Grip on Sports: If you want to single out one dominating performance this weekend, you don’t have to look any further than the PGA

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Thank goodness the PGA Championship was switched to May. If it wasn’t, then Brooks Koepka’s dominating performance wouldn’t be overshadowed by, say, the NBA playoffs or a Triple Crown horse race.

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• Heck, around these parts, prep playoffs are even giving the PGA a run for the headlines. After all, when a major golf tournament is decided after three days, it’s OK for America to turn its eyes to something else.

Like a horse without a rider running around the track at Pimlico, as War of Will wins the Preakness. Or the Portland Trail Blazers figuring out new and exciting ways to allow a double-digit lead to slip through their fingers. Or any of hundreds of prep athletes finding joy, or sorrow, on a sun-drenched field.

But maybe we shouldn’t turn away from Koepka and the PGA too quickly. Oh, sure, he’s pretty much locked up another major title. No one has blown a seven-shot lead starting the last day of a PGA before. There is, however, always a first time for ignominy. Just ask Greg Norman.

It’s how Koepka got there that is so impressive.

Bethpage Black is a hard course just to walk, let alone play dominating golf. (Personal experience speaking here.) And yet Koepka, playing against the best golfers in the world, golfers who are struggling to stay under par, keeps making birdie after birdie. OK, he had some missteps yesterday, including missing a short par putt your buddies would give you on any Saturday.

Still, his 12-under total is seven shots better than anyone else. And makes it likely his round today will be 18 holes of coronation as the best big-event golfer under the age of 30 these days.

• Don’t miss this column from Sally Jenkins on Koepka. It explains how he built such a tough mentality. And is a good lesson in what hard work and trying conditions can do for an athlete.

• Once again a Triple Crown race caught me by surprise. I may have been napping while the Preakness was run, which would be appropriate, I guess. Horse racing is America’s new Sominex.

But that doesn’t mean War of Will’s win isn’t important. Any Triple Crown win is important, even the middle one contested at a track that is collapsing and with a field that was winnowed by a strange Kentucky Derby finish.

There will not be a Triple Crown winner this year. But we knew that a week before yesterday’s race. And these days, with all the problems horse racing is having, having a day without any fatalities seems like a victory for everyone connected to the sport.

• The Blazers have been improving every season. This year they took another step, earning a berth in the NBA’s Western Conference Finals. The problem is, Golden State is also there. And the Warriors, even without Kevin Durant, have enough experience at this to be nearly unbeatable.

Portland is finding that out. It doesn’t help the Blazers’ best player, Damian Lillard, may be dealing with separated ribs. Or that the Warriors’ Draymond Green decided this was the series to play like a combination of Magic Johnson and Dennis Rodman.

The end result is Golden State is up 3-0, it needs just one more win and then it can relax, let Durant heal and get ready for the finals.

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WSU: Around the Pac-12, if all you care about is football and basketball, then there is nothing to pass along from up and down the West Coast. Now we know it is the last bit of May.

Gonzaga: With his former coach at UNLV, it seemed a longshot South Dakota State transfer David Jenkins would pick Gonzaga. He didn’t. Jim Meehan has more on his decision to head to Las Vegas.

CCS: The Sasquatch won the NWAC East baseball title this season in coach Bryan Winston’s second year at the helm. Ryan Collingwood caught up with Winston this week as they prep for the NWAC championships.

NIC: The Cardinal softball team won its first two games at the NWAC championships.

Preps: It was a busy day yesterday, with local schools playing all over Washington and Idaho. Dave Nichols was at Ferris, where the Saxons defeated Pasco in double overtime to move on in the 4A soccer playoffs. … Ryan was in Richland to cover the 4A and 3A District 8 track meet. … We can also pass along roundups from softball and baseball.

Mariners: The Twins are hitting the ball well right now. But an 18-4 rout? That’s not supposed to happen no matter who you are playing. … The M’s are trying to figure out who will pitch Tuesday. Does it matter right now? … Before the M’s were shellacked, I took a look at their second-biggest weakness: the bullpen. It’s my Out of Right Field column for the week.

Sounders: Sometimes a scoreless draw can seem like a win. It did yesterday for Seattle in Philadelphia.

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• Man, I haven’t felt this awful since I suffered from the plague in a previous life. Everything, from my toes to my hair, hurts. Please feel sorry for me. Some sympathy for the devil, so to speak. … Just a reminder. There will not be a column tomorrow. We’ll be back Tuesday. Until later …