Conners holds steady to take PGA Championship lead

ROCHESTER, New York :Canada's Corey Conners was holding steady at the top of the PGA Championship leaderboard midway through a soggy third round on Saturday, as challengers stalled in the rain.

Conners started a grey, rainy day at Oak Hill sharing top spot with world number two Scottie Scheffler and Norway's Viktor Hovland but with nine to play finds himself alone two clear of the pack at six-under.

While Conners turned in a disciplined error free first nine Scheffler was self-destructing in the tough conditions piling up four bogeys to tumble down the leaderboard suddenly five off the pace.

Bidding to become the first Canadian man to win a major since Mike Weir two decades ago at the Masters, Conners delivered a clinical controlled display starting his day with seven consecutive pars before taking his first and only birdie at the eighth.

Lurking two back are Hovland and 42-year-old Briton Justin Rose.

Like Scheffler, Hovland looked headed in the wrong direction early with back-to-back bogeys at four and five but steadied the ship with a birdie at eight to get to four-under.

Starting the day four off the lead Rose put himself in a deeper hole with a bogey at the second but the 42-year-old would make no more mistakes picking up four birdies through 13 holes to charge into contention.

From the first players off at 8:10am ET (1210 GMT) until the last pairing of Scheffler and Conners almost seven hours later the East Course had been pounded by often torrential rain that dumped more than half-inch (12.7 millimetres) on the already challenging layout.

Scheffler, Conners and Hovland had shared the overnight two shot lead and held the same advantage teeing off while an army of course workers pushing water off the greens with squeegees