Brooks Koepka Leads a Major After 54 Holes Again but Promises the PGA Will Not Be Like the Masters

The four-time major winner leads by one at Oak Hill; he led by two last month after three rounds at the Masters but had that slip away.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The swagger that Brooks Koepka showed in winning four major championships in less than two years is back. So are the shots and the putts that lead to such accomplishments.

But there’s still a round to play at the PGA Championship, and Koepka knows all too well that plenty can happen over the course of the next day. He lived it last month at the Masters, and vows to not let it happen again on Sunday at Oak Hill Country Club.

"I promise I won’t show up like that tomorrow," Koepka said after a third-round 66 gave him a one-shot lead over Corey Conners and Viktor Hovland and three-shot advantage over Bryson DeChambeau.

What Koepka is referring to is not exactly clear. He said earlier this week that he "choked" during the final round at Augusta National, where he saw a two-shot lead evaporate over the first nine holes and ended up finishing four strokes back of Jon Rahm.

Koepka, who shot 75 that day, said he fretted over it for days and was determined not to make the same mistake when given another opportunity.

"That was a pretty devastating loss for him," said Claude Harmon III, his coach. “He was pretty beaten up over it. I think if he was honest, I still don't think he's totally recovered from it. But I think it showed how much he cares about winning majors.

"There’s this argument that everyone who went to LIV (Golf) got the bag (money) and nobody gives a s--- anymore, but I think if you look at how the guys played at Masters—but also privately, how devastated Brooks has been. That should show everyone how much he really cares. Guys don't one day just wake up and not give a s---."

Now here it is, six weeks later, and Koepka has given himself another chance. What will he do differently?

"To just never think the way I thought going into the final round," Koepka said. "I think that was a big thing for me but other than that I think learning what I learned at Augusta kind of helped today. Like I said, I won't do it again the rest of my career.

"But that doesn't mean that you can't go play bad—you can play good, you'll play bad but I'll never have that mindset or that won't ever be the reason."

What "it" is remains murky. Koepka has not said. But after a slow start to the tournament on Thursday that saw him shoot 2-over-par 72 when he made just one birdie, he rebounded with consecutive 66s—the low rounds of the tournament along with DeChambeau’s first-round score.

Harmon might have given a clue to Koepka’s troubles at Augusta National, noting a specific instance during the final round when the golfer had difficulty getting over a mistake he made that kept him from closing a two-shot gap on Rahm.

"For Brooks it was probably one of the few times when he let a few things bother him on the golf course that he normally doesn't," Harmon said. "The shot on (No. 9), he told me if he had a million golf balls, he'd hit the exact same shot. And probably 99 percent would roll all the way to hole and he'd have a legit birdie chance but instead he made bogey.

"He really let that shot bother him, he was thinking about it on 10. On the tee shot and on the iron shot, and he doesn't normally do that.

"He really wanted to win and I think when you want it too badly you can get into the headspace where you're trying to not hit bad shots. As soon as you're trying not to hit bad shots at Augusta, you end up hitting bad shots, because it's such a difficult mentally taxing golf course."

Oak Hill has been no bargain, either. The course has played difficult in all weather conditions. Just seven players are under par through 54 holes and nobody has gone lower than the 7 under figure Conners got to on the back nine before falling back with a double bogey.

That’s why Koepka's past two rounds are so impressive. He’s made only two bogeys.

On Saturday, he had just a single bogey in tough, wet and sometimes rainy conditions. That came at the par-4 7th where he missed the fairway and had to play short of the green. But he made birdies at the 12th and 13th holes, then got a 48-foot putt to drop at the 17th for a birdie that got him to 6 under par.

When Conners had difficulty at the par-4 16th behind him—making a double-bogey 6—and Hovland ended with a bogey on 18, Koepka had the lead to himself.

"It felt good," Koepka said. "Felt like it was a bit more aggressive today. Especially on the back nine and putts started banging in the back of the hole, especially the one on 17, that doesn't go in, that's probably 6, 8 feet by.

"But it's tough, man, with the rain. Moisture on the greens, slowing them up. But I felt like I was a lot more aggressive than I was the previous two days on the greens."

Koepka is no stranger to this position. Not only does he have four major victories, but he's also had four runners-up, including last month’s Masters.

He won back-to-back U.S. Opens in 2017 and 2018 and then finished second in 2019. He won back-to-back PGAs in 2018 and 2019 and was just two shots out of the lead heading to the final round in 2020 before blowing up the final day.

In 2021, he finished second to Phil Mickelson at the PGA and tied for fourth at the U.S. Open—four shots behind Rahm. He tied for sixth that year at the British Open, although he was seven shots back of winner Collin Morikawa.

Last year was a disaster for Koepka, who dealt with injuries—especially one to his knee—that had him questioning whether he could ever return to the top of the game again. He also joined LIV Golf and all the controversy that came with it.

But he won a LIV Golf event last October in Jeddah and added another in April in Orlando, the week prior to the Masters.

Now he’s got a chance to make more history. Rare is the player with five major championships. Aside from Tiger Woods (15) and Phil Mickelson (six), nobody competing today has more than four.

Koepka could become the 20th player to have won five or more major championships.

"It would mean a lot," Koepka said. “I think a major championship would mean a lot to anybody."