USPGA Championship 2025 live scores: Updates from round 3

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17-05-2025

Bryson DeChambeau draws level with the leaders on seven under par with a controlled recovery from the rough on the par-four 14th leaving a birdie putt which he converts. Meanwhile Jon Rahm makes a mess of his chip on to the green at the par-three 17th leaving a tricky putt for par which he misses. Rahm immediately drops one behind, but it is so close with 13 players within two shots of the lead.
Alex Noren also holes out from the bunker at the par-five 15th and after back-to-back birdies moves to six under.
He's had the leaders in his sight all day today, and Jon Rahm has finally reeled them in. He has been playing brilliantly and his iron shot on the par-four 16th gave him a simple three foot putt for birdie. If Rahm can see out these last remaining holes of the infamous 'Green Mile' without any major mishaps he will be very happy indeed with his round. That's now three consecutive birdies for the supreme Spanaird.
Cameron Davis, take a bow. The Australian has holes out from 58 yards to make eagle at the par-five 15th moving him to three under par. What a shot that was.
Anyway, at the top of the leaderboard DeChambeau comes agonisingly close to a share of the lead on the par-three 13th, but his putt lips out leaving a tricky putt for par which he makes. His putting has been sublime this week, and he could not believe how close he came to a birdie.
Si Woo Kim bogeys the par-four 9th, leaving just Vegas and Scheffler competing for the outright lead.
Scottie Scheffler gets a huge slice of luck on the par-four 8th as his wild looking tee shot heads straight for the trees only for it to take a lucky bounce and the ball lands back in play. Rich Beem on commentary said: 'That ball was about to enter the witness protection program. Nobody was going to find that thing ever again.'
Alas, when your lucks in it's in and Scheffler lays up for another birdie chance which he missed from close to 10 feet from the pin.
Well it has been coming for some time. Scottie Scheffler is now two under through seven and shares the lead with Si Woo Kim and Jhonattan Vegas who has just pulled a shot back with a birdie on the par-five 7th. But the eye is drawn to Scheffler who actually could have taken the lead outright had he sunk an eagle putt on the 7th. He came up short but made no mistake with his second bite at the cherry to make birdie.
The world No1 is at the top of the leaderboard, and you wouldn't bet against him staying there.
Rick Broadbent, Quail Hollow
After two days when plenty of hacks have been grumbling about the lack of big names on the leader-board, there is now a more starry look to proceedings. Bryson DeChambeau's big-hitting gets plenty of attention, but he has been putting as well as anyone. What are the chances we get a Sunday showdown between DeChambeau and Scheffler? Not many people would be sniffy about that.
Having birdied the 14th, Rory McIlroy follows up with a bogey at the par-five 15th having gone out of bounds off the tee. In fairness, with that in mind he is lucky to get away with just a bogey, but it moves him back to one over par regardless.
The DeChambeau charge goes on. On the 606-yard par-five 10th he clears the green in two and he needed some help from the stand to stop the ball anyway! Some power. He then chips on to within eight feet and continues to threaten the lead.
Jon Rahm is in fine fettle once again on the par-four 14th as he drives to the green.
John Rahm misjudges his approach on the par-four 11th and the ball lands directly on the head of a spectator sat on the edge of the green. Luckily he is all okay, but the ball ends up running the length of the green requiring Rahm to two putt for a bogey. The two time major winner follows that up with a par on the 12th leaving him four under.
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Maverick McNealy has come from evens to put himself right in the mix here. The American is five under through seven today and managed a stunning eagle on the par-four 14th, following that up with consecutive birdies on the 15th and 16th.
I mentioned that Scheffler was ominously close to the leaders at the start of his round today. Well back-to-back birdies now leaves the world No1 just one off the lead. He almost lands a hole in one on the par-three 4th and then sinks a 15 foot putt to tap home in three on the 449-yard 5th.
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McIlroy finally gets his first birdie of the round on the par-four 14th bringing him back to evens and within seven of the lead. How he could do with taking a leaf out of McNealy's book.
Si Woo Kim is absolutely loving his golf in North Carolina this week. The South Korean broke a PGA Championship record yesterday with a 252-yard hole-in-one yesterday and he now has the outright lead with a birdie on the par-three 4th.
There's plenty of birdies elsewhere too. Just before Si Woo, Scheffler also birdied the 4th to move to five under, while Rahm's charge continues as he birdies the par-five 10th and is now firmly in the fray.
