Scheffler Takes Command, DeChambeau and Fellow PGA Hopefuls Left Chasing at Quail Hollow

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – To call it a battle of titans would be clearly misdirected. After all, Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, and Scottie Scheffler had several holes between them and weren’t in tune with one another at all.

Ah, but to take literary license can be one’s prerogative, so let’s revisit late in Saturday’s third round of the 107th PGA Champion at Quail Hollow Club where there was a view that surely could get hearts beating fast. At least should competitive golf be your thing.

In pulsating sunshine and radiant warmth they walked large, enveloped in aura. Rahm, DeChambeau, and Scheffler – their games similarly powerful, their resumes each including two major championships – were as high on the leaderboard as they could go. A red 7 was adjoined to each name and oh, how visions of heavyweights battling it out danced delightfully.

And then . . . the music stopped, the rhythm evaporated, and a young man’s scintillating golf awakened our senses once again. When the tie for first at 7-under took hold, Rahm was through 16 holes, DeChambeau had completed 15, and Scheffler still had eight to play.

What happened next was crushing – if you were married to thoughts of a duel in the Sunday sun times three. But it was breathtaking – if you happen to cherish the game play exquisitely.

WATCH: Best Shots of Round 3 From Jon Rahm

Rahm played his last two holes at 1-over. DeChambeau stumbled to 3-over for his last three. And Scheffler, he of the ball-striking majesty (13 of 14 fairways, 14 of 18 greens)? He played his last eight holes in 4-under.

From their tie at 7-under, the picture looked dramatically different hours later, Scheffler’s 6-under 65 good for 11-under 202. You might not suggest he left Rahm (67 – 207) and DeChambeau (69 – 208) in the dust, but sitting five and six behind, respectively, their emotions changed exponentially from the time they signed their scorecards.

The drastic change to the leaderboard left others with a more reasonable chance of catching Scheffler, who is looking for his third major title.

Alex Noren, the 42-year-old Swede who has battled a severe right hamstring injury since last fall, will be in the final pairing Sunday with Scheffler after coming home with the day’s second-best score, a 5-under 66, to get in at 8-under 205, three back.

The penultimate pairing at 6-under 207 will feature two unheralded Americans, J.T. Poston (68) and Davis Riley (67) and other names are also in the mix – Si Woo Kim (71) and Jhonattan Vegas (73) also at 6-under, Keegan Bradley (68), Tony Finau (69), Matthieu Pavon (72), and Matt Fitzpatrick (72) also at 5-under.

READ: 7 Interesting Facts from Round 3 at Quail Hollow

All will have their hands full on Sunday, partly because Quail Hollow is starting to show a little more bite, but mostly because the 28-year-old ball-striking maestro in the lead has a focus hard to derail.

“All I can do is try to hit the shot I’m trying to hit,” said Scheffler. “Today was a day down the stretch where it worked well.”

Well?

Man, he even does modestly quite well, too.

Observations from the Course

Were you to consider that Michael Thorbjornsen is probably the only player in the weekend field at the 107th PGA Championship who just four summers ago was winning his state amateur championship, you would understand how he said with a smile: “I’ve had a lot happen to me the past few years.”

Indeed, he has, from putting the Massachusetts State Amateur into his busy amateur schedule in 2021, to qualifying for two U.S. Opens, to finishing fourth at the PGA TOUR Travelers Championship in 2022, to having a standout career at Stanford, to earning PGA TOUR status upon graduation in the spring of 2024, to being patient with injuries to his back and ankle.

So much trajectory in so little time, but at 23 the soft-spoken Thorbjornsen is not awe-struck by his first PGA Championship start, at least not like he was when he twice played in the U.S. Open as an amateur.

“I feel like I’m at that point where I’m a little bit in limbo; I’m not fresh out of college (he has been playing as a pro for about a year) but I’m not quite a veteran (he’s only played 24 tournaments with a PGA TOUR card).”

Having opened 68-70 Thorbjornsen was playing steadily in Saturday’s third round, hanging around the 4-under crowd. Then came the dreaded “Green Mile,” where a bogey, bogey, double-bogey finish dropped him to 74 – 212 and at 1-under he is tied for 31st.

Disheartening, yes, but perspective rules. “I know my time is going to come,” said Thorbjornsen.

When the cut fell at 1-over and the lead was 8-under, it marked just a nine-stroke gap that separated the leaders and those who made it on the number. You have to go back to 2006 at Medinah CC when it was a smaller spread (eight strokes) . . . . . Of the 28 players who posted rounds in the 60s on Thursday, only three repeated the feat in Round 2 – Matt Fitzpatrick (68-68), Scottie Scheffler (69-68), and Garrick Higgo (69-69). Those 28 players in Round 1 were a combined 88-under; in Round 2 those same 28 players were a combined 15-over.

For the first time in PGA Championship history, an American wasn’t in the top four of the leaderboard through 36 holes. Jhonattan Vegas (Venezuela), Si Woo Kim (South Korea), Mattheiu Pavon (France), and Matt Fitzpatrick (England) were setting the pace.

That picture changed dramatically with Saturday’s third round, however, with Scottie Scheffler taking the lead at 10-under and two other Americans, Davis Riley (67) and J.T. Poston (68) getting into a tie for third at 7-under.

The internationals are also looking to end a skid, as the winner of this major championship has been an American for each of the last nine years.

With a round of 72 – 215, defending champion Xander Schauffele didn’t help his chances to continue an impressive streak. He’s finished top 20 in 12 consecutive major championships, the best stretch since Tiger Woods had 14 in a row from the 1998 Masters to the 2001 U.S. Open.

Currently tied for 49th, Schauffele will start Round 4 five strokes out of a Top 20. He began his streak at the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills with a T-13 finish.

Of course, it is Jack Nicklaus who is used for all measurements of greatness when it comes to major championships and should be here, too. From the Open Championship in 1970 to the U.S. Open in 1978, Nicklaus was Top 20 in an eye-opening 33 consecutive majors, a stretch that included eight wins, eight seconds, and five thirds.

During that stretch, Nicklaus won three of his five PGA Championships.

Collin Morikawa has now made the cut in all six of his PGA Championships . . . . . Brooks Koepka’s perfect slate at the PGA Championship came to a halt after shooting 75-76. He had made the cut in each of his first 12 appearances . . . . . Bud Cauley on Friday birdied Nos. 7 and 8, his 16th and 17th holes, to make the cut on the number. He’s playing in his first PGA Championship since 2020 and just his seventh major, due to a career that has been plagued by injuries . . . . . Rickie Fowler rode a roller-coaster to a disheartening missed cut late Friday. He was level par through 12 on a day when 1-over would make the cut but promptly bogeyed 13 and 14. A birdie at 15 got him back to 1-over, on the cut, but he missed a 2 ½ foot putt and doubled the par-4 16th, then bogeyed the 17th.