One day after squeaking into the weekend, Scottie Scheffler shot up the leaderboard at the Charles Schwab Challenge.
Scheffler made seven birdies and an eagle in Saturday’s third round but was hampered by three back-nine bogeys. He ended with a 6-under 64 and was T-10, seven shots back of leader Matti Schmid, who was still on the course.
“You are always going to hope to go play a perfect round,” Scheffler said. “It basically never happens. I mean, three bogeys definitely hurts, especially when you are trying to chase, but overall I did some good things today. I’m definitely going to need to do more of the same tomorrow.”
The world No. 1 is vying for his third win in as many starts on Tour, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since Dustin Johnson in 2017.
Scheffler shot 1-over 71 Friday and made the cut by a stroke. Going out early Saturday, he made four birdies over his inward stretch and then began his outward half birdie-eagle. At the par-5 11th, Scheffler hit his drive 334 yards and then hit his second shot from 303 yards to 14 feet. He rolled in the putt and was just three back at the time.
“I got off to a really good start. Kind of a dream start when you are looking at pretty far back on Saturday. So, yeah, got off to the start that I definitely wanted to. Was in a great position after 11 holes,” he said. “The golf course just gets challenging towards the end.”
Scheffler’s momentum was stymied by back-to-back bogeys. His tee shot on the par-4 12th landed in a fairway bunker and his escape hit the lip and only traveled 35 yards. He also found a bunker off the tee at the par-3 13th but splashed out to 5 feet, from where he missed.
Overall, it was a better day on the greens for Scheffler than in Round 2, when he made less than 36 feet of putts and lost 2.5 strokes to the field. While he was still in the negative in strokes gained: putting Saturday, he made nearly double the length of putts.
That included a 9-footer for birdie at the 16th and an 11-footer for birdie at the 17th. But a poor drive and a missed 6-foot putt led to bogey at the last.
“Today I had to go out there and make a bunch of birdies, which I was able to do early in the round,” he said. “I struggled a touch on the back nine, but overall I put up a decent score.”
In addition to last week’s PGA Championship, Scheffler earned his first title of the season in the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, down the road from this week’s event. Scheffler is trying to become the first person since Ben Hogan, in 1946, to win the Nelson and at Colonial in the same year.