Rory McIlroy has started today steadily and is playing nicely, but has nothing to show for his efforts so far. He has wasted three good opportunities for birdies, the latest a missed putt from just short of 15 feet on the par-three 13th. He remains one over, but he'll be aware that the leaders remain well within reach after Jhonattan Vegas's struggles.
This really has been a bad start for Jhonattan Vegas. After his bogey on the par-four 1st he now taps in for a second consecutive bogey on the 2nd having recovered from the pine straw. It has taken only two holes for him to throw away his two shot lead.
His shaky start means the lead is now shared by Vegas Matthieu Pavon, Matt Fitzpatrick and Si Woo Kim who are all six under par.
Meanwhile Jon Rahm completes a tidy front nine, reaching the turn in 33 shots leaving him two off the lead. In fact, this PGA Championship is wide open right now with 32 players currently within four of the leading pack.
There are early bogeys for Scottie Scheffler and Jhonattan Vegas. Despite a perfect tee shot, Scheffler overshoots the green with his second and plays an uncharacteristically poor chip shot at least 15 feet away from the pin.
Bad start too for Vegas, who is also punished for a poor tee shot, resulting in his lead being halved as he drops to seven under par.
Rick Broadbent, Quail Hollow
More on Rory McIlroy's driver drama. He replaced his favoured clubhead before the first round after it was found to be non-conforming. He has not confirmed this but Kerry Haigh, the PGA of America championship officer, has put out a statement: 'We can confirm that the USGA was invited to do club testing at the PGA Championship, at the PGA of America's request. The testing programme is consistent with the same level of support that the USGA provides to the PGA Tour and other championships, as part of their regular programme for driver testing.
'The standard process is for about a third of the field to be randomly tested. That was the case at Quail Hollow this week. Finding driver heads that have crept over the line of conformance is not an unusual occurrence, especially for clubs that are hit thousands of times over a long period.
'The results are kept confidential to protect players, who are unaware that the club has fallen out of conformance and not responsible other than hitting the club thousands of times. Players are simply asked to change the heads if necessary, and all do without issue. To publicly identify players whose club did not conform can lead to the player being questioned unnecessarily. Neither the USGA nor the PGA of America have any concerns about player intent.'
The final group, including Matt Fitzpatrick (-6), Matthieu Pavon (-6) and leader Jhonattan Vegas (-8) are now out and every player to make the cut is now on the course. Vegas begins the day with a two-shot lead — lets see if his fairytale start can continue.
He makes a bit of a mess of his tee shot mind, missing the fairway leaving himself a challenging second shot. he started nervously yesterday and quickly found his rhythm. Lets hope he can do the same today.
Rick Broadbent, Quail Hollow
Supposedly moving day but not many people have gone in the right direction so far. One of them is Bryson DeChambeau who continues to go about things in his own unique way. He tops the stats in driving distance and is a lowly 58th in terms of accuracy. We saw that on the 4th where he goes hopelessly offline but just plays an iron over the green and gets his par. Four off the lead and you sense if he ever gets his game together he could rise quickly.
Scottie Scheffler is ominously high up the leaderboard coming into today on five under par. The world No1 is sure to be one to watch this weekend and he finds himself in an exciting looking three ball with Max Homa, who looked unstoppable at times yesterday, and Si Woo Kim, who sunk a 252-yard hole-in-one. Scheffler stripes his tee shot down the middle of the fairway.
So, five hours after he was supposed to begin today's play, Rory McIlroy is finally teeing off from the par-five 10th and starts on one over par. It has been a turbulent first two days for McIlroy, who will need to match the PGA Championship record of coming back from nine shots down if he is to follow up his Masters win with another title here, but he has come back from positions like this before.
He smokes his tee shot with an almost perfect drive. Let's see what Rory will show up today.
Bob MacIntyre gets off to a less than ideal start, sending his drive on the par-four 1st into the bunker to the left of the fairway, then finds the rough with his second shot. Nevertheless the 28-year-old gets underway on four under par after shooting a solid 70 yesterday. He'll need to quickly wipe this start from his mind though if he is to stay in the hunt for a first major championship.
Bryson DeChambeau is out for his third round and makes a superb start. He nails his drive and lands his approach 30 feet from the pin on the par-four 1st. Can he finish the job for birdie? He certainly can. He sinks a perfectly weighted putt and moves to four under par, and the spectators like what they see.
The US Open champion has been almost immaculate off the tee this week and his drive on the par-four 2nd is no different.I mentioned earlier that today's rain may see the return of mud balls. Well on the par-four 3rd, Rahm has sent his approach shot wayward to the right of the green from a seemingly ideal spot on the fairway and mutters to himself about mud balls.
