Mito Pereira (-9) holds a three-stroke lead over Matt Fitzpatrick and Will Zalatoris, his first lead after any round on PGA Tour.
Tiger Woods withdrew from the PGA Championship after recording his highest score (79) in 79 rounds at the PGA Championship and third-highest score in a Major.
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Pereira is the first player since John Daly (1991) to hold the outright 54-hole lead in their PGA Championship debut.
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Pereira is seeking to become the first PGA TOUR Rookie to win a Major championship since Keegan Bradley at the 2011 PGA Championship. Danny Willett is the last player to earn his first TOUR win at a Major (2016 Masters).
The top six players on the leaderboard are seeking their first Major championship victory; of the group, only Abraham Ancer and Seamus Power have won on Tour.
Victory would snap a streak of six American winners of the PGA Championship.
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During the stroke-play era of the PGA Championship (since 1958), five players have won in their tournament debut: Bob Tway/1986, John Daly/1991, Shaun Micheel/2003, Keegan Bradley/2011, Collin Morikawa/2020.
Pereira will become the 10th first-time winner of the season.
After beginning the third round T64, Webb Simpson (T10/-1) posted the round of the day with a 5-under 65 to move to T10; by comparison, the third-round field average was 72.519.
He entered the weekend trailing the leader by 13 strokes; the largest comeback by a PGA Championship winner after 36 holes is nine shots (Bob Rosburg/1959, Bob Tway/1986).
Since the PGA Championship became a stroke-play event (since 1958), none of the Major championships have been won by a player who made the cut on the number.
Seeking his first PGA TOUR victory, Matt Fitzpatrick (T2/-6) recently picked up his second runner-up finish (2022 Wells Fargo Championship, 2019 Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard); T7 at the 2016 Masters Tournament marks his best finish in 27 prior Major championship starts.
Second-round leader Will Zalatoris (T2/-6) trails by three after a third-round 3-over 73. he is seeking fifth top-10 finish in last seven Major championship starts (including T8 in debut appearance at the PGA Championship/2021).
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Cameron Young (4th/-5) trails by four as he seeks his fifth top-3 finish of the season: T2/Sanderson Farms Championship, T2/The Genesis Invitational, T2/Wells Fargo Championship, T3/RBC Heritage.
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One day after equaling the PGA Championship scoring record with a 7-under 63, Bubba Watson (T7/-2) followed with a 3-over 73. He is making his 79th start since the last of his 12 TOUR wins (2018 Travelers Championship). Both players (Raymond Floyd/1982, Tiger Woods/2007) who previously shot 63 at Southern Hills went on to win.
