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SPORTS Saturday 18 May 2019
Koepka shatters 36-hole record and builds 7-shot lead at PGA

By DOUG FERGUSON in range, and Spieth felt he
AP Golf Writer did enough.
FARMINGDALE, N.Y. (AP) — And then Koepka flipped a
The power. The putting. The wedge into 3 feet for birdie
poise. Brooks Koepka has it on No. 1, hit another wedge
all at this PGA Champion- to 8 feet for birdie on No. 2
ship, along with the low- and hit 7-iron to 18 feet on
est 36-hole score in major the par-5 fourth hole that
championship history and set up a two-putt birdie.
the largest lead by any- He really poured it on at the
one at the halfway point of end as Scott moved closer.
a Grand Slam event in 85 On two of the strongest
years. holes in the finishing stretch,
It was daunting to so many Koepka mashed a drive
players who watched Ko- down the middle of the
epka pull away to a seven- 15th fairway and hit 9-iron
shot lead Friday at Beth- to 3 feet, one of only 10
page Black. birdies from 155 players in
And it looked all too fa- the field. He hit wedge into
miliar to Tiger Woods, who 5 feet on the 473-yard 16th
won’t be around to see the hole for another birdie, and
ending. the record was in sight.
Koepka backed up his re- He finished with a wedge
cord-tying 63 with a round out of thick grass right of
that put him in a league of the 18th fairway, making a
his own. He opened with final birdie from just inside
three birdies in a four-hole 12 feet. It was his 14th birdie
stretch and made three of the week.
birdies over the closing four Scott, who pushed Koepka
holes for a 5-under 65 that all the way to end at the
broke by two shots the low- PGA last year in St. Louis,
est 36-hole score — 128 — ran in putts from 25 feet,
in any major. 40 feet and 30 feet on the
Woods was along for the opening three holes — only
ride — a short one, in this to settle for par on the easi-
case, because he missed est hole at Bethpage Black
the cut. He marveled at at the par-5 fourth — and
Koepka hitting 7-iron into a was 7 under with four holes
par 5, and a 9-iron into the to play, a chance to break
uphill, 477-yard 15th hole. the PGA record of 63 that
“Relative to the field, I was Koepka had matched the
about that long early in day before.
my career,” Woods said. That ended when Scott
“When you’re able to hit missed a 2-foot par putt on
the ball much further than the 17th, and he had to get
other players, and get on up-and-down from the fair-
the right golf courses where Brooks Koepka reacts after missing a putt on the fourth green during the second round of the PGA way for par on the 18th.
setups like this is penalizing if Championship golf tournament, Friday, May 17, 2019, at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, N.Y. And then he saw what Ko-
you are a little bit crooked, Associated Press epka was doing.
and if he does miss it, he were seven shots behind, for two days. “He’s driving shoot a great score.” “I have to post two more
misses on the correct side, victims of the largest 36- it 330 yards in the middle of Spieth was hopeful of being good ones by the look of it
and he’s far enough down hole lead in a major since the fairway. He’s got 9-irons in contention at a major for at this stage,” Scott said.
there to where he was Henry Cotton led by nine in when most of us are hitting the first time since the British Dustin Johnson had a 67
able to get the ball on the the 1934 British Open. 5-irons, 4-irons, and he’s Open last summer, and he and was among five play-
green. And he did all the “It has to come to an end putting well,” Woods said. made key putts for par and ers at 4-under 136. Justin
little things right.” eventually, that good front- “That adds up to a pretty a 40-foot birdie putt toward Rose had a 67 and was at
That describes Woods at running,” Scott said with a substantial lead, and if he the end of his 66 to get 3-under 137, a good score
Bethpage Black the first smile. “Let’s hope it’s not 12 keeps doing what he’s do- within two shots before Ko- on Bethpage except in this
time this working man’s years like Tiger’s front-run- ing, there’s no reason why epka teed off in the after- case he was nine shots be-
public course hosted a ma- ning lasted.” he can’t build on this lead.” noon. It was close enough hind.
jor at the 2002 U.S. Open. Woods didn’t hit a fairway Just imagine what Koepka — at the time, anyway — “I’d like to see that lead
Woods went wire-to-wire until the ninth hole, and could do if he really brings for Spieth to get queried grow as large as it possi-
when he was winning ma- then he started the back it. about the missing piece of bly can,” Koepka said. “I
jors at an alarming rate. nine with three straight bo- “This probably sounds bad,” a career Grand Slam at the still have to go out there
Koepka, who has won geys, turning his mission into Koepka said, “but today PGA Championship. and do what I’m supposed
three of the last seven ma- making the cut. He wound was a battle. I didn’t strike it “If I’m able to put some to do, keep putting the
jors, appears to be headed up with a 73 and missed that good. The way I hung good work in tomorrow, ball in the right spot and
down a similar path. by one shot, only the ninth in there today and battled I will be in contention on make sure that you don’t
Jordan Spieth had a 66 in time in 76 majors as a pro it, I think that was probably Sunday. And at that point, make any double bogeys,
the morning in a bid to keep he failed to advance to the more impressive than yes- it will be just more of trying and I should have a good
in range. Adam Scott had weekend. terday, not having your ‘A’ to win a golf tournament,” chance of winning the
a 64 in the afternoon. They But he saw quite a show game but still being able to he said. His goal was to stay championship.”q