It doesn't matter though, as he chips in for his second birdie today. Rahm is really on the march now, moving to four under after this strong start.
It's been a good start for the Viktor Hovland in the Team Europe three ball too. Having made par on the par-four 1st he birdies the par-four 2nd with a long ranged putt from off the green to put him three under par. Let's hope this is a statement start from the Norwegian.
With limited opportunities for Team Europe ranking points on the LIV tour, a big performance this weekend could be crucial to Jon Rahm securing his place in Luke Donald's Ryder Cup team. He's started brilliantly here with a birdie on the par-four 1st and a nicely shaped fade off the tee on the par-four 2nd.
Donald meanwhile also gets underway with a birdie on the par-five 10th. The 47-year-old rolled back the years on the first day finishing four under par, but now finds himself two under.
Team-mates Viktor Hovland, Tommy Fleetwood and Jon Rahm all tee off on the first with each of them starting the day two under par. Fleetwood's drive lands in the rough but Hovland and Rahm both find the fairway nicely.It's a good start also for England's Matt Wallace who birdies his first hole of the day starting on the par-five 10th bringing him to two under par.
The first round on Thursday saw numerous top players including Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele criticise the organisers for not allowing the players to clean mud off their balls on the sodden fairways resulting in wayward shots.With the rain today, could we see a return of that issue?
The sun is back out in North Carolina and we are finally getting started with Tyrrel Hatton teeing off on the par-four 1st with a clean drive down the middle of the fairway. A reminder that we have a revised format this afternoon with three balls off two tees after bad weather delayed the start of play.
Some bad news, unfortunately. Play is not due to begin now until 4.43pm BST, with split tee times. That means half of the field will start their rounds from the 1st, with the rest starting at the 10th.
As we put our feet up, here's one to enjoy. The occasional appearance of wildlife at golf tournaments almost makes for a useful viral video, and yesterday's arrival of a snake during Shaun Micheel's third shot on the par-5 10th is no exception.
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Rick Broadbent, Quail Hollow
It could be a stop-start day as the rain returns with threats of lightning. Practice was suspended early, then restarted and then play was suspended just as it was due to start. Rory McIlroy is in the second pairing out and there is much discussion about his driver. McIlroy is renowned as one of the best off the tee, usually a huge advantage at Quail Hollow, but US Golf Association testers deemed his TaylorMade Qi10 to be non-conforming earlier in the week.
That does not imply any wrongdoing, and it may well be that the face has gone beyond the acceptable spring-like limits due to overuse. It meant McIlroy had to use another driver in the bag and that may be part of the reason why he has struggled so badly with his driver here, finding only ten of 28 fairways. Whether he chooses to share details of the situation remains to be seen as he again skipped talking to the media after his second round.
Of course, it would be interesting to know if he used the club when winning the Masters last month.
An update from Quail Hollow — the start of the third round has been delayed because of storms in the area. Rory McIlroy was barely a few yards from the opening tee box when the news came through.
'Play has been SUSPENDED due to dangerous weather in the area,' the tournament's statement read. 'Please seek shelter immediately. Further updates to follow.'
Rick Broadbent, Quail Hollow
It was clear that day two was going to be a testing day when a large king snake slithered across the fairway towards the ball of the former US PGA champion Shaun Micheel. A rules official gave it an unwise kick. Elsewhere some players continued to gripe about mud balls. The Venezuelan leader held on; fear and loathing and class Vegas.
Jhonattan Vegas, a 40-year-old from the oil city of Maturin, continued to set the pace at eight under after a round of 70, but there was lots of back and forth below him. Matt Fitzpatrick wrestled his 2022 form back from a year of toil and finished just two behind, while Rory McIlroy rallied to make the weekend.
As per tradition, it was dramatic. On the penultimate hole he missed from minuscule range. On the last his tee shot went left but somehow missed the creek. From a horrid stance, he played over the fairway to further rough. He made another bogey to squeak inside the cut with nothing to spare, a round of 69 leaving him nine off the lead.
• Read Rick Broadbent's full day two report
A very good afternoon and welcome to our live coverage of the 2025 US PGA Championship.
It was a curious day on Friday, with everything from the presence of a snake on the course to continued gripes about the muddy balls of Quail Hollow and a surprise leader in Venezuela's Jhonattan Vegas.
Stay tuned for updates from Rick Broadbent from Quail Hollow.