ATLANTA – And then there was one.
One round, 18 holes on Sunday will determine who wins the Tour Championship, the season-long FedEx Cup and a first-place prize of $25 million in bonus money.
Scottie Scheffler is in the pole position, just as he has been almost the entire season. The Texan is trying to win his seventh PGA Tour title this year and the FedEx Cup for the first time. It would cap off one of the most remarkable seasons on the PGA Tour since Tiger Woods in his prime. Scheffler posted 5-under 66 at East Lake Golf Club on Saturday to improve to 26 under and extend his lead to five shots over Collin Morikawa.
But it was just two years ago that Scheffler owned a six-stroke lead heading into the final round and Rory McIlroy shot 64 to erase the deficit and claim the title. As Yogi Berra would say, it ain’t over ‘til it’s over.
Here are five things to know about the third round of the Tour Championship.
Tour Championship: Photos | Best Merch | Sunday tee times
When Scottie Scheffler putts well, he usually wins by bunches. It’s looking to be one of those weeks.
Scheffler gained more than two strokes on the field on Saturday, second best in the 30-man field, and he’s gained more than four strokes with the putter on the greens this week, second overall. When he putts like this, it’s not a fair fight.
Scheffler did open with a bogey at the first hole and Morikawa cut the deficit down to two. But just as Morikawa started to make it feel interesting, Scheffler drained a 15-foot birdie at No. 7 and Morikawa lipped out from inside four feet for a two-stroke swing. Scheffler’s putter came to the rescue at 14 as he holed a 19-foot birdie. He wasn’t done yet – he buried a 24-foot birdie at 16. Even when he hit a stray shot, he had an answer. At 17, his tee shot drifted right and his ball stopped close to a tree. For Scheffler, it didn’t bother him at all as he stuck his approach from 126 yards to inside 10 feet.
“It was nice that the ball there ended up in the mulch. I felt like it was a good spot for it to end up instead of the rough,” he said. “I had a clean lie in the mulch, and so kind of an uphill, right-to-left lie, which can be challenging with the right pin.”
Just another ho-hum birdie for Scheffler and he closed with one more birdie at 18.
Victory No. 7 for the season is within his reach and Scheffler’s game plan for Sunday is a simple one.
“Keep doing what I’ve been doing, staying in the moment, staying patient out there. I’ve bogeyed the first two hole of the last three days and both times when I bogeyed the first hole I didn’t make any bogeys after that, so that’s kind of good momentum for me,” he said. “I feel like I’ve done a lot of stuff well and played solid, so I’m looking forward to the challenge of trying to finish off the tournament tomorrow and continuing to do that.”
Collin Morikawa is not going down without a fight. He’s going to make sure Scottie Scheffler earns the FedEx Cup the hard way. One day after he shot a tournament-best 63, Morikawa played alongside Scheffler and cut the deficit down to two before Scheffler’s putter warmed up and built the lead to five strokes.
“Not exactly the moving day that I needed, but I knew this entire week I was going to need something special to come out on top and I’m going to need something very special,” Morikawa said. “But I believe in myself, and hopefully that comes out tomorrow.”
Morikawa opened with five straight pars before sinking a nine-foot birdie putt at No. 6 to trim the lead to two. One of the few mistakes Morikawa made was missing from inside four feet at No. 7, which combined with a Scheffler birdie doubled the deficit back to four. That was his lone bogey of the day.
Morikawa matched Scheffler at No. 8, wedging to four feet for birdie. On the back nine, he closed with three birdies in his final four holes to shoot 67. It’s always tough to backup a low round but Morikawa can take solace that McIlroy hunted down Scheffler just two years ago, proving it can be done.
“It’s going to be very hard, but I believe in myself that I can do it. Five shots is a lot, but two-shot swings happen,” he said. “I’ve just got to play my game. I’ve got to go low. I know that. Hopefully I’ve got that in me.”
Xander Schauffele picked a bad week for his driver to go astray.
He hit just six fairways on Saturday and he’s found the short stuff only 20 of 42 times, which ranked T-25 in the 30-man field.
“Kind of hit it both ways today a little bit. Hit some left, hit some right. Yeah, got to straighten it out,” he said. “I just haven’t really hit any fairways all week.”
Schauffele scraped together an even-par 70, making two early bogeys as Nos. 1 and 4 and will enter the final round in fourth place but 10 shots back.
“I pretty much shot myself out of it today but you never know,” he said. “I’ll try to shoot as low as possible.”
Bobby Jones would be proud of Sahith Theegala on Saturday.
Jones, the great amateur champion, grew up at East Lake and famously called a penalty on himself at the 1925 U.S. Open that is regarded as one of the great moments of sportsmanship.
On Saturday, Theegala called a penalty on himself at the third hole because he thought he might’ve touched the sand in the fairway bunker.
“You kind of just trust your intuition and gut, and right away I thought I moved some sand there. I’m in the 90s percent that I thought I moved some sand. I’d sleep a lot better if I saw some clear image of me moving the sand,” he said. “I really think I did move the sand. It’s just an unfortunate rule. But what are you going to do, take the two shots on the chin and just roll with it.” For more on the two-stroke penalty ruling, click here.
Theegala didn’t let the unfortunate incident at the third hole ruin his day although he conceded he couldn’t conceal his anger.
“I don’t know if the cameras saw that, but I chucked my water bottle. Just in the moment. I wear my emotions on my sleeve,” he said. “Tough to not get upset about that.”
Theegala made a clutch par putt at the next hole and then played out of his mind on the back nine, registering seven birdies and one bogey in an eight-hole span after a par at No. 10, including finishing with five circles on the card in a row to end the day. His 66 matched the low round of the day. He improved to third place at 17 under and nine back of Scheffler.
East Lake’s restoration by course architect Andrew Green has been widely praised this week. But that doesn’t mean some of the holes haven’t given players fits this week.
Few have been tougher than the bookends to the front nine.
The first hole, a par 4 measuring 504 yards has been Scheffler’s bugaboo. He has made bogey two of three days and yet to hit the green in regulation. The hole played to an average of 4.433 on Saturday, surrendering just two birdies and leading to nine bogeys and three doubles.
The par-3 ninth has been the third-hardest hole of the week. No one in the 30-man field made birdie on Friday. It has played as long as 260 yards but they moved the tee box up to only 207 yards on Saturday. The result? Still no birdies.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Scottie Scheffler is 18 holes away from winning the Tour Championship, FedEx Cup and $25-million payday
