It was a trying day for Dan McCarthy, and it had little to do with the slick greens at the Pittsburgh Field Club that made putting nastier than an alley cat.
It was day of relief for Chase Koepka because his clubs and clothes finally arrived Tuesday morning in time for the third round of the Frank B. Fuhrer Invitational. But even that comfort turned to anxiety when he got stuck for 15 minutes in the elevator that carries players from the 17th green to the 18th tee.
When the day ended, it was Koepka — the younger brother of four-time major champion Brooks Koepka — who withstood the heat and difficult pin positions to take a one-shot lead after 54 holes of the three-day invitational. He shot 69 to finish at 4-under 206, one shot clear of mini-tour professional and Field Club member Jack Katarincic.
“I felt more comfortable out there with my own clubs,” said Koepka, who shot 3-under 137 in the opening two rounds on Monday using clubs borrowed from Oakmont assistant professional Jack Ramsett. “A few shots I kind of reacted a bit to the clubs I was using (Monday). I tried to do a really good job of not being overly aggressive and let the birdies come to me.”
While Koepka was receiving the good news that his clubs and clothes arrived in the morning, McCarthy was getting bad news when he pulled into the club.
His wife’s father, who was 72, passed away after a two-year struggle with ALS. McCarthy, the defending champion, elected to play the third round, but the news was obviously upsetting. He played distracted and disinterested on the opening nine and shot 2-over 37.
But, after holing a bunker shot for eagle at the par-5 11th, McCarthy birdied three of the final six holes, hitting a 6-iron to 4 feet at the 200-yard 16th and a choked 4-iron to 9 feet at the 208-yard 18th. The back-nine flurry pushed him back up the leaderboard to finish at 2-under 208, two shots behind Koepka, his friend and frequent playing partner at Bear Lakes in West Palm Beach, Fla.
“I called [my wife] this morning and she didn’t answer and that wasn’t a good sign,” said McCarthy, who is 31st on the Korn Ferry Tour points list, six spots removed from automatically earning a PGA Tour card. “I have to call her and see what she wants me to do, but I’m sure she will tell me to finish it off.”
McCarthy will be trying to make it three victories in four years at the Field Club, where first prize is $40,000. But, to do so, he will have to catch Koepka, who was a late addition to the field when 2019 champion Mike Gligic withdrew because he’s playing in this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic on the PGA Tour.
And he will have to overtake Katarincic, who made four bogeys in his opening 10 holes, then sandwiched birdies at Nos. 13 and 17 with an eagle at the par-5 15th. That left him at 209 and got him a final-round pairing with Koepka.
“I hit a lot of good putts, but I didn’t really make much,” Koepka said. “It could have been a really, really smooth 3- or 4-under round. I’ll take 1-under out here. This golf course is hard. You have to play well to shoot a good score out there. That’s about as easy a 69 as I could’ve shot.”
Koepka’s round included three birdies and two bogeys, the last coming at the par-4 17th when he chunked his approach into the greenside bunker. But that wasn’t the unnerving part.
When he got on the elevator with playing partner Patrick Flavin to take them and their caddies to the 18th tee, the breaker tripped and the elevator shut down, leaving all four stuck on the ground with the door closed. Koepka said it got a little hairy when the power had to be shut off to reboot the elevator, cutting off the air and lights inside the door for about a minute.
“It felt like about 20 minutes,” Koepka said.
It was similar to what happened in the 2004 Pennsylvania Open when a lightning storm knocked out a nearby transformer, leaving Chartiers Country Club pro Joe Klinchock and two other players stranded on the elevator for nearly 45 minutes. Ambulances were called to the scene in case any of the players need treatment once they were removed.
Fortunately, none of that was necessary this time, either. Koepka even managed to knock a 5-iron 20 feet under the pin at the par-3 finishing hole just moments after being freed from the elevator.
“I got exhausted coming up to 18 tee after that,” Koepka said. “You’re sitting in there and how hot it was in there, fortunately enough I hit a good shot, I just didn’t have enough gas in the tank to get it to the hole.”
Gerry Dulac: gdulac@post-gazette.com and Twitter @gerrydulac.
First Published: June 29, 2021, 9:13 p.m.
