Golf-Spieth grabs early clubhouse lead at PGA Championship

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. -Jordan Spieth took advantage of benign conditions to grab the early third-round clubhouse lead at the PGA Championship on Saturday shortly before overnight co-leaders Phil Mickelson and Louis Oosthuizen teed off.

Spieth, seeking a win this week to complete a career Grand Slam of winning golf's four major championships, made his only bogey of the day at the par-three 17th after a wayward tee shot and went on to card a four-under-par 68 at the Ocean Course.

That left the three-times major champion five shots back of Mickelson, who held the outright lead after playing competitor Oosthuizen bogeyed the opening hole to slip into a share of second place with Brooks Koepka.

"Very pleased with climbing back to even. I hate being over par at a golf course. I mean, it's like my biggest pet peeve regardless of when it is in the tournament and I just hate seeing an over-par score next to my name," said Spieth.

"So it's nice to be tied with the course with a chance to beat it tomorrow."

Despite better scoring conditions for the early starters who arrived at the course on Saturday to see flags barely fluttering in a gentle breeze, the wind was expected to strengthen slightly as the round progressed.

The daunting Ocean Course layout is extremely susceptible to winds coming off the water and had not yielded a bogey-free round through 36 holes.

Mickelson, at 50 years old and without a win on the PGA Tour since 2019, is bidding to become the oldest player to win any of the four championships that comprise the modern Grand Slam.

Oosthuizen, a runaway winner of the 2010 British Open at St. Andrews, has the dubious honour of being runner-up in all four majors, including two playoff losses.

Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama, bidding to become the first player to win multiple majors in the same season since Brooks Koepka in 2018, parred his opening two holes and remained two strokes off the lead.

Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy, who won the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island in 2012, carded a two-over-par 74 that left him 10 shots back of the leaders.

(Reporting by Andrew Both; Writing by Frank Pingue; Editing by Hugh Lawson)