You have this story line and you have that story line, but the only story line that matters is the one that you are following. There are golfers from this league in contention, and that tour in contention, and then there is that fellow with the day job, who is still in the top ten after three identical scores. The 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill offers a restored East course, light years better than the one that hosted the 1980 and 2003 and 2013 PGA Championships, and those three were magnificent. Despite the Thursday frost delay, and the Friday surprise showers, and the Saturday consistent drizzle, we have 54 holes in the books, a one-shot lead for a two-time PGA champion, and a PGA professional close at hand. We learned 500 things on Saturday, but our goal in the next 50 syllables is to distill them down to five things that we learned on Saturday at the 2023 PGA Championship. Here goes!
1. Brooks Koepka posted four-under par on Saturday to take the lead
The 2018 and 2019 PGA Champion had one bogey on the day on Saturday, and more than compensated with five birdies to reach six under par. As Koepka ascended, others dropped away, and the Florida native found himself with the lead by one. Koepka’s most recent stint in a Sunday final twosome did not end well. He slipped away from a run at the title and finished tied for second.
Since 2021, there were many distractions for the four-time major titleholder. An injury or two, a defection to a rival organization, an enhanced feud with a fellow professional. Koepka revealed that one specific element held him back over the past 36 months.
I think everyone misconstrues the confidence for just the injury. You ask any athlete if they are hurt, and they can’t do something. I mean, imagine if you can’t get out of bed or can’t walk. You’ve got a pebble in your shoe, you kind of start to adjust, and that’s the thing. I just got into bad habits. It’s tough. You can’t play. I came back too soon and played for too long. But look, I moved on from that now, so I’m pretty pleased.
Koepka finds himself paired with Viktor Hovland in the final twosome on Sunday. Hovland is looking for a breakthrough in a major event. He has dallied with glory before, and has won multiple times on the PGA Tour. Koepka’s goal is to find major title number five, and reassert his place in the golf elite.
2. Viktor Hovland wants to join the major club
Speaking of Hovland, he has three PGA Tour and two DP World Tour victories. Five is usually the age when we want to wear our parents’ shoes or be treated differently. Hovland’s performance in major events to this point has been less than examplary. He has one top five (British Open) and a pair of top ten (Masters and British Open) finishes, and that’s all. Hovland was tied with Koepka until the final hole, when he made bogey to drop back a shot. At this point, every shot matters.
…when I’m hitting it where I’m looking, I can kind of use that to my advantage and play a little bit smarter instead of sometimes when you feel like you’re hitting it well, it’s easy to just try to go for everything, and then you short-side yourself a couple more times than you normally would have, and now you kind of gave away that advantage that you already had by hitting the irons well. I’m just kind of giving myself a lot of looks from the middle of the green.
Unlike Friday, when the former US Amateur champion slid an iron into the green from the right side of the fairway, the closing hole won the challenge. Hovland’s drive went left and his approach went right. Unable to get up and down from the front bunker, he settled for five and is looking up toward Koepka and history.
3. Corey Conners and Bryson DeChambeau are merely decoration
As much as folks want to make a big deal of DeChambeau’s return to his sort of normalcy, and as much as we want to root for the Ontario kid, no news of significance will come from this pairing on Sunday. Conners had the lead to himself on 16 tee, but found a bunker and made a mess of the recovery. He tapped in for double bogey, and made a pair of pars coming home.
Yeah, I didn’t make great contact there. I saw everybody looking up in the air. I did that as well. I thought it maybe skipped up. But you know, didn’t see anything land and was pretty certain it was embedded there. The ball was below my feet and didn’t quite adjust for that. Wish I could have that one back.
The final three holes are all gettable, with a deep fairway drive, but Conners failed to capitalize. As for DeChambeau, his double at six and his bogey at thirteen each came at precisely the wrong time. His game is too erratic to win a Oak Hill. Unlike Winged Foot, where he was able to bomb and gouge his way to victory, Oak Hill demands a complete game that is not yet part of the DeChambeau weaponry.
4. You Blockhead!
Let’s dish~all five things we learned could center on Michael Block, the working-class hero from Mission Viejo, California. Block was a curiosity on day one. On day two, he was the only survivor from the PGA Professional cast. On Saturday, he was a guy who held up to the pressure of being paired with a US Open champion, on the third day of a rigorous PGA Championship test. 54 holes in, Block is still standing, and shows zero sign of wavering. Maybe it’s because he has the proper perspective, and sincerely deflects all praise to the folks around him.
No, honestly just played really smart with John Jackson, my caddie. He made a couple great
calls on clubs, especially on that back nine. On 14 up the hill when I was doing the earpod thing for the television coverage. He had me take an extra club, which was just enough. I made a birdie there, and along with the next hole, the par-3, I took another club because of him and made another birdie. He was huge.
We’ll go on a limb and predict another 70 for Block on Sunday. Why not? It won’t be enough to win, but it will be enough to secure a top-ten finish, a bunch of exemptions, along with bragging rights for year. What more can a working man want?
5. Our pick for the title
Not since 1919 has an Englishman lifted the Wannamaker trophy in victory. That was “Long” Jim Barnes at Engineers Country Club, on Long Island. We have a suspicion that “Long” Justin Rose is going to end that drought, and secure a second major title for the white and red flag. Rose will maneuver through the first nine in one- or two-under par, and gain a stroke or two on the leaders. He will survive a near-disaster on the 11th or 12th holes, and then make three birdies coming home. With four pairing after him, he’ll have a nervous wait before finally receiving the news that he has won the 2023 PGA Championship. His only quandry? Where to play more~Merion or Oak Hill?
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19th Hole2 weeks ago
19th Hole2 weeks ago
