CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA – MAY 17: Scottie Scheffler of the United States interacts with fans as he … More
Quail Hollow slayer Scottie Scheffler leads the PGA Championship by three strokes after carding a sweltering 65 on moving day.
Big stakes are on the line—the total purse for the second major of the year is stuffed with $19 million, with $3,420,000 going to the winner and even a tenth place showing will bank a not-too-shabby $519,830.
There was a logjammed leaderboard for much of the third round with Jhonattan Vegas, Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Si Woo Kim, Alex Noren and the World No. 1 all taking turns at the summit when there wasn’t a multiplayer deadlock.
Then on No. 14, Scottie launched a shock and awe campaign to pull away from the pack. He smashed a 3-wood 284 yards that tracked toward the pin. It bounced up onto the green and and rolled to inside what most recreational players would call gimme range, setting up a low-stress eagle putt.
“I was trying to hit a good hard draw,” Scheffler said of his shot of the day. “I didn’t know if it was going to be enough to get to the green. I knew just front of the green was a good spot.” While the gameplan worked flawlessly, the end result wasn’t exactly telegraphed.
“There’s a little bit of luck involved in that when you’re at 300 yards, but overall, I executed the shot exactly how I wanted to,” he said.
Then Scottie stayed on like Donkey Kong, birdying 15, and then proceeding to make minced meat out of two-thirds of the Green Mile with birdies on 17 and 18—the two hardest holes on the golf course.
His round wasn’t without its bumps and scrapes, with bogeys on 1, 11 and 13 but his late round surge took him from three shots back of the lead to three shots ahead of his nearest chaser.
“After hole 11 I feel like I hit a lot of really good shots. [On]
13 I got a weird wind gust and then hit a poor bunker shot, but outside of that, I felt like I executed really well on back nine and hit the shots that I was trying to hit and was able to get some results from those.”
“Birdieing the last two was definitely two extra shots. I mean, I would assume those holes are playing over par, and so I definitely stole a couple shots there, and it was nice momentum towards the end of the round.”
Scheffler rode that late-round momentum into an impressive three-shot lead, but Saturday’s rollercoaster of a leaderboard is a reminder that what goes up can plummet in a jiffy.
No advantage is safe. A host of PGA Championship winners have erased similar deficits on Sunday—including Rich Beem, who came from three back at Hazeltine in 2002, and Padraig Harrington, who did the same at Riviera in 2008. Martin Kaymer overcame a four-shot gap at Whistling Straits in 2010, while Justin Thomas vaulted from seven behind to win in 2022.
Scheffler, who has already claimed two Masters titles and is eager to add some variety to his major trophy collection, is a proven steady hand in the catbird seat. Still, history reminds us that this major is not settled yet, not with eighteen holes left to play.
