St. Louis, Missouri …
Russell Knox has targeted a good driving display in his final round of the 100th PGA Championship in St. Louis.
The lone Scot in the Missourie field grabbed five third day birdies but also dropped four shots in a one-under par 69 for two-under tally in continuing sauna-like conditions on the rain-affected Bellerive course.
Knox ended his round with double U.S. Open winning, Brooks Koepka enjoying a five-shot leading cushion very late into the afternoon.
Knox had ended his round near lunch on Friday and due to a thunderstorm suspension later that day, did not start his third round to just after 12 noon local time.
He birdied his third and fourth holes but gave both shots back with bogeys at five and six, and then after birdies at his ninth and 12th holes Knox did the same with bogeys on his 13th and 14th holes to be back to level par for the day.
Knox then fired a 303-yard drive down his 17th and then from 81-yards he delighted in landing his third shot to seven-feet and knocked in the birdie, and what was also his 14th birdie of the championship.
He said: “Hopefully, there’s now a low score in the bag for tomorrow as I’ve made a decent amount over the three days but then today I made a bogey with a perfect yardage sand-wedge in my bag on my fifth hole and after getting off to such a great start.
“I then three-putted the next from 100-feet away but overall I shot under par so it wasn’t too bad.
“But with a lot of good out there, there was also some bad.
“I just lost of a bit of feel with my driver while I didn’t putt all that well but it was a good fight.
“My swing is not exactly where I would want it to be so to shoot under par given I was fighting with my swing can’t be all that bad.
“So, the gaol tomorrow is just to drive the ball well as I am not too worried about my score, and if I drive it better then I will probably score well and anything under par would be nice while a lot under par would be a great reward.”
A check of Knox’s fairway stats over the third day shows he missed just one fairway over his inward nine and that was at the 18th or his ninth hole.
Then over the inward half, Knox found just three of the seven fairways.
Little wonder he’ll look to keep it on the ‘short stuff’ with a round to play.
