Rob Lee
Golf columnist
PGA Championship: Brooks Koepka should attack to retain title
Last Updated: 19/05/19 6:33pm
Can anyone stop Brooks Koepka from defending his PGA Championship title? Robert Lee looks at the final-round scenarios.
It's not easy when you're leading and you know everyone is gunning for you. Koepka may look like he's floating along with nothing bothering him, but it really does.
To keep the demeanour he has had all week and keep going when you are the pinnacle of everyone else's concentration is tough, so that 70 leaves him looking very good heading into Sunday.
It was a brilliant performance from Brooks Koepka on a difficult scoring day at Bethpage Black, where 67 was the best score of anyone in this third round.
I thought that someone may have shot 65 or 66 with so much quality up there near the top of the leaderboard, but there was lot of pressure from the word go just for a player to try and make a dent on the lead.
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Add that to the fact that Bethpage Black is a very difficult test of golf and the benign conditions from Friday evening were gone, it wasn't a huge surprise that no player was able to close the gap.
Koepka has to now keep his foot down on the gas and have a go at the golf course like he has done, by driving the ball along the way, finding fairways and reducing some of the difficult par-fours to short-irons with the second shots.
When he looks like he's defending, like he did on the last few greens, he starts to ease up with the putter. If the does that [on Sunday], then he might start to look a little more vulnerable.
Anything can happen in golf because it's a difficult game. It is possible that Koepka could drop three or shots early on and one of the closest contenders can post three or four birdies, which would open things up.
Do I think it will happen though, given the consistency he has had over the first three days? To be honest, no I don't. He has his strengths and if he uses them on Sunday, then nobody is going to catch them.
Koepka is at his most comfortable when the toughest tests are in front of him. He has the self-belief, the power, the skill and he believes he is made for greatness, which are all invaluable assets for the final round of a major champion.
Watch the final round of the PGA Championship live on Sunday from 4pm on Sky Sports Golf and 7pm on Sky Sports Main Event.
