Can Phil Mickelson finish it? PGA Championship TV coverage, purse distribution, more
The first three rounds of the 103rd PGA Championship at Kiawah Island Golf Resort’s Ocean Course have created some compelling storylines heading into Sunday’s final round.
Phil Mickelson, at the age of 50, holds a one-stroke lead over two-time PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka in his bid to become the oldest major champion in history. The final pairing of Mickelson and Koepka have a combined nine major titles — five for Mickelson and four for Koepka.
Louis Oosthuizen is two strokes behind Mickelson, and a total of eight golfers are within five strokes of his lead.
PGA Championship purse: How much each player will earn in major
The PGA Championship purse is $12 million, with the winner taking home $2.16 million in addition to the Wanamaker Trophy.
The runner-up will earn $1.296 million, third place pays $816,000, fourth pays $576,000, 10th is worth $297,000, 20th is $163,000, 50th is $26,000, and 70th is $19,600.
Players making the cut but finishing below 70th receive less than $19,600 in increments of $100 per place. Everyone in the tournament who turned in two scorecards makes $3,200., so it was worth the trip for the 18 club pros who missed the cut.
Will Phil Mickelson make history?
Julius Boros is the oldest major champion, having won the 1968 PGA Championship at the age of 48 years, 4 months and 18 days. Mickelson turns 51 on June 16.
He is the fifth player age 50 or older since 1900 to hold at least a share of a 54-hole lead at a major, joining Tom Watson (2009 Open Championship at Turnberry, 59 years old), Greg Norman (2008 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, 53), Julius Boros (1973 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club, 53) and Harry Vardon (1920 U.S. Open at Inverness Club, 50).
The lead could be a lot larger than one stroke. When Mickelson made a 7-foot birdie putt on the 10th green to reach 5 under for his round and 10 under for the tournament, he opened up a five-shot lead and had played his last 18 holes 10-under par.
But he missed a 9-foot birdie putt on 11, drove into a penalizing fairway bunker and left a 26-foot par putt on the lip for a bogey on 12, and doubled 13 with a hooked tee shot into water and missed 12-foot bogey putt to fall to 7 under.
“I’m playing a lot better than the score is showing and I think if I can just stay sharp tomorrow, I’ll post a score that better reflects how I’m actually playing,” Mickelson said.
Though Mickelson has 44 PGA Tour victories and five major titles, his last major win came in 2013 and he has fallen to 115th in the Official World Golf Ranking.
Can Brooks Koepka make his own history?
Since the PGA Championship changed from match play to stroke play in 1958, no one has won three Wanamaker trophies in four years, and that is what Koepka can accomplish on Sunday.
He won the 2018 PGA at Bellerive Country Club and 2019 tournament at Bethpage Black during his stretch of four major titles and two runner-up finishes in a span of nine tournaments from 2017-19. Jack Nicklaus from 1971-75 won three Wanamakers.
“I left a lot out there,” Koepka said. “I’ve got a chance to win, so that’s all I wanted to do today is not give back any shots and be there (Sunday) with a chance, and I’ve got that.”
Injuries perhaps more than the competition may have kept Koepka from winning more majors since the 2019 PGA, and he’s not entirely healthy this week, either. He’s in just his third tournament back on the PGA Tour since having right knee surgery, and he missed the cut in the previous two — the Masters and last week’s AT&T Byron Nelson.
Koepka still can’t bend his right knee enough to properly squat to read putts, but it hasn’t hampered him enough to keep him from becoming the first player to be in the top five at the conclusion of 13 of 14 PGA Championship rounds.
Can Louis Oosthuizen regain his putting stroke?
Oosthuizen leads the PGA Tour this season in the category “Strokes Gained: Putting,” and he was putting well through the first two rounds, making 31 of 33 putts inside 10 feet.
He inexplicably lost his touch on the greens Saturday, missing putts of 13, 12, 8, 6, 4 and 3 feet. Yet he still shot a 72 and is just two shots out of the lead.
In his 68 Friday, the South African was seventh in a field of 156 players in strokes gained putting, rolling in 107 feet of putts in 27 total putts to gain nearly three shots on the field in the category. On Saturday, he was 78th in a field of 81 and totaled just 54 feet of made putts on 32 strokes to lose more than three strokes to the field.
“I was just sort of fighting to stay in it, and at the end there started judging the greens wrong and everything just fell apart,” Oosthuizen said. “All in all, two behind going into Sunday, I’ve got to take a lot of positives out of that with the way I was playing today.”
Can he regain his confidence to avoid being a major runner-up, or worse, again? The 2010 British Open winner has second-place finishes in all four majors.
Will someone make a run at the lead?
There are 22 players at even par or better, and many have championship pedigree.
Kevin Streelman is alone in fourth, major champions Bryson DeChambeau and Gary Woodland are tied for seventh at 2 under, Paul Casey is 1-under, and those at even include Jordan Spieth, who is looking to complete the career Grand Slam, Tony Finau, Rickie Fowler and Patrick Cantlay.
South African Branden Grace is tied for fifth at 3 under with fellow countryman Christiaan Bezuidenhout, and already has a win in South Carolina.
