It doesn’t matter that everybody can see him coming. Scottie Scheffler is not depending on stealth. The world number one started day three of the US PGA Championship three shots behind and it took him just seven holes to join the lead. If it was a horse race you can imagine him looking around for dangers, hard on the bridle. Everything covered.
By the end of the third round, Scheffler had stamped his authority on the championship, posting a superb 65, the lowest round of the day. That left him three shots clear of a resurgent Alex Noren, and lapping most of the field.
He took sole possession of the lead with a stunning 3 wood to less than three feet at the drivable par-4 14th and followed that eagle with birdie at the next. Another birdie at the daunting par-3 17th put Scheffler in a commanding position. Bryson DeChambeau took five on that hole when he was on the march. Those numbers were freely available.
[ US PGA Championship Day 3 - As it happenedOpens in new window ]
Scheffler, though, hit 13 fairways out of 14 and reached three-quarters of greens in regulation, suppressing risk from all angles. He walked off the 18th green to chants of “Scottie, Scottie”. In every sense, he was imperious.
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After early morning storms that delayed play for three hours, the wind got up in the afternoon and there was no shortage of convulsions on the leaderboard. DeChambeau surged and slipped, Matt Fitzpatrick stalled, JT Poston came out of the pack, Si Woo Kim stayed in the race and so did the 36-hole leader, Jhonattan Vegas.
Only once in the last 35 years has the winner of the US PGA come from outside the top five going into the final round. Jon Rahm is one shot outside that bracket, but he put himself in a stalking position with an impressive 67, his best round in a Major since he defected to LIV Golf 18 months ago.
“Me going to LIV and playing worse in Majors had nothing to do with where I was playing golf,” said Rahm. “My swing was simply not at the level it had to be for me to compete. It’s easier to post a score on non-Major championship courses and venues, and I think when you get to the biggest stages like this one and these courses, those flaws are going to get exposed, and it did.
“But I would say, even 2023, after winning the Masters, I did not play good at all until the Ryder Cup, right. So I think the problems began earlier than people think.”
Teeing off at the 10th, with scoring holes at the beginning of that nine, Rory McIlroy needed a fast start and couldn’t find it. He gave himself birdie putts at five holes in a row, only one of which was a long shot. The only opportunity he converted, though, was on the drivable par-4 14th where he left his tee shot in a greenside bunker and made a controlled up and down.
With the wind gusting, and some of the overnight leaders dropping shots early in their rounds, it wouldn’t have taken anything miraculous for McIlroy to join the conversation. While he was waiting for his turn to putt on the 13th, he took a lingering look at the giant scoreboard next to the green. At that point, the lead was at six under, two shots less than it had been at the start of play.
But McIlroy couldn’t generate any momentum. Immediately after his birdie, he cut his tee shot on the par 5, it was carried on a crosswind, careered off a cart path and bounced out of bounds. He did remarkably well to save a bogey with an exquisite chip from about 70 feet that nearly went in the cup.
But then he failed to birdie the 16th after a monstrous 379-yard drive and when he bogeyed the next all faint hopes were extinguished.
McIlroy’s driving was much better on Saturday, but after the first two rounds he was joint last in the field for accuracy off the tee, having hit just 10 fairways out of 28, extraordinary numbers for probably the best driver in the game.
On Friday SiriusXM PGA Tour radio reported that McIlroy’s driver had been deemed “non-conforming” on Tuesday, forcing him to make a change. The story was repeated in ESPN’s live TV coverage, without any confirmation. McIlroy didn’t speak to the media after his second round, and McIlroy’s management didn’t reply to a request for comment from Golf Digest.
However, it was perhaps not a coincidence, when the PGA of America issued a statement on Saturday afternoon. Without referring to any player, Kerry Haigh, the Chief Championships Officer, confirmed that the USGA had been invited to do random club testing at the PGA Championship. It is understood that about a third of the field were tested – more than 50 players.
“Finding driver heads that have crept over the line of conformance is not an unusual occurrence, especially for clubs that are hit thousands of times over a long period of time,” read the statement. “The results are kept confidential to protect players, who are unaware the club has fallen out of conformance and not responsible for it falling out of conformance other than hitting the club thousands of times.
“Players are simply asked to change heads if necessary, and all do without issue. To publicly identify players whose club did not conform can lead to that player being questioned unnecessarily. Neither the USGA nor the PGA of America have any concerns about player intent.”
According Golf Digest, “the difference between a conforming driver and a non-conforming driver, particularly in this instance, is probably a foot or two at most. Not yards.”
One way or another, there was nothing sinister in the story. Whether being forced to change driver, or driver head, so close to the start of the tournament had an adverse impact on McIlroy’s driving over the first two days is a moot point. By Saturday, he was back in sync. By then, it was too late.
McIlroy signed for 72 to leave him on two over par, the same mark as Tom McKibbin, who carded a 74.
