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2011 PGA Championship Leaderboard: Brendan Steele Building Lead On Back Nine

Brendan Steele has broken his tie with Jason Dufner on top of the leaderboard and now firmly leads the field by two shots. Steele is 5-under for the day through 15 holes. He is 8-under overall, leading the duo of Keegan Bradley and Jason Dufner by two shots (each at 6-under).

The American group of Steele, Bradley, Dufner and Steve Stricker (who is currently tied for fourth place at 4-under overall) have swapped places among the top of the leaderboard for most of the day. Steele, however, has elevated his play on the back nine. He has recorded three birdies over seven holes and has started to distance himself from his competitors.

Bradley has gotten off to a solid start on the back nine as well, hitting a birdie on hole 12 to move to 1-under on the day. He has only played through the 14th hole at this point and could move right back up to tie Steele if he can put together a few more birdies over the final four remaining holes.

Dufner, meanwhile, has struggled on the back nine after a 2-under performance on the front nine. He has hit two bogeys on holes 12 and 14, and is in danger of falling behind the rest of the top Americans if he doesn't return to his earlier performance soon.

Further down the leaderboard, South African Charl Schwartzel joined the likes of Ben Crane and Hunter Mahan on Saturday by shooting an impressive 4-under 66. He moved to 2-under for the tournament after birdies on holes 10, 12 and 15. Schwartzel drastically improved his position in the standings, jumping 29 spots and into a tie for 10th place heading into the tournament's final day.

Photographs by coka_koehler used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.