Going into 2021 the South African had one PGA Tour win. It came at the 2016 RBC Heritage in Hilton Head Island. He added a win in February at the Puerto Rico Open, which was played the same week as the WGC-Workday Championship at The Concession, so none of the world’s top players were in the field.
Grace moved up the leaderboard with a 2-under 34 on the front nine Saturday and stumbled with three bogeys in four holes on the back nine before a closing birdie pulled him within four shots of the lead.
How difficult will the Ocean Course play?
The par-72 Ocean Course played to a stroke average of 74.78 in the opening round. That increased to 75.52 in the second round and dropped to 73.04 Saturday.
The wind is expected to be similar to the first two days, and the PGA still hasn’t used all of the course’s available yardage, so how yielding will it be in the final round?
Other things you should know about the 2021 PGA Championship heading into the final round:
How long the Ocean Course has played
The Ocean Course was heralded as the longest course in major championship history, but it hasn’t played to its full distance of 7,876 yards through the first three rounds.
Largely to accommodate wind conditions and to provide variety, the PGA of America has moved tees forward on many occasions, resulting in course yardages of 7,660 on Thursday, 7,655 on Friday and 7,700 yards on Saturday.
Watch: PGA TV coverage today
On Sunday, ESPN+ has live coverage from 8-10 a.m., ESPN is live from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and CBS has the conclusion of the championship from 1-7 p.m. — along with live streaming broadcast coverage on the Paramount+ subscription service.
CBS will air additional coverage on CBS Sports Network, CBS Sports HQ and CBSSports.com, and ESPN+ will have live coverage of six featured groups and the final three holes.
Sunday’s weather forecast for Kiawah Island
Partly cloudy skies are expected Sunday with temperatures reaching the mid-80s and dry conditions, though a stray light shower can’t be ruled out in the afternoon as the sea breeze is forecast to remained pinned just inland from the coast.
After relatively calm conditions Saturday the wind will pick up a bit Sunday. Westerly winds of 7-13 mph are forecast for the morning before shifting southwesterly around midday and increasing to 12-17 mph with gusts of 18-22 mph in the afternoon. The forecast is provided to the PGA by meteorologist Joe Halvorson.
The history of the Wanamaker Trophy
The Wanamaker Trophy dates back to 1916, when the PGA of America was formed. It’s named after Rodman Wanamaker, the owner of a department store founded in Philadelphia that was a leading seller of golf equipment in the early 1900s.
Wanamaker helped organize the meeting of golf professionals that led to the formation of the PGA of America, and to the all-professional tournament that is the PGA Championship.
The trophy stands 28 inches high, is 10.5 inches in diameter and 27 inches from handle to handle, weighs 27 pounds, and has the names of the past 102 winners inscribed.
PGA pairings today, Round 4 tee times
7:30 a.m. – Brian Gay
7:40 a.m. – Rasmus Hojgaard, Garrick Higgo
7:50 a.m. – Lucas Herbert, Brendan Steele
8:00 a.m. – Henrik Stenson, Byeong Hun An
8:10 a.m. – Adam Hadwin, Brad Marek
8:20 a.m. – Matt Wallace, Harris English
8:30 a.m. – Robert Streb, Cam Davis
8:40 a.m. – Bubba Watson, Tom Hoge
8:50 a.m. – Jimmy Walker, Abraham Ancer
9:00 a.m. – Russell Henley, Daniel Berger
9:10 a.m. – Dean Burmester, Matt Jones
9:20 a.m. – Sam Horsfield, Danny Willett
9:30 a.m. – Tom Lewis, Chan Kim
9:40 a.m. – Rory McIlroy, Stewart Cink
9:50 a.m. – Jason Day, Wyndham Clark
10:10 a.m. – Denny McCarthy, Emiliano Grillo
10:20 a.m. – Justin Rose, Lee Westwood
10:30 a.m. – Jason Scrivener, Robert MacIntyre
10:40 a.m. – Harold Varner III, Aaron Wise
10:50 a.m. – Daniel van Tonder, Viktor Hovland
11:00 a.m. – Tyrrell Hatton, Collin Morikawa
11:10 a.m. – Talor Gooch, Jon Rahm
11:20 a.m. – Cameron Smith, Alex Noren
11:30 a.m. – Patrick Reed, Carlos Ortiz
11:40 a.m. – Webb Simpson, Ben Cook
11:50 a.m. – Martin Laird, Hideki Matsuyama
12:00 p.m. – Shane Lowry, Padraig Harrington
12:10 p.m. – Will Zalatoris, Ian Poulter
12:20 p.m. – Steve Stricker, Scottie Scheffler
12:30 p.m. – Billy Horschel, Joel Dahmen
12:40 p.m. – Harry Higgs, Richy Werenski
12:50 p.m. – Charley Hoffman, Jason Kokrak
1:00 p.m. – Keegan Bradley, Matt Fitzpatrick
1:10 p.m. – Tony Finau, Patrick Cantlay
1:20 p.m. – Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler
1:40 p.m. – Sungjae Im, Corey Conners
1:50 p.m. – Gary Woodland, Paul Casey
2:00 p.m. – Bryson DeChambeau, Joaquin Niemann
2:10 p.m. – Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Branden Grace
2:20 p.m. – Louis Oosthuizen, Kevin Streelman
2:30 p.m. – Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka
This story was originally published May 23, 2021 at 4:58 AM.
