KING ABDULLAH ECONOMIC CITY, Saudi Arabia – Defending LIV Golf Jeddah champion Brooks Koepka again showed his love for the Royal Greens Golf and Country Club as he raced to a three-shot lead on Saturday, going into the final round.

Koepka, who beat Peter Uihlein after three play-off holes in 2022, shot a bogey-free eight-under 62 for a 12-under total.

That took him three ahead of Sergio Garcia (63) and Charles Howell III (64).

Lurking in a tie for fourth place was the red-hot Bryson DeChambeau, who added a seven-under 63 to move to eight-under overall and Scott Vincent, who matched Koepka for the lowest round of the day.

With one round remaining in the regular season, Talor Gooch who was tied for ninth after a 64, is best placed to claim the individual season title after Cameron Smith fell to tied 25th with two late bogeys in his two-under round.

If the positions do not change, Gooch would finish with a slender two-point lead over Smith and 10 over DeChambeau.

Koepka, the reigning PGA champion, started the day on the second hole and birdied six of his first eight.

He reached eight-under after 13 holes and seemed set to break 60, before parring the last five holes.

“I wasn’t even thinking about the 59,” Koepka said. “I was just thinking about playing good golf. I couldn’t care less about the number. I’ve got the lead and that’s all that matters. You just got to win, 59 is irrelevant.”

Gooch said he was not thinking about the US$18 million (S$24 million) bonus for the overall individual champion.

“I will just continue to try to play like I did today. I think everyone knows what’s on the line and that’s going to build the intensity of it, but thinking about it and focusing on that is not going to help me,” said Gooch, who had won in Adelaide, Singapore and Valderrama this season.

“I’m going to go out there and just try to hit a bunch of fairways, a bunch of greens, and let’s just go have a great day of golf and we will see where the chips lay in the end.”

In the team championship, DeChambeau’s Crushers, who are on -22, will go into the final round with a three-shot lead over Smash and Fireballs (both -19).

If Crushers win, they will overtake the all-American 4Aces on top of the team standings and take the top seeding in this weekend’s US$50 million team championship in Miami.

The top four teams after Jeddah get a bye on the opening day in Miami. AFP