The Memorial Tournament Third Round: Scottie Scheffler sets up chance to emulate Tiger Woods
Scottie Scheffler vaults to the top of the leaderboard in the third round of the Memorial Tournament and now sets up a golden chance to join Tiger Woods in the PGA Tour record books (again).
1 | Scottie Scheffler | -8 |
2 | Ben Griffin | -7 |
3 | Nick Taylor | -5 |
T4 | Sepp Straka | -3 |
T4 | Keegan Bradley | -3 |
T4 | Jordan Spieth | -3 |
T7 | Rickie Fowler | -2 |
T7 | Patrick Cantlay | -2 |
T7 | Shane Lowry | -2 |
Scottie Scheffler carded his first bogey-free round in 19 rounds at Muirfield Village Golf Club as he surged to the top of the leaderboard in the third round of the Memorial Tournament.
Scheffler, 28, was struggling to get things going on Saturday with 13 straight pars but his round ignited thereafter to the house.
The runaway World No.1 birdied four of the last five holes to vault to 8-under par and into a one-shot lead over an equally in-form Ben Griffin, who bogeyed the last for a second consecutive round of 72.
Griffin, who like Scheffler has won twice on the PGA Tour this season, had moved to 10-under par on the front nine.
But the wheels came off for him dramatically around the turn with four straight bogeys from the 9th.
He recovered with birdies on 14 and 15 but then missed a short four-footer for par on the par-4 18th to fall back into second place on 7-under par.
Canada's Nick Taylor is in solo third on 5-under par after a lacklustre 74, albeit he did hole out his second shot for eagle from 118 yards on the par-4 14th.
Sepp Straka fired a best-of-the-day 66 to vault up to 3-under par in a tie for fourth alongside U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley (68) and a resurgent Jordan Spieth (72).
Spieth had been going along nicely but he was left to rue two late bogeys on 17 and 18.
Elsewhere, Tony Finau was incredibly seen putting one-handed en route to a 76.
Scheffler has now set up a golden chance to become the first player to successfully defend the Memorial Tournament since Tiger Woods in 2001.
Woods won three Memorial Tournaments in a row from 1999.
A 16th career title on the PGA Tour on Sunday would also see Scheffler join Rory McIlroy as the only other three-time winner on the PGA Tour so far this season.
Scheffler joined Woods in the record books along with Jack Nicklaus when he won his third career major title at the PGA Championship last month.
When pressed after the round as to what it would mean to him to match Woods in the record books at Nicklaus' own PGA Tour event, Scheffler replied: "Yeah, it would be nice, but at the end of the day last year's tournament is last year's tournament, it doesn't matter going into this year.
"Got an opportunity tomorrow to have a good round and hopefully win the tournament, and I'll be focused on the first tee and just trying to get that ball in play and going from there."
Scheffler arrived in Ohio this week off the back of winning two of his last three starts on the circuit.
He won the CJ Cup Byron Nelson in early May and then went on to etch his name on the Wanamaker Trophy for the first time at the PGA Championship.
"Today was a grind as the conditions were pretty tough and the winds were up pretty high. I felt like I was doing some good stuff on the front nine but just wasn't getting much out of it," Scheffler said to CBS' Amanda Balionis after the third round.
"I did my best to grind it out today and had a good finish, which turned into a really nice round."
Scheffler was surprisingly seen heading straight to the practice range after his interview with Balionis.
Then again, that likely explains why he is the best player in the world right now.
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