Largest 54-Hole Lead in PGA Championship

What is the biggest lead after three rounds in the history of the stroke-play PGA Championship? This major began its life as a match-play tournament, but has been stroke play since 1958. In the time since, only four times has anyone held a 54-hole lead of five strokes or more.

Those four times were by just three golfers, however, since one of them did it twice. The record-holder? Brooks Koepka, who had a 7-stroke lead after the third round in 2019.

Biggest Leads After Third Round in PGA Championship

• 7 strokes — Brooks Koepka, 2019 PGA Championship, won. Koepka won this tournament wire-to-wire. His scores the first three rounds were 63, 65 and 70, a 198 total. At the end of the third round, he led by seven over Dustin Johnson, Harold Varner III, Luke List and Jazz Janewattananond. Koepka scored 74 in final round and his final margin of victory (over second-place Johnson) narrowed to two strokes.

• 5 strokes — Raymond Floyd, 1969 PGA Championship, won. Floyd was the first golfer to take a 5-stroke lead into the final round of any PGA Championship, and this is the first of two times he did that. Floyd was at 202 following the third round, five ahead of Gary Player, Bunky Henry and Bert Greene. Like Koepka, Floyd scored 74 in the final round and his lead narrowed, but he won by one stroke over runner-up Player.

• 5 strokes — Tom Watson, 1978 PGA Championship, finished second. Watson is the only golfer to lead by five or more after 54 holes of a PGA Championship and fail to win. And that failure was costly to Watson in ways beyond this one tournament: He never won the PGA Championship, the one major he needed to complete the career grand slam. Watson led second-place Jerry Pate by five after 54 holes. In the final round, Watson scored 73, Pate 68 and John Mahaffey — who was seven shots behind at the start of Round 4 — 66 to tie at 276. Mahaffey then won the playoff, setting a record for largest final-round comeback to win a PGA Championship.

• 5 strokes — Raymond Floyd, 1982 PGA Championship, won. Floyd's second time holding a 5-stroke, 54-hole lead in this major, and his second time winning it. And he won wire-to-wire. Floyd was at 200 after three rounds, five better than Jay Haas and Greg Norman. He scored 72 in the final round and won by three over second-place Lanny Wadkins.

Related articles:

• Largest margins of victory in the PGA Championship
• Lowest score after 54 holes in PGA Championship
• Full list of PGA Championship winners

Sources:
PGA of America. 2026 PGA Championship Media Guide, PGA Championship Player Records, "Lowest Score, First 54 Holes."