Shane Lowry two shots back after shooting remarkable 62 at Valhalla
Justin Rose, of England, greets Shane Lowry, of Ireland, after the third round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at the Valhalla Golf Club, Saturday, May 18, 2024, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
At the hometown of the 150-year-old Kentucky Derby – the longest continuous sporting event in the United States – a real horse race has broken out in the 106th PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club.
Six players are within two shots of the lead shared by Xander Schauffele and Collin Morikawa at 15-under par – a heavyweight logjam that matches the 2020 PGA at Harding Park won by Morikawa. Sahith Theegala sits one shot back at 14-under while Shane Lowry (who shot a record-tying 62 on Saturday), Bryson DeChambeau and Viktor Hovland all share fourth at 13-under.
Nine more players are double digits under par and within five of a gettable Valhalla course, led by Justin Rose and Robert MacIntyre at 12-under with Dean Burmester at 11-under. The six-man crowd at 10-under includes Louisville native and two-time PGA champion Justin Thomas.
If Schauffele and Morikawa will go off as the 5/2 favorites, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth are tantalizing longshots sitting tied 19th at 8-under par.
With so many top-quality players packed tightly at the top of the board, it might come down to who gets the hot hand on Sunday at the softened Valhalla that’s already yielded a pair of 62 this week to Schauffle and Lowry.
“I said it yesterday … there's blood in the water,” Schauffele said of the birdie feeding frenzy potential. “Everyone kind of laughed, and then Shane Lowry almost shot 61 today. Yeah, I imagine someone in that threshold now that it’s been done twice is going to shoot something low and post a number early. I imagine that's going to happen.
“Just staying in my lane is what's going to make me play well.” Morikawa, with two major wins already to his credit, will play in the final group for the second straight major after picking up a stroke with a 67 to catch wire-to-wire leader Schauffele. He expects an aggressive race down the stretch.
“A lot of guys took it low to climb their way up; I assume tomorrow is going to be the same,” he said. “It was nice to make that putt on the last and kind of, I wouldn't say cushion, but to at least be tied for the lead with 18 to go.” Lowry, who leads the field in putting and took it the lowest on Saturday, will lean on his experience winning the 2019 Open Championship at Royal Portrush on Sunday.
“I've sort of felt all season that if I could warm my putter up that I could be dangerous,” he said. “I kept saying it. Here I am going out in one of the last groups tomorrow … with a chance in this tournament. That's nice. Regardless of what happens tomorrow, it's a nice position to be in.” DeChambeau poses a threat after chipping in for eagle on 18 Saturday to join the favorites at the post.
“I’ve got a good chance. I’m not executing to the level that I know I can, but playing well enough to give myself a chance, obviously,” said the LIV star who won the 2020 U.S. Open and has been a consistent threat in recent majors. “Got to keep strategizing around this golf course and putting the golf ball in the right areas and miss it in the right place and hit a bunch of greens out here.”
Hovland, who came up just short in a showdown with Brooks Koepka last year at Oak Hill, shot his second straight 66 to give himself another chance for a breakthrough major victory.
“Last year felt like I did a really good job of obviously chasing down Brooks, but I didn't let that change my strategy throughout the round … I kind of inched myself closer and closer and closer,” Hovland said. “I think this year was a little different scenario because there's so many guys on the leaderboard there. So you kind of have to get something going early or you have to make some birdies out there to shoot a low one and separate yourself if the conditions are going to be closer to today for tomorrow.”
Two surprising retreats on Saturday came from world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and defending champion Koepka, who shot 73 and 74 to kill their chances.
Whatever adrenaline that carried Scottie Scheffler through his eventful Friday that started with being arrested in a traffic incident finally crashed his system on Saturday and snapped his seemingly impermeable streak of excellence dating back to last season.
A day after shooting 66 after his release from jail, Scheffler couldn’t reproduce the same magic on Saturday. He made a gruesome double bogey on the second, a three-putt bogey at the third and penalty-shot bogey at the fourth to fall 4-over through 4.
He battled the rest of the day to a 2-over 73, but he’d dug himself too big a hole to extend his streak of 42 consecutive rounds of par or better that came up 10 shy of Tiger Woods’ record 52 rounds during his peak in 2000-01.
Koepka shot himself out of it by going 5-over in 12 holes Saturday before making his only two cosmetic birdies on 17 and 18.
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