Suffice to say that Brooks Koepka, after 36-holes at the 101st PGA Championship, is in a league all his own.
No one has ever shot 128 in a major championship. Until now.
After his Bethpage Black course record 63 on Thursday, he followed that up with a five-under par 65 on Friday and built a seven shot lead in the process.
He’ll go into the final 36 holes, 12-under par, seven better than Jordan Spieth and Adam Scott and a whopping 17 shots better than Masters champion Tiger Woods, who watched Koepka up close the first two days.
Woods (72-73) missed the 36-hole cut and made this observation before he left to go home:
“If he (Koepka) keeps doing what he’s doing, there’s no reason he can’t keep building on his lead.”
Woods should know. He was once the guy who could turn a major championship into a runaway.
The scary part about it all is that Koepka said he didn’t have close to his best stuff on Friday.
“Today I did not hit it very well. I’m still putting really well. I feel really good, especially the way I battled today. I feel great,” said Koepka.
Sounded like an ominous warning.
Koepka did everything he needed to do to keep his momentum from Thursday. All he did was birdie three of those first four gettable holes and made the turn 10-under par.
He did suffer his first bogey of the tournament at the 10th and he got that back by hitting the 609-yard par five 13th in two for a bounce-back birdie. He birdied three of the final four and only a three-putt from 75 feet at the 17th prevented him from shooting 64.
Competition? Here’s what’s lined up behind him:
Five-Under (139): Jordan Spieth (69-66), Adam Scott (71-64): Weekends have been Jordan Spieth’s problem this year. Spieth hasn’t recorded a top 10 finish this season. Is he going to run Koepka down? Extremely doubtful. As for Scott, his 64 was his lowest career round in a major. He was realistic about Koepka: “I’d need two more of what I did today,” said Scott.
Four-Under (140): Dustin Johnson (69-67), Daniel Berger (70-66), Kelly Kraft (71-65), Matt Wallace (69-67), Luke List (68-68): Sure D.J. is the world’s N0. 1 and has a lot of firepower but his putter has been balky so far. Daniel Berger winning a major from eight shots behind? Fantasy. Kelly Kraft is just lucky to be in the field, he got in with Justin Thomas withdrew. Matt Wallace is solid but this isn’t the European Tour. Luke List? Nope.
Whatever happened to Danny Lee, the player who was a shot back from Koepka at the start of the day? Lee did the 10-shot swing, went from 64 to 74.
And finally this from Koepka:
“I should be fine. I like the way I’m controlling my misses — just do that again tomorrow (Saturday).”
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