On a single hole at TPC Harding Park, the five-time PGA champion’s domination comes to a crashing end
Eighteen holes from the finish of the 2020 Virtual PGA Championship, 10 players are grouped within five strokes of the lead. And that lead is no longer held by Walter Hagen.
A pair of back-to-back winners, Brooks Koepka (2018-19) and Denny Shute (1936-37), wound up at 14-under par 202 after 54 holes. That was one stroke ahead of 18 and 36-hole leader Hagen, who ran afoul of the fourth hole and came home in 1-over 73.
The normally docile 606 yard par 5, which had played under par as most long holes do the first two rounds, rose up and smote the field Saturday, exacting an average of 5.13 strokes per competitor. That made it the day’s third toughest hole. It was especially unforgiving with Hagen, who came to the fourth tee protecting a lead he had held since the tournament’s start.
Hagen pushed his drive to the right on the dogleg left, and found his ball stymied against the trunk of one of a large tree. Declaring the ball unplayable, he took a penalty drop but punched his third shot back across the fairway into more trees between the fourth and fifth fairways. Hagen hacked out of those, stubbed his approach into the front right bunker, blasted out indifferently, then three-putted from 20 feet. That saddled him with an unthinkable quadruple bogey nine.
When Koepka, playing alongside Hagen and Shute, made his third consecutive birdie on the same hole, he suddenly shot to -14, a stunning four strokes ahead of both Hagen and Shute.
Koerpka’s lead didn’t last, but only because Shute got hot. The 1936-37 champion staged a rally of his own, birdieing the fifth, sixth and seventh holes to move within one. When Koepka bogeyed the 467 yard par four 14th the duo was tied, and that’s the way they finished the round.
Hagen remained four behind through 15 holes, but he caught fire at round’s end, recording birdies on each of the final three holes to crawl back within a stroke at -13.
But Sunday’s finish will not be merely a three-way struggle. Three darkhorses came from well off the pace Saturday to give themselves a chance.
Playing in back-to-back groups, 1916 and 1919 PGA champion Jim Barnes as well as 1997 PGA champion Davis Love III both fired rounds of 63 to move into a tie for third, three behind Koepka and Shute. They were joined there by 1955 PGA champion Doug Ford, who recorded a 67 Saturday.
Barnes was virtually perfect on the front nine Saturday, reeling off seven birdies and two pars. Love’s rally was keyed by the back-to-back par five 9th and 10th holes, which he navigated in three-under.
One more stroke behind at nine-under was a foursome including 1962 PGA champion Gary Player along with Arnold Palmer, who was seeking to make the virtual tournament his first PGA title. Jerry Barber and Steve Elkington were also tied at minus-nine.
Three-time PGA champion Gene Sarazen shot 66 to work his way up to eight-under, six behind Koepka and Shute.
Despite the leaders’ low numbers, Harding Park played difficult Saturday. The field average was 72.51 strokes, the week’s highest. Only 22 players in the 68-player field came home under par, while 38 joined Hagen above par for the day.
Those 38 included some of the game’s immortals. Pre-tournament favorites Byron Nelson, Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus all failed to make any sort of move toward the leaders, effectively finishing their title hopes.
Nelson’s play was especially disappointing. Coming off his Friday 77, the 1940 and 1945 PGA champion made three early bogeys and turned in a 76, That left him at eight-over for the week, 22 shots behind the co-leaders.
Nicklaus and Woods fared only slightly better. Woods failed to build on his Friday 65, turning in an indifferent 74 that left him13 back at minus one. Nicklaus shot 73 and was also one-under. That was good only for a tie for 25th place.
Here are the cards of the three leaders plus other notables in the field:
Hole 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 — Total
Par 4 4 3 5 4 4 4 3 5 5 3 5 4 4 4 4 3 4 — 72
Shute 4 4 3 5 3 3 3 3 5 4 3 5 4 4 3 4 2 4 — 68
Koepka 4 3 2 4 4 3 3 2 5 5 3 5 4 3 3 4 3 3 — 69
Hagen 4 4 3 9 3 3 3 3 4 6 3 5 4 3 4 3 2 3 –73
Here is a full list of 54-hole scores.
Player 1 – 2 – 3 -Total
Brooks Koepka 67-66-69-202
Denny Shute 67-67-68-202
Walter Hagen 63-67-73-203
Jim Barnes 70-72-63-205
Doug Ford 69-69-67-205
Davis Love III 73-69-63-205
Arnold Palmer 69-67-71-207
Gary Player 67-72-68-207
Steve Elkington 72-67-68-207
Jerry Barber 66-74-67-207
Gene Sarazen 71-71-66-208
Leo Diegel 68-67-74-209
Sam Snead 68-68-73-209
Paul Runyan 67-69-73-209
Walter Burkemo 68-68-73-209
Jim Ferrier 72-65-72-209
Ben Hogan 70-71-68-209
Chick Harbert 70-70-71-211
Jeff Sluman 72-70-71-213
Tommy Armour 68-73-72-213
Nick Price 70-73-70-213
Don January 69-70-74-213
Phil Mickelson 75-67-72-214
Bobby Nichols 74-68-72-214
Jason Day 67-74-74-215
Tiger Woods 76-65-74-215
Jack Nicklaus 73-69-73-215
David Graham 71-71-73-215
Jim Turnesa 70-73-72-215
Rory McIlroy 75-71-69-215
David Toms 70-78-68-216
Jay Hebert 71-70-75-216
Jack Burke Jr. 66-76-74-216
Vijay Singh 73-69-74-216
Henry Picard 73-73-70-216
Padraig Harrington 76-70-71-217
Vic Ghezzi 69-74-74-217
Lionel Hebert 73-74-70-217
Ray Floyd 70-71-76-217
Martin Kaymer 75-73-69-217
Dave Stockton 74-69-74-217
Al Geiberger 74-70-73-217
Jason Dufner 69-76-73-218
Keegan Bradley 72-76-70-218
Larry Nelson 74-71-73-218
Dow Finsterwald 75-68-76-219
Lee Trevino 72-73-75-220
Julius Boros 72-70-78-220
Bob Rosburg 75-73-72-220
Bob Hamilton 73-74-73-220
John Mahaffey 78-69-74-221
Hal Sutton 74-72-76-222
Payne Stewart 75-71-76-222
Rich Beem 72-74-77-223
Dave Marr 74-77-72-223
Jimmy Walker 71-75-77-223
Chandler Harper 72-74-78-224
Byron Nelson 71-77-76-224
Hubert Green 73-76-75-224
John Daly 79-72-73-224
Shaun Micheel 79-77-69-225
Johnny Revolta 77-77-72-226
Bob Tway 73-74-79-226
Paul Azinger 77-76-74-227
Mark Brooks 79-75-76-230
Lanny Wadkins 81-74-75-230
Y E Yang 78-74-79-231
Wayne Grady 77-73-82-232