PGA Championship 2015: Leaderboard updates, results and more from Saturday’s round

Jordan Spieth is well on his way to claiming Player of the Year, with two major championships already added to the trophy case. He could make it three in one season on Sunday, but in order to do so, he will first have to chase down Jason Day. Day holds the 54-hole lead at the 2015 PGA Championship with Spieth lurking in second place. The two will make up the final pairing on Sunday and will be the focus as the action comes down to the wire.

Day posted a 6-under round of 67 to move to 15-under and take sole possession of the lead. He was rolling along and on the way to an even better round had he not run into some trouble on No. 15. He had issues in the bunker and wound up making a double bogey. Had he not done that, he would be four or even five strokes clear of the field. As it stands, Day will once again have a very solid chance at his first major championship. He has been close several times, but is yet to break through in a major.

It really should not come as a surprise after what we’ve watched since last December, but it was still astounding to see the unrelenting Jordan Spieth somehow shoot his way right into the final tee time at the PGA Championship. As he started his back nine with his peers shooting up the leaderboard all around him, the estimates were that he’d need a 3-under inward 33 to get back in it and have a shot on Sunday. He went ahead and posted an inward 30.

It was an awesome display of shotmaking, the typical tee-to-green Spieth stuff we’ve grown accustomed to this summer at the majors. This wasn’t the Masters weekend cruise -- he needed to make a move or he’d spend Sunday languishing out of reach. So he birdied six times coming in to the house, two separate runs of three in-a-row. The first streak was capped by this brilliant approach shot at the 13th.

Jordan Spieth entered the third round within range of the leaders, but initially struggled to stay there. While many other players were racking up red numbers, Spieth was making par after par. That changed on his second nine and and six birdies on the closing nine helped vault him up the leaderboard and just off the lead.

Speith made the turn at 1-under on his round and 7-under for the tournament. At the time, that was six strokes off the lead. Then he started doing things like this.

What had been a quiet afternoon at the PGA Championship jolted to life quickly when a cadre of players made a run at what had been a multi-shot lead for Matt Jones all day. One of those players was Branden Grace, who hit his 9-iron short of the 18th green. That’s the hardest hole on the course and finding that bunker would normally result in a bogey, but Grace pulled a birdie out of thin air with this incredible bunker shot.

It moved him to 12-under and, for the moment, into a share of the lead with Jones, Jason Day, and Tony Finau. Jordan Spieth, who has canned three straight birdies, is also on the move and a part of this late flurry of leaderboard shuffling.

Matt Jones has enjoyed a multi-shot cushion throughout his front nine on Saturday, but that may be coming to an end shortly. After blocking his ball way right at the 8th and nearly putting it in Lake Michigan, Jones went to the 9th and bombed another one off the grid and into the hospitality and merchandise tent. Jones’ ball came to rest on the carpet up there, so he decided to pull a Phil Mickelson and just play it as it lies.

After taking a look at where his drop would be -- on a nasty sidehill -- Jones played his second shot straight off the carpet next to the bar. There was a picket fence and several flag poles to thread it through but he it got up around the green!

The third round of the 2015 PGA Championship is in full swing as the final groups approach the turn in their rounds. Red numbers have been plentiful on Saturday with a number of players dipping well into the 60s on their rounds. Those not racking up birdies are having a hard time keeping pace.

Matt Jones opened the round with the lead and he continues to sit on top of the leaderboard. Jones is 2-under on his round and now 13-under for the tournament, three strokes ahead of the field. Chasing Jones is a whole cluster of players with 30 players at 5-under or better and 10 at 8-under or better.

If there was any question whether Rory McIlroy would be able to quickly regain his form following ankle surgery, that has been put to rest on Saturday. McIlroy jumped up the leaderboard and is now 6-under, thanks to brilliant shots like his long eagle putt at No. 5.

A 65-foot putt from off the green with a significant slope to navigate? No problem for the world’s No. 1 golfer.

The low 60s rounds and big jumps up the leaderboard are typically available at the PGA Championship more than any other major, and that’s once again the case this week. Whistling Straits can be a brutal test and crushes a pro who’s not especially sharp. It’s penal if you miss but if you’re on and hitting your spots, then a record round is out there this weekend. We’ve already seen Hiroshi Iwata, a player who looked awful and exasperated on Thursday, go out and match the all-time major championship scoring record Friday afternoon.

The low scores are out there again on Saturday. The weather is perfect and the conditions favorable after the course took on some rain overnight. The biggest mover of the earlier tee times is Phil Mickelson, the 2005 PGA winner. Mickelson has EIGHT birdies through his first 13 holes, and five in his last six. He’s one of the few players out there who really never thinks he’s out of it on the weekend and is more confident than anyone that he can post a new record 62. He said as much last month when he was in the same position at St. Andrews, starting the third round deep down the leaderboard.

The 2004 PGA winner at Whistling Straits, Vijay Singh, was coming off a double bogey and perilously close to falling on the wrong side of the cut line on Saturday morning. So, the ageless grinder just decided to bomb one in from 72 feet for birdie to get back to even-par and assure himself two more rounds at a course he knows well. It’s just inches short of the putt that Russell Henley drained earlier this week that is still the longest of the championship so far.

There’s been some discussion of taking the PGA Championship to international venues, especially with golf now in the Olympics and interfering with the schedule. The biggest rumor had been that the PGA might move to earlier in the year and go to Australia and one of their historic courses. This year, however, the Aussies came to Wisconsin and have taken over the PGA of America’s leaderboard after 36 holes. Matt Jones became the first Aussie to hold the lead at the 36-hole mark of this event and he’ll play with his countryman Jason Day in the final pairing late Saturday afternoon at Whistling Straits.

The weather may have had an influence on the second round and pushed the cut to Saturday morning, but that should be the last major schedule disruption of the championship. This will not be the British Open, where Saturday was spent sitting around just hoping to get through 36 holes and make the cut before Sunday. Friday’s storm was nasty, wrecking scoreboards and taking down temporary structures all over the course. But that should be it for the weekend.

It took two days but the PGA Championship is now through 36 holes and there’s a distinct Australian theme to the top of the leaderboard. Unlike the first round at Whistling Straits, the afternoon wave on Friday was at no scoring disadvantage with the wind staying calm for the late tee times. Jason Day and Matt Jones watched Jordan Spieth and others make their move in the morning wave, then came out and pushed the leading number even higher.

It’s no surprise to see Day back on top of a major championship leaderboard. He’s too talented and this course suits his game too well. After opening the week with a 4-under 68, he quickly took the top spot on the board with three birdies in his first six holes. This move all occurred while his playing partner and 18-hole leader Dustin Johnson stalled out and started going the wrong way.