Darren Carroll/PGA of America
Collin Morikawa poses with the Wanamaker Trophy during the 2021 PGA Championship media day in April.
By Ryan Herrington
Now the fun begins. After two days of sorting through the pretenders and contenders at the PGA Championship, the real drama gets underway on Saturday. And the cast of characters who are on the leader board is nothing but impressive.
Of the seven players hovering in the top five entering Day 3 at the Ocean Course, four already have major titles to their credit. Phil Mickelson is the biggest surprise, the 50-year-old five-time major winner sharing the lead in a major for the first time since the 2016 Open Championship. A win would make him the oldest to ever win a major, although that’s getting a little bit of ahead of things.
Mickelson will play in the final twosome with Louis Oosthuizen, whose track record in majors is so stellar (one win, four runners-up) you almost think he’s snake bit. He’ll have another opportunity to grab major No. 2 not to mention to finally win in the United States.
Oh, and then there’s Brooks Koepka looming one shot off the lead. The guy always plays his best golf in majors so it’s hard to think he won’t linger on the leader board all the way through Sunday. He’ll play with in the penultimate group with Branden Grace, who was watching the 2020 PGA in an RV while quarantining with COVID-19. Meanwhile, reigning Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama, who has played impressively in just his second start since his win at Augusta National, is in the third to last group, just two shots off the lead. You could imagine that Matsuyama might still be distracted by all the attention from his historic win last month, becoming the first Japanese male to win a major, but he’s hardly shown it.
A total of 81 players made the cut at five-over par. Below are the tee times for Saturday’s third round.
SATURDAY/Third round (all times EDT) – THE UAE is 8 hours ahead of EDT
First Tee
7:40 a.m. — Denny McCarthy
7:50 a.m. — Emiliano Grillo, Chan Kim
8 a.m. — Harris English, Alex Noren
8:10 a.m. — Tom Hoge, Henrik Stenson
8:20 a.m. — Harold Varner III, Garrick Higgo
8:30 a.m. — Talor Gooch, Brendan Steele
8:40 a.m. — Webb Simpson, Ben Cook
8:50 a.m. — Patrick Reed, Billy Horschel
9 a.m. — Sam Horsfield, Jason Day
9:10 a.m. — Robert Streb, Wyndham Clark
9:20 a.m. — Brian Gay, Aaron Wise
9:30 a.m. — Danny Willett, Jason Scrivener
9:40 a.m. — Byeong Hun An, Robert MacIntyre
9:50 a.m. — Dean Burmester, Matt Jones
10 a.m. — Jordan Spieth, Lucas Herbert
10:20 a.m. — Russell Henley, Daniel Berger
10:30 a.m. — Rory McIlroy, Adam Hadwin
10:40 a.m. — Jimmy Walker, Stewart Cink
10:50 a.m. — Joel Dahmen, Rickie Fowler
11 a.m. — Steve Stricker, Cam Davis
11:10 a.m. — Carlos Ortiz, Justin Rose
11:20 a.m. — Rasmus Hojgaard, Jon Rahm
11:30 a.m. — Matt Wallace, Brad Marek
11:40 a.m. — Tyrrell Hatton, Scottie Scheffler
11:50 a.m. — Tony Finau, Patrick Cantlay
12 noon — Collin Morikawa, Abraham Ancer
12:10 p.m. — Lee Westwood, Tom Lewis
12:20 p.m. — Will Zalatoris, Bubba Watson
12:30 p.m. — Daniel van Tonder, Cameron Smith
12:40 p.m. — Keegan Bradley, Viktor Hovland
12:50 p.m. — Ian Poulter, Shane Lowry
1 p.m. — Matt Fitzpatrick, Padraig Harrington
1:10 p.m. — Bryson DeChambeau, Charley Hoffman
1:20 p.m. — Martin Laird, Jason Kokrak
1:30 p.m. — Joaquin Niemann, Harry Higgs
1:50 p.m. — Paul Casey, Richy Werenski
2 p.m. — Kevin Streelman, Sungjae Im
2:10 p.m. — Corey Conners, Gary Woodland
2:20 p.m. — Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Hideki Matsuyama
2:30 p.m. — Brooks Koepka, Branden Grace
2:40 p.m. — Phil Mickelson, Louis Oosthuizen
