US PGA Championship 2023: final day – live

An awkward lie in the rough for Block, who has to stand with one foot in a bunker and chip back out onto the fairway. But what a start for Rory, who from 144 yards fires straight at the pin to 18 inches! He’ll kick that one in for the fastest of starts. He’s going to be -2 in a couple of shakes.

Callum Tarren was shaping up to be one of those big stories after opening rounds of 71 and 67. But he tumbled down the standings yesterday, a miserable front nine of 42 leading to a hope-ending 79. But he’s finished with a flourish today: a second sub-70 round of the week. Today’s 68 would have been even better had it not been for an unfortunate triple-bogey at 16. The 32-year-old from Darlington may or may not have done enough to top his previous best appearance at a major – he tied for 31st at last year’s US Open at Brookline, and is currently tied for 33rd here – but whatever happens, that’s a fine PGA Championship debut nonetheless. He ends his week at +5.

Michael Block is one of the stories – and perhaps the story – of this 105th PGA Championship. One of the PGA Team of 20 club professionals in this year’s field, he’s the only one to have made the cut. That’s an achievement in itself, but carding three consecutive rounds of 70 is on another level altogether. The 46-year-old from Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club in southern California takes to the tee for the final round with two-time winner Rory McIlroy, and he’s clearly in the mood to enjoy every single moment of this, having turned up at the course four hours ago to mingle with his new legion of fans. Good on him. There won’t be a single person at Oak Hill wishing him anything but the best of luck. Winning is probably beyond him … but a top-ten finish isn’t … or even a top-four-and-ties finish for a place at next year’s Masters! A huge roar greets him before he bashes his first drive down the track. He finds the rough down the right. McIlroy splits the fairway. Godspeed Michael Block.

Justin Thomas finished the defence of his title with a round of 72. He ends the week at +12. In a neat twist of fate, he went round today with Phil Mickelson, the 2021 champion, who didn’t get to defend last year as a result of flapping his gums too loudly re LIV and the Saudis. So he was defending his crown as well this week, sort of, if you apply the logic of an elite sports star, because that’s certainly the way he’ll have been thinking about it. Nice that they played together today, then, as they took their leave of the stage. Lefty left in style, too, with a birdie at 18 that gave him a best-of-week 70. He ended up at +10.

Kazuki Higa made the first birdie of this year’s tournament on Thursday morning at the par-three 11th. The 28-year-old from Japan, making his PGA Championship debut, then went on to birdie 12, 13 and 14 and led for a few hours. But that was as good as it got. He ended the first day with a 72, followed that up with 73 and 77, and this morning shot 80 to end the week propping up the leaderboard at +20. A shame, but then again he can now always say he once led a major championship, which is something he wasn’t able to do this time last week.

A storming start for Sepp Straka as well. The big Austrian has opened with birdies at 1, 2 and 5, to whistle 12 places up the standings and into the top ten. Any old excuse to update the leaderboard for the first time this afternoon.

-6: Koepka
-5: Hovland, Conners
-3: DeChambeau
-2: Rose, Scheffler
-1: McIlroy
E: Straka (5), Lee (2), Block, Suh
+1: Smith (7), Svensson (5), Cantlay (4), Kitayama (3), Reed (2), Cole (1), Fleetwood, Perez, Jaeger, Lowry
+2: Lowry (1)

After yesterday’s deluge, the calm. It’s sunny and serene in Rochester, and while Oak Hill’s fancy new computerised drainage system has sucked away most of yesterday’s downpour, the course is playing a little softer, and therefore there’s an opportunity for someone to shoot low. Case study one: Adam Scott, who birdied 5, 6, 8 and 12 this morning and was the perfect example until making bogey at 15. He’s three under for his round, though, and +3 overall. Case study two: the Open champion Cameron Smith, who has just flown out of the traps with birdies at 2, 3, 4 and 6 … then bogeyed 7. Bah. But you get the general point. He’s also three under for his round today, after a mere seven holes, and has whisked himself up the standings to +1 in double-quick time. All good news for the chasing pack … as well as the leader Brooks Koepka, of course, and he was capable of a 66 in yesterday’s rain, so if he really fancies it today, all bets are off. Or will he fold again like he did on Masters Sunday? Yes, well anything’s possible, but the way he’s playing this week, you wouldn’t bet the farm on it happening again.

After posting back-to-back 66s, Brooks Koepka is in pole position to win his third PGA Championship. Should he do so, the 2018 and 2019 champion would become just the third player in the tournament’s stroke-play era to lift the Wanamaker Trophy three times, up there with Jack and Tiger. So no biggie. But there are a few players who will have something to say about that: Viktor Hovland and Corey Conners, chasing their first major; Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Rose and Scottie Scheffler, hoping for their second; Rory McIlroy, looking for that elusive fifth. All of which sets up a super Sunday of golf. It’s on!

Here’s how the top of the leaderboard looked after 54 holes …

-6: Koepka
-5: Hovland, Conners
-3: DeChambeau
-2: Rose, Scheffler
-1: McIlroy
E: Block, Suh
+1: Fleetwood, Perez, Jaeger, Cole, Lowry, Lee
+2: Reed, Kitayama, Fox, Davis

… and these are today’s tee-times.

12.50pm: Ben Taylor, Mark Hubbard
1pm: Joel Dahmen, Kazuki Higa
1.10pm: Taylor Montgomery, Taylor Moore
1.20pm: Phil Mickelson, Justin Thomas
1.30pm: Rikuya Hoshino, Lee Hodges
1.40pm: Sihwan Kim, Zach Johnson
1.50pm: Padraig Harrington, Matt Wallace
2pm: Adrian Meronk, Pablo Larrazabal
2.10pm: Thomas Detry, Tony Finau
2.20pm: Callum Tarren, Yannik Paul
2.30pm: Max Homa, JT Poston
2.40pm: Patrick Rodgers, Thriston Lawrence
2.50pm: KH Lee, Patrick Rodgers
3.10pm: Adam Hadwin, Adam Scott
3.20pm: Sam Stevens, Nicolai Hojgaard
3.30pm: Tom Hoge, Lucas Herbert
3.40pm: Dean Burmester, Jon Rahm
3.50pm: Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth
4pm: Harold Varner III, Mito Pereira
4.10pm: Collin Morikawa, Beau Hossler
4.20pm: Xander Schauffele, Chez Reavie
4.30pm: Alex Smalley, Thomas Pieters
4.40pm: Keegan Bradley, Matt NeSmith
5pm: Cameron Smith, Hayden Buckley
5.10pm: Tyrrell Hatton, Chris Kirk
5.20pm: Keith Mitchell, Taylor Pendrith
5.30pm: Adam Svensson, Sepp Straka
5.40pm: Sahith Theegala, Patrick Cantlay
5.50pm: Cam Davis, Hideki Matsuyama
6pm: Kurt Kitayama, Ryan Fox
6.10pm: Min Woo Lee, Patrick Reed
6.20pm: Eric Cole, Shane Lowry
6.30pm: Stephan Jaegar, Victor Perez
6.50pm: Justin Suh, Tommy Fleetwood
7pm: Michael Block, Rory McIlroy
7.10pm: Justin Rose, Scottie Scheffler
7.20pm: Corey Conners, Bryson DeChambeau
7.30pm: Brooks Koepka, Viktor Hovland