Fisher, Pepperell, Herbert in tied lead at Portugal

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — Brooks Koepka delivered on the biggest stage again, this time with Tiger Woods at his side. At times overlooked even after winning three majors in the last two years, Koepka gave thousands of fans a round to remember Thursday morning at brawny Bethpage Black with a record-setting start to his title defense in the PGA Championship. He had a 7-under 63, making him the first player in 101 years of the PGA Championship to shoot that score twice. He broke the course record at Bethpage Black and became the first player to post 63 at a major in consecutive years. “That was one of the best rounds I’ve played probably as a professional,” Koepka said. “This golf course is brutal.” Danny Lee was nearly as impressive and made eight birdies in the afternoon, including the final two holes. He finished with a 64 to close the gap to one shot, exceeding his own expectations. “My mindset was honestly some kind of under-par round would be good,” Lee said. “I did a lot better than that today.” That wasn’t the case for Woods, who had not played Bethpage Black since his nine-hole practice round Monday, and had not played a tournament since he won the Masters. He opened with a pair of double bogeys on the back nine and ruined a torrid start to the front nine — two birdies and a 30-foot eagle in a four-hole stretch — with a pair of three-putt bogeys. That gave him a 72, leaving him nine shots behind and ending 12 consecutive rounds at par or better in the majors dating to the U.S. Open last summer. Make no mistake: A gallery that trudged through muddied walkways to the 10th tee in the early morning was there primarily for Woods. What they saw was a major performance. Just not from him. So special was Koepka’s round, even on a course still soft from rain earlier in the week, that only 16 players broke par. He was 10 shots better than the average score in the opening round. Tommy Fleetwood had a 67, while the group at 68 included Pat Perez, who played a practice round with Koepka on Tuesday. Jordan Spieth overcame a double bogey on the 10th hole for a 69 and was in a group that included Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler and Jason Day. “The course is not easy, but Brooks obviously made it look real easy,” Perez said. “I saw that on Tuesday when I played with him. I actually congratulated him on his win.” But it’s far from over, even before Lee made his afternoon move to cut into the lead. Fowler was bemused when asked how close he would have to be to Koepka heading into the final round Sunday. “What makes you think he’s going to be leading?” Fowler said. “I would say there’s no lead really safe here.” Woods is the only player to win back to back at the PGA Championship in stroke play — he did that twice — and Koepka had an ideal start in a bid to catch him. He won at Bellerive in steamy St. Louis last August by two shots over a hard-charging Woods. Koepka played in the group in front of Woods at Augusta National and finished one back. This time they were together, along with Francesco Molinari (72), and it was a one-man show. It began with a 40-foot birdie putt from just off the back of the 10th green. It ended with a birdie putt from just inside 35 feet on the ninth hole for the 17th score of 63 in the PGA Championship. “I think that was probably the highest score he could have shot today,” Woods said. Koepka failed to birdie the two par 5s, missing a 10-foot birdie putt on No. 13 and scrambling for par on the easier fourth hole. He also missed a 7-foot birdie putt on the 11th and an 8-foot birdie putt on No. 2. Yes, this could have been special. Then again, he also made four birdie putts of 15 feet or longer, including the long ones at the start and end of his round. “When that putt went in on No. 10, that was kind of the momentum that set me,” Koepka said. “But I never once thought about the course record or anything. I was just trying to shoot the best I could. Simple as that. Just keep going and total them up at the end.” He is the ninth player to open a major with 63, and only two of them went on to win — Jack Nicklaus at Baltusrol in the 1980 U.S. Open, and Raymond Floyd at Southern Hills in the 1982 PGA Championship. There is a long way to go. Considering Koepka’s record in the majors — three wins and a runner-up in his last seven majors — this felt shorter. Koepka came seriously close to a bogey only one time, and he made a 10-foot par on the sixth hole. Woods managed to get under par, but only briefly. His opening tee shot took enough bounces to barely get into the rough, and it left him no option but to hack out. The mistake was a wedge that went over the back of the green, and Woods threw his head back knowing his mistake. His fast pitch went 6 feet by and he missed to open with a double bogey. His other double bogey came on the par-3 17th when he went into the face of a bunker, blasted out longer and took three to get down from there. A birdie-birdie start to the front nine, and a 30-foot eagle putt on the par-5 fourth, brought him to 1 under. And then he bogeyed three of the next four holes. “I fought my way back around there, and unfortunately, I just didn’t keep it together at the end,” he said.  

