Scottie Scheffler plays his shot from the fourth tee box during the third round of the TOUR Championship golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports
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.”