listening to most of late: Dr. Bob Rotella and Pete Cowen.
The four-time major winner visited with Rotella, a noted mental game guru, before the Masters. Cowen, a respected English swing instructor, came on board in March. One has responsibility for clearing the clutter from McIlroy’s mind, freeing him from the sometimes suffocating pressure heaped on him by others to perform better, not least in major championships. The other is charged with ensuring his swing can deliver what his mind wants.
To what extent they are succeeding is unclear.
It’s hard to categorize McIlroy’s week at Kiawah as anything less than a step backward. He has been losing strokes to the field off the tee, an uncommon occurrence. He’s launching it long—top 10 in driving distance—but unsure of where it will land, finding only 23 of the 42 fairways. He has successfully scrambled around the greens 9 times in 22 attempts, and lost ground with his putter all three days.
With so few positives, it becomes difficult to isolate one particular negative that illustrates his shoddy showing at a course where he romped to an eight-stroke win in 2012. Difficult, but not impossible. On the 12 par 5s McIlroy has played through 54 holes he is 3-over par with six bogeys. On those holes alone, he has lost 11 shots to Mickelson, and that was before the leader even made the turn in Saturday’s round.
Put simply, McIlroy has gone hungry on the very holes he used to feast on.
His struggles are apparent even before he walks to the tee. In his warm-up sessions, he has been locked in conversation with Cowen, rehearsing positions throughout. That has never been his manner of working. With his longtime coach Michael Bannon, who remains in the background, McIlroy would work intensely at home in the weeks preceding golf’s biggest events. With Cowen, there appears to be an uncharacteristic amount of instruction happening in those last hours before a major begins.
Rory McIlroy hits his tee shot on the 2nd hole during the first round of the PGA Championship. (Photo: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports)
In March 2018, McIlroy began working with Tour veteran Brad Faxon on his putting. They met at the Bears Club in Jupiter and six days later McIlroy won the Arnold Palmer Invitational with the best putting performance of his career. In that first conversation, Faxon was determined to clear his client’s head of overly technical thoughts. He compared McIlroy’s approach to the shortest, weakest club in his bag with his confidence wielding the longest and most fearsome.
“What do you think about when you’re hitting your driver well?” Faxon asked.
For a split second, McIlroy looked at him quizzically. “Nothing,” he replied.
Could McIlroy reply to that question today with the same certainty, or even the same answer? Whether on the range or on the tee in competition, his mind seems to detour into more technical terrain with the club that was once his Excalibur.
With age and experience, the 32-year-old Northern Irishman has accepted that there’s an ebb and flow to form in elite golf, that today’s discovery can be tomorrow’s lost property. An astute investor, he knows that past results are no guarantee of future returns. He admitted as much on Tuesday. “I’ve maybe got some better memories and better vibes here than most of the other guys do, and that’s obviously nice, but not sure it’s going to enable me to play any better,” he said.
Outside of golf’s more frequently visited venues–Augusta National, St. Andrews—returning to a place where you’ve previously won a major marks a significant mile marker for a golfer. Usually a decade or thereabouts has slipped by. That has not gone unnoticed by McIlroy. “It seems like there’s been a lot of time that’s passed, and I feel like I’m a different person and a different player,” he remarked philosophically.
Such is the march of life and its complications. As Mickelson winds back his clock at Kiawah Island, McIlroy might hear his tick a little louder, despite that victory 13 days ago. Tiger Woods famously said winning takes care of everything. It wasn’t true for Tiger then, and it’s not true for Rory now.
Jon Rahm spoke to media after the third round of the PGA Championship, and he didn’t sugar-coat his frustrations.
KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – Say what you will about Jon Rahm, but he is certainly honest and doesn’t shy from his emotional nature.
The world No. 3 has had a short fuse all week in the 103rd PGA Championship on The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, his putter the main culprit for the steam coming out of his ears on occasion.
After opening with 72-75 to stand at 3 over heading into the weekend, Rahm couldn’t mount a charge to give himself a chance on Sunday. He bogeyed the last two holes and ended with an even-par 72.
After signing his scorecard, he was asked to go to the outdoor quick quote area. He was likely wondering why he was being summoned but he agreed. And then the first question dealt with course conditions and whether they were ripe for scoring for the leaders in the third round.
Take it away, Mr. Rahm.
“I don’t know, and I don’t care, to be honest,” he said. “I hit the ball tee to green as well as I could have for the most part and barely made any putts. And yeah, I’m not really happy, and to be honest, being in 40th place and finishing bogey-bogey like that, I really don’t want to be here right now.
“I mean, clearly the scores are out there. It’s very doable right now – 68, 67 is out there, it’s possible. I had a very good chance. I just couldn’t make a putt.”
Tell us how you really feel, Jon? And with that, the interview was done, and Rahm was gone.
Jordan Spieth’s putter warmed up on Saturday as he shot 4-under 68, but he likely will be too far back to make a run at completing the Slam.
KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – Jordan Spieth knows he likely shot himself out of the PGA Championship with his misbehaving putter during the first two rounds, but he battled hard for no other reason than he’s a fighter. Spieth was 5 under and bogey free on Saturday until his lone hiccup at the treacherous par-3 17th. In calmer conditions on Saturday, he signed for a 4-under 68 and landed at even-par 216 for 54 holes.
“I hate being over par at a golf course. I mean, it’s like my biggest pet peeve regardless of when it is in the tournament and I just hate seeing an over-par score next to my name,” he said. “So, it’s nice to be tied with the course with a chance to beat it tomorrow.”