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There should have been a Bethpage Black-style warning sign on the first tee Saturday morning on the daunting Champion course at PGA National: Sorry, lads, fun time is over. No more low, low rounds. No more birdies in bunches. Every par will be earned. Today, you're going to need to do your best to hold on. Good luck! Saturday was the day PGA National fought back, setting the stage for a Sunday in South Florida with great promise for some drama, likely some disaster, and hopefully, some 11th-hour heroics. In Saturday's third round, Matt Jones, a man who grew up playing in the harsh and heavy winds of Australia, was the only man among the day's final six groups who would get the better of the golf course. As those around him tumbled down the board, Jones played his final 12 holes in 2 under, shot 1-under 69, and will carry a three-shot lead into the final round. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Jones ties course record in Round 1 All in all, not bad considering that midway through his front nine, Jones trailed leader Aaron Wise - who jumped out to 14 under with birdies at two of his first four holes - by six shots. The other 11 players who played in the final six pairings Saturday combined to finish 39 over par. Only two players managed bogey-free rounds. One, C.T. Pan, shot 65 and moved from T42 to T4. It was that brutal. After a pair of opening 64s, Wise slipped to 75. He still was low man in the day's final twosome; Brandon Hagy, who started Honda week at home in Scottsdale as the tournament's eighth alternate, shot 76 one day after he blistered PGA National in 62 shots. Jones had shot 61, the week's record-tying low, on Thursday, but one could make a case his 69 on Saturday was nearly as good in its quality. The afternoon winds kicked up, affected not only full shots but putts, and danger seemed to lurk everywhere. Lots of players who got through 14 holes in decent shape were clubbed down by the Bear Trap, holes 15-17, which proved particularly fierce in the third round. No player birdied the par-4 16th hole, playing dead into the wind, and there was only one birdie on the par-3 17th. Jones stands at 10-under 200 through 54 holes, three shots better than Wise and J.B. Holmes (67). Three players are at 6 under, and defending champion Sungjae Im (69) will start Sunday five back. Wise, 24, was sailing along nicely until he lipped out a par putt from 15 feet on the sixth hole and then watched his bogey comebacker from 3 feet horseshoe completely around the cup and return toward him. It was jolting, frankly, and he didn't seem to be the same player afterward. With the double, Wise's lead was trimmed from six to four; by the time he made bogey at 15, one of four he'd make on the incoming nine, Jones owned the lead, a turnaround of seven strokes in 10 holes. "It just played really, really hard," Wise said. "I honestly feel like I played well. The only thing I didn't do well was manage the wind. I felt like I hit it great with my irons, and not so great off the tee. I was out of position a lot. It added up to a big number. "Luckily, with how I played those first two days, I'm still in it, and still have a chance tomorrow." Jones, 40, joked that he has 36 years of experience playing in the wind. The 2014 Shell Houston Open winner, Jones has won a pair of Australian Open titles since then. He flighted his ball well and was sharp around the greens, making some nice par saves. That was crucial, as he hit only 10 of 18 greens. He knows Sunday will a challenge every bit as difficult as Saturday was, perhaps even greater. But he seems ready to greet it. "When you get to the back nine, you know what you're going to expect," he said. "It doesn't matter what the wind is doing on the back nine, it's going to be tough no matter what. "I'm happy to go low with the ball flight, and I'll probably play a little more conservative when the wind is up. I'll probably play a little safer than normal. I'm naturally a very aggressive player. I think in the wind I have a tendency to manage the golf course differently." Jones will have his hands full on Sunday. There are many chasers within reach, and PGA National often has its say in choosing a winner, too. Sunday will mark the first time that Jones will take a solo 54-hole lead into the final round on the PGA TOUR. Twice he has been a co-leader, finishing T5 and T4 on those occasions. Then again, those leads were in 2008 (John Deere) and 2009 (Honda). "I got a lot more experience, a lot more gray hair, and I’ve been in this situation before," Jones said. "So hopefully I can just draw from that, and look back on that, and learn from that, and figure it out."

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