Scottie Scheffler’s third round at the Tour Championship was a difficult one, but he still walked off with a four-under-par score.
Even so, Scheffler found a way to turn things around and finish the day four under par, showing the kind of resilience that’s made him world number one.
His opening-round 63 set a high bar early on, but he has struggled to reach that level over the following two days.
He opened with back-to-back bogeys, something he had not done since last year. Still, he managed to shoot four under on the day.
He is now just one round away from matching Patrick Cantlay’s PGA Tour record of consecutive rounds in the 60s – a mark he looks poised to hit this weekend.
Scottie Scheffler explains why he has been frustrated at the Tour Championship
Scheffler is a strong contender for the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup. Had his putting been better in the third round, he might be leading Sunday.
After his round, the world number one spoke to reporters about whether he plans to change his approach as he looks to close a four-shot gap on Tommy Fleetwood and Patrick Cantlay.
He said: “Not really. You look at today, if I get off to – I had the same game plan today. Let’s say I have the same game plan tomorrow; I par the first two holes instead of bogey them and I hole a couple putts, I would have had a pretty special round today if that was the case because I still shot 4-under without really holing anything and getting off to a bad start.
“Without that, I did some good stuff out there. Just got to continue to do that and hole a few more putts.”
Scheffler was then asked whether his frustration during the round came from his own mistakes or simply bad luck with breaks.
“It’s not bad breaks. I felt like I just was barely off on my reads. Hitting a lot of good putts. Hit the one on – hit a good putt on 12, looked like it hopped off something; burned the edge on 13; made a good one on 15; burned the edge on 16; 17 I hit two good shots in there, I’m putting right across the middle of a spine where the ball is going to break off of it all the way to the hole, so that was tough. Then two good shots into 18. Overall I did some good stuff. I just need to capitalize on it.”
Scottie Scheffler reacts to third round at Tour Championship
On Saturday, Scheffler described his day on the course to reporters.
“Felt like another frustrating day. I felt like I did some things well out there. I was just a little bit off on my reads most of the day. I hit some good putts that just didn’t fall. Like you said, after the start I did a good job bouncing back and getting back into it. Overall I didn’t shoot myself out of the tournament, which making bogeys around this place can very easily do that.
“Proud of the turnaround, but man, I wish I could have gotten a little bit more out of the round.”
A few small adjustments could have made Scheffler’s 66 look very different.
If he had played even par over his opening two holes and converted a couple more putts, eight-under would not have been out of reach.
Scheffler will need to get off to a better start in his final round if he wants to put real pressure on Tommy Fleetwood and Patrick Cantlay early.
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