Another weekend of a major championship, another final pairing for Rory McIlroy. McIlroy played in the final group on both Saturday and Sunday at the British Open last month and will again tee it up in the final pairing on Saturday at the PGA Championship. McIlroy heads to the weekend at 9-under, holding a one-shot lead. Jason Day and Jim Furyk are tied for second place. Day joins McIlroy in the final group while Furyk and a few other notable names will fill out the other late pairings.
Friday at Valhalla
McIlroy carded a 4-under 67 on Friday, one of the best rounds of the morning wave. Day did even better in the afternoon with a 6-under round of 65 to move to 8-under. Day appears to be fully recovered from a wrist injury that forced him out of action earlier this season. He's been close in majors before several times, including five top-five finishes, but is yet to break through. McIlroy has six top-five finishes in majors, but three of those are wins. If the 26-year-old Day is going to come away with his first major, he may need to outduel the 25-year-old McIlroy to do it. McIlroy is coming off two straight wins, and a victory at Valhalla would give him back-to-back major championships. It would also make him just the fifth player in history to win two majors in a season at 25 years old or younger, according to Justin Ray of Golf Channel.
Furyk will also begin the round at 8-under. He followed up a 66 on Thursday with a 68 on friday. He will join Ryan Palmer in the second-to-last group in the third round. Palmer was tied for the first-round lead and will begin the weekend at 7-under. For the fourth time this season, Rickie Fowler is in the mix on the weekend of a major. Fowler has three top five finishes in the majors this year, including second-place finishes at the U.S. Open and British Open. He will start the third round at 7-under and will play with Mikko Ilonen. Phil Mickelson eagled his final hole on Friday, pushing him up the leaderboard and into one of the late groups. He's 6-under through 36 holes and will play with Bernd Wiesberger on Saturday.
Here is a complete look at the third-round tee times. All times are ET:
Tee time |
Players |
|
8:30 a.m. |
Brendon Todd |
Graeme McDowell |
8:40 a.m. |
Chris Stroud |
Hideki Matsuyama |
8:50 a.m. |
Shawn Stefani |
Branden Grace |
9:00 a.m. |
Marc Warren |
Pat Perez |
9:10 a.m. |
Justin Rose |
Marc Leishman |
9:20 a.m. |
Colin Montgomerie |
Brooks Koepka |
9:30 a.m. |
Jason Bohn |
Koumei Oda |
9:40 a.m. |
Zach Johnson |
Daniel Summerhays |
9:50 a.m. |
Luke Donald |
Francesco Molinari |
10:00 a.m. |
Bubba Watson |
Thorbjorn Olesen |
10:10 a.m. |
Shane Lowry |
Sergio Garcia |
10:20 a.m. |
Kevin Stadler |
Brendan Steele |
10:30 a.m. |
Ian Poulter |
Brandt Snedeker |
10:50 a.m. |
Patrick Reed |
Freddie Jacobson |
11:00 a.m. |
Hunter Mahan |
Jerry Kelly |
11:10 a.m. |
Kenny Perry |
Ryan Moore |
11:20 a.m. |
Danny Willett |
Gonzalo Fdez-Castano |
11:30 a.m. |
Jonas Blixt |
Fabrizio Zanotti |
11:40 a.m. |
Rafael Cabrera-Bello |
Scott Brown |
11:50 a.m. |
Brian Harman |
Charl Schwartzel |
12:00 p.m. |
Adam Scott |
Jimmy Walker |
12:20 p.m. |
Ernie Els |
Brendon de Jonge |
12:30 p.m. |
Geoff Ogilvy |
Robert Karlsson |
12:40 p.m. |
Cameron Tringale |
J.B. Holmes |
12:50 p.m. |
Edoardo Molinari |
Alexander Levy |
1:00 p.m. |
Kevin Chappell |
Jamie Donaldson |
1:10 p.m. |
Chris Wood |
Billy Horschel |
1:20 p.m. |
Matt Jones |
Richard Sterne |
1:30 p.m. |
Bill Haas |
Vijay Singh |
1:50 p.m. |
Louis Oosthuizen |
Nick Watney |
2:00 p.m. |
Victor Dubuisson |
Lee Westwood |
2:10 p.m. |
Henrik Stenson |
Joost Luiten |
2:20 p.m. |
Graham DeLaet |
Steve Stricker |
2:30 p.m. |
Phil Mickelson |
Bernd Wiesberger |
2:40 p.m. |
Rickie Fowler |
Mikko Ilonen |
2:50 p.m. |
Jim Furyk |
Ryan Palmer |
3:00 p.m. |
Rory McIlroy |
Jason Day |