Brooks Koepka is behind but still the favorite at the PGA Championship

Brooks Koepka is lurking on the leaderboard going into the third round of the PGA Championship

Brooks Koepka may be looking up at Haotong Li on the scoreboard at the PGA Championship, but his biggest opponent this weekend will be the burden of history.

Koepka finds himself two shots back going into Saturday’s third round at TPC Harding Park and in prime position to join Walter Hagen as the only players to pull off a PGA Championship three-peat. The two-time defending champion shot two-under 68 in the second round and sits at six-under for the tournament, part of a six-way tie for second chasing Li.

But it’s Koepka who, among that group, has the biggest expectations and the biggest chance to win. His record in major championships over the last three years is unassailable. He’s now a combined 76-under in majors since the start of 2017, more than 30 shots better than anyone else. He’s made the cut in 23 straight majors, by far the longest active streak (Tommy Fleetwood and Webb Simpson are at 12).

Brooks Koepka can make history this weekend

So it’s no surprise that Koepka, despite trailing after 36 holes, should be considered the heavy favorite to lift the Wanamaker Trophy yet again. He showed why on Friday. On the par-5 10th hole, he hit a stock 5-iron from 252 yards to within 12 feet for an easy birdie. Few players have that combination of strength and accuracy. Again, on the 18th and finishing hole, he found himself nestled in a fairway bunker off the tee and 166 yards from the pin. He blasted out his second shot, got on to the upper-tier of the green, and watched as his ball settled seven feet away.

What should worry his competitors on the leaderboard, though, is that Koepka hasn’t even started to play his best golf yet. He ranks just 72nd in strokes gained off the tee this week and 33rd in putting. And he experienced a flareup of the knee problems that have plagued him since last fall, calling in his trainer to stretch him out three times on the back-nine.

Koepka insists the sight of him lying down on his back in the thick grass at TPC Harding Park is nothing to worry about, and he’s satisfied with how he’s playing so far.

“I’m pretty happy. I feel like I probably could be 10-under right now,” he said after his round, according to PGAChampionship.com. “Hit a lot of good putts, just didn’t go in. A couple of them, if I just hit them, they’re in. But driving it pretty well. Iron play, I’m pretty pleased with. You know, I like where I’m at.”

Two weeks ago, Koepka looked like a man lost on the golf course. He had missed the cut in two of his previous three events and finished tied for 62nd at the Memorial. But following an early exit from the 3M Open, he went back to working with coach Pete Cowen and putting instructor Phil Kenyon, whom he hadn’t seen since the PGA Tour shut down in March. The results were immediate. He finished second last week at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis, leading the field in strokes gained: apporach after ranking 137th in that category going into the tournament.

That form has carried over to the Bay Area this week. He’s second in approach to the green through two rounds and sixth in strokes gained: tee to green. He’s hitting 75 percent of the greens in regulation, sixth in the field.

The players around him on the leaderboard have their own stories. Li, the 114th-ranked player in the world, would be the first major champion from China. Fleetwood, who tied for the low round of the day with a 64, has yet to win on American soil but has three top-5 finishes in majors since 2017, including runner-up to Koepka at the 2018 U.S. Open. Jason Day, the 2015 champion, is also just two shots back after overcoming a rash of injures in the past few years.

But none of them have the pedigree of the four-time major champion Koepka. If Koepka plays as he’s capable of this weekend, he should be the one taking home the trophy yet again. After 93 years, Hagen would finally have company in the PGA Championship record books.