Spieth struggled with his putter for the first two rounds at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Resort. He lost nearly two strokes on the green on Thursday and more than two and half on Friday, when he needed 34 putts in his round of 75. But he sank a 32-foot birdie putt on the third hole of his third round and suddenly the cup no longer looked to be the size of a thimble. He took just 23 putts and gained nearly a stroke and a half on the field on the greens Saturday.
“It’s just a stroke thing. I know exactly what it is,” Spieth explained. “I’m just trying to trust it on the course, and it’s difficult. It’s a move just like any kind of swing move where it needs some repetition and it needs trust and it needs a couple results, and all of a sudden I’m pouring it in.
“It’s in a place where, you know, when I look at it on video or how I need to calibrate it, I’m like, OK, yeah, no wonder it feels that bad on the course and that’s better than it being perfect and feeling poorly and not performing on the course.
“It’s obviously not great to try to figure out in the middle of a major championship, but I can go in with nothing but trust like I did today, tomorrow, and see if they start pouring in.”
Spieth also benefitted from a chip in at the par-3 fifth hole and added back-to-back birdies at Nos. 10 and 11. He made a 16-foot putt par putt at 15 and a similar length putt one hole later for birdie. As he approached the 17th tee, a marshal asked how Spieth was doing and a fan reported that he was into red figures for the championship and 5 under for the day. The marshal smiled. Then the fan said, “But he should be at least 7 or 8.” The marshal’s smile disappeared, even before Spieth tugged his tee shot at 17 and made bogey. Spieth agreed with the fan’s assessment – to a point.
“I chipped in and made a long par putt on 15, so I can’t really say that it should have been a lot lower. But this is a round where I’m walking up the 18th going, ‘Man, this could have been special today.’ I had four or five really with no pace on it lip out today. Obviously had a couple go in. But it felt like one of those really good 6-, 7-under rounds that ended up being 4.”
But Spieth said he would continue to play aggressively, blasting driver off every tee and firing at flags in pursuit of birdies.
“Yeah, if I were at 4 under and the lead was only 7, then things could be different,” he said. “But I’m not.”
It was the only moment where Spieth sounded dejected that his chance to complete the career Grand Slam likely had faded away. He was already starting to think about the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines and upcoming starts at the Charles Schwab Challenge next week and The Memorial after that. Spieth’s third round had ended before the leaders had teed off. With a free afternoon at his disposal, Spieth said he’d do something he rarely does – watch golf, or more specifically, Phil Mickelson.
“I don’t watch golf but I promise you I’m going to turn it on to watch him today,” he said.
The elements, clearly, have an impact on the way the gorgeous Pete and Alice Dye design plays. As you can imagine, geography plays a hand in this. Kiawah, which sits less than an hour from nearby Charleston, is on an exposed piece of property surrounded by the winding Kiawah River, a portion of the Stono River and the Atlantic Ocean.
Before the Civil War, it was primarily known as a cattle farming region, although Kiawah later became a logging hotspot. The first group of summer homes wasn’t built until the mid-1950s and the island didn’t see its first golf course until 1976 when March Point Golf Course (since renamed Cougar Point) made its debut.
And while the land value has skyrocketed in subsequent decades — those who have purchased homes in the area include former Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino, former governor Nikki Haley, skater Tara Lipinski and NBA star Ray Allen — the flat, sandy area is prone to reshaping and, in a worst-case scenario, could be susceptible to catastrophe.
A story in the Washington Post in advance of the PGA Championship highlighted just how vulnerable Kiawah is. Prior to his death last year, Dye said he doubted the course will make it another half-century. Others have insisted that timeline could be too generous.
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“If a Category 3 or 4 came in just south of here, there probably wouldn’t be much left,” George Frye, the former superintendent of The Ocean Course told the Post. “It would be devastating.”
According to the state’s emergency management division, South Carolina is one of the most vulnerable states in the nation to be impacted by hurricanes and tropical storms. The greatest threat to life — and the golf courses — associated with a hurricane and tropical storm is storm surge. Other effects include high winds, tornadoes, and inland flooding associated with heavy rainfall that usually accompanies these storms.
Is talk of a hurricane ripping through Kiawah simply a case of climatologists being overcautious?
Consider this: A total of 82 hurricanes have been recorded in the Kiawah Island area since 1930, with the most recent in 2014 when Arthur pounded the region with heavy rains. In fact, hurricanes have been a part of The Ocean Course since its inception — Hurricane Hugo ravaged the area in 1989 and forced a massive reconstruction that made finishing the track in time for the 1991 Ryder Cup a challenge.
And although the historical probability of a hurricane making landfall in South Carolina is about 18 percent — according to Colorado State University’s Department of Atmospheric Science, which has issued seasonal hurricane forecasts every year since 1984 — the odds in 2020 were bumped to 27 percent due to rising ocean temperatures. The state was fortunate that last year fell on the right side of the odds, but that won’t always be the case. But ocean temperatures continue to rise.
And hurricanes aren’t the only issue that could potentially shape Kiawah’s future. Data gathered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, suggests sea levels here have risen as much as 0.8 feet since 1992. The rising seas, according to scientists, are a result of melting polar ice and warmer oceans that take more space.
Based on current climate trends, NOAA estimates seas may rise as much as 1.85 feet by 2040 compared to 1992.
The end result?
The incredible views from Kiawah’s wind-swept Ocean Course should be savored this week — data indicates the course likely won’t stay in its current form for too long.
