It’s been 78 years since a European won the US PGA Championship, but the chances of that drought ending have increased substantially after Henrik Stenson, Sergio Garcia and Padraig Harrington all moved within striking distance of Ben Curtis’ two under par third round lead.
Stenson was the best placed to replicate Tommy Armour’s feat from 1930, the Swede shooting a fine round of 68 to sit one under par, but Harrington was most spectacular in carding a 66 to go one over.
He was joined by Sergio Garcia, who shot 69, and Charlie Wi (71), while Jeev Milkha Singh (70) and Andres Romero (65) are two over and just four off the lead.
Stenson, who had to play his entire round on Sunday after Saturday’s rain suspension, could have been even further up the leaderboard but, having birdied three of his first 12 holes, he dropped shots at both the 15th and 16th holes to fall to level par.
He responded with a par at the 17th before claiming a rare birdie at the 18th to move level with J B Holmes (70) and within a shot of Curtis.
Stenson, who won the 2007 World Golf Championships - Accenture Match Play, will now have a short break before stepping alongside Curtis and Holmes on the tee at 19:20 BST to start his fourth round.
He said: “I'm going to hit some balls and I'm going to sit down and chill for a little bit. But I don't know if it's a good day to go to sleep, I might not wake up in the afternoon.”
His plan this afternoon is to be aggressive. He said: “I don't know if it's going to dry out a whole lot, but maybe a little bit, but I'll still think you're going to be able to be fairly aggressive towards the pin. And the wind, obviously if it's downwind it's going to be harder to stop it. If it's into you, you can stop it dead on longer clubs, so it's going to be makeable for sure.”
Harrington had effectively admitted his chances of success were over after a second round 74 left him five over par going into moving day.
However, having hit three birdies and two bogeys in nine holes before Saturday’s storms, the Irishman resumed on the tenth and played some spectacular golf.
He parred his first three holes of the day, but then shot four straight birdies from the 14th to go five under par for the round and level par overall.
A bogey at the 18th took some of the wind from his sails, but at one over par he rued his error at the last.
He said: "Bogeyed the last. Good tee shot and good second shot which I thought was going to give me a good birdie chance and I messed up the bunker shot. Little disappointed as I had a good birdie chance on the 17th and chances on ten, 11 and 12.
"It was a slow start to the second part of my round but the four birdies in the middle got it going and I holed some putts in that run which was nice to see happening and get some feeling on the greens.
"I am four behind at the moment and I would take that as long as there are not 20 guys between me and three under. You don't know what is going to happen in the afternoon.
"I caught six up in The Open in 2007 and as long as there are not too many bodies ahead of you, you can make up quite a big amount in the last round of a Major."
Harrington is joined at one under by Garcia and Wi of South Korea.
Garcia was not concerned by the prospect of playing 36 holes. He said: “It is what it is so you can't do anything about it. It doesn't bother me, it's just a matter of going out there, believing in myself and keep doing the things I've been doing the last three days.”
The Spaniard felt the greens were more generous on Sunday, even if the wind was proving awkward. He said: “It's different. Obviously you can hold the greens a lot easier. The fairways are a little bit easier, too.
“But it's playing much longer. You know, you're not hitting the same clubs you were hitting the last couple of days. It's kind of made up a little bit on that, and obviously the last three or four holes, they were playing very, very long into the wind today.”
