Brooks Koepka fired three birdies in the first four holes of his final round at the PGA Championship on Monday (AEST) at Oak Hill to edge closer to a fifth major championship.

The LIV Golf star is the raging favourite to take home his third PGA Championship — and the $2.7 million top prize (A$4m) — after opening up a three-shot lead to Viktor Hovland early in the round.

Hovland won’t go down without a fight, however, pegging a shot back at the fifth hole after Koepka’s three-straight birdies.

Should Koepka win, it would be the first time a player from LIV Golf has won one of golf’s four majors.

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MATCH CENTRE: FULL LEADERBOARD!

Fellow LIV Golf star, Cameron Smith, is once again the best of the Australians, catching fire early in his own round to move past Scottie Scheffler and into the top five.

Smith fired seven birdies after 16 holes with a bogey at the seventh the only blemish on his card as he moved into red figures for the tournament.

He’s one shot ahead of fellow Australian Cam Davis, who shot a two-under 71 in his final round to break even for the tournament.

Min Woo Lee hasn’t made a push on the final day, with two bogeys on the front nine crushing any momentum from a birdie at the opening hole.

Meanwhile, one of the most remarkable stories of the major belongs to Michael Block, a 46-year-old club professional who qualified by coming T2 at the 2023 PGA Professional Championship.

Block didn’t just go on to make the cut, but remained inside the top-20 players after five holes, playing the final round with Rory McIlroy.

Block works as a club pro in California where he reportedly charges $125 for 45-minute lessons.

If he was to finish inside the top-20 at Oak Hill, he would make at least $203,750 (A$306,346).

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FINAL DAY PREVIEW

Brooks Koepka blamed himself for “choking” away the Masters last month after entering the final day with a four-stroke lead and 30 holes to play.

The four-time major winner, who squandered that lead and lost the green jacket to world number one Jon Rahm, will have his chance at redemption on Sunday at the PGA Championship.

Koepka fired a four-under par 66 for the second consecutive day on Saturday at Oak Hill to stand on six-under 204 for 54 holes, one stroke ahead of Norway’s Viktor Hovland and Canada’s Corey Conners.

The American star, among those who departed the PGA Tour for the Saudi-financed LIV Golf League, said the hard-earned lessons of Augusta have helped him play well this week.

“I think that was a big thing for me,” said Koepka, who acknowledged earlier this week that he “choked” at the Masters.

“Learning what I learned at Augusta kind of helped today. I won’t do it again the rest of my career. That doesn’t mean that you can’t go play bad. You can play good, you’ll play bad, but I’ll never have that mindset or that won’t ever be the reason.”

Koepka has kept the lessons to himself but it clearly will change how he handles a lead in the final round as he chases his first major title since 2019 and his first since a major right knee operation in 2021.

Winning his first major since missing much of the past two years would be sweet, Koepka said.

“It would mean a lot,” he said.

“To win one would be fantastic. Just got to go out and go play good tomorrow.”

Koepka would join Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson as the only players with five major titles since 1990.

He would have three PGA Championship triumphs, a career mark in stroke play exceeded only by Woods and Jack Nicklaus.

Koepka, a winner in last month’s LIV event at Orlando, has worked hard on conditioning in his comeback from knee surgery.

“I thought all I had to do was be healthy,” he said.

“But having an off-season to bust my butt and be in the gym every day, working on different recovery, it has been really good.

“Now it starts to look like a real knee, or as good as it’s going to look. I’m super pleased with it.”

Koepka was a runner-up to Mickelson in the 2021 PGA Championship, but that was only weeks after his surgery.

“I came back too soon and played for too long,” he said.

“But I moved on from that.” Koepka also moved onto LIV Golf and took some heckling from the crowd for it on Saturday, one fan hollering, “Do it for Norman, baby,” a reference to LIV Golf commissioner Greg Norman.

“Didn’t hear any good chirps, nothing creative,” Koepka said. “A lot of it’s repetitive.”

ARE ANY AUSTRALIANS STILL IN CONTENTION?

Australia’s Cam Davis and Min Woo Lee were in the hunt early in their rounds before late fades.

Lee finished with a one-over 71, and sits one-over for the tournament in a tie for 10th while Davis sits two-over for the weekend and in a tie for 16th.

Former major winner Adam Scott hit a four-over 74 for the second-straight day, after his opening-round 68. He sits six-over, as does fellow Aussie Lucas Herbert after a two-over 72.

Australia’s LIV Star Cameron Smith did well to manage par, having entered the day four-over after back-to-back 72s. But just making par saw him rocket more than 20 places up the leaderboard to a tie for 27th.

PGA CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL ROUND TEE TIMES

SUNDAY (AEST)

9:50pm: Ben Taylor, Mark Hubbard

10:00pm: Joel Dahmen, Kazuki Higa

10:10pm: Taylor Montgomery, Taylor Moore

10:20pm: Phil Mickelson, Justin Thomas

10:30pm: Rikuya Hoshino, Lee Hodges

10:40pm: Sihwan Kim, Zach Johnson

10:50pm: Padraig Harrington, Matt Wallace

11:00pm: Adrian Meronk, Pablo Larrazabal

11:10pm: Thomas Detry, Tony Finau

11:20pm: Callum Tarren, Yannik Paul

11:30pm: Max Homa, J.T. Poston

11:40pm: Patrick Rodgers, Thriston Lawrence

11:50pm: K.H. Lee, Denny McCarthy

MONDAY (AEST)

12:10am: Adam Hadwin, Adam Scott

12:20am: Sam Stevens, Nicolai Hojgaard

12:30am: Tom Hoge, Lucas Herbert

12:40am: Dean Burmester, Jon Rahm

12:50am: Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth

1:00am: Harold Varner III, Mito Pereira

1:10am: Collin Morikawa, Beau Hossler

1:20am: Xander Schauffele, Chez Reavie

1:30am: Alex Smalley, Thomas Pieters

1:40am: Keegan Bradley, Matt NeSmith

2:00am: Cameron Smith, Hayden Buckley

2:10am: Tyrrell Hatton, Chris Kirk

2:20am: Keith Mitchell, Taylor Pendrith

2:30am: Adam Svensson, Sepp Straka

2:40am: Sahith Theegala, Patrick Cantlay

2:50am: Cam Davis, Hideki Matsuyama

3:00am: Kurt Kitayama, Ryan Fox

3:10am: Min Woo Lee, Patrick Reed

3:20am: Eric Cole, Shane Lowry

3:30am: Stephan Jaeger, Victor Perez

3:50am: Justin Suh, Tommy Fleetwood

4:00am: Michael Block, Rory McIlroy

4:10am: Justin Rose, Scottie Scheffler

4:20am: Corey Conners, Bryson DeChambeau

4:30am: Brooks Koepka, Viktor Hovland