After two days of gentle footsteps from journeymen, the third brought the familiar sound of big beasts stampeding towards the top of the leaderboard at the PGA Championship. None echoed louder than Scottie Scheffler.
For all the discomfort he has felt with his swing this week, he stands top of the pile on 11 under par after one of those rounds that will test the optimism of the chasing pack.
Not for the brilliance of his shot-making, though there was plenty of that in his 65, but more for how he endured. How he rose each time there was a blip.
There was a particular stretch of the back nine where the point would be best made. Having played the front in two under to catch Jhonattan Vegas, the 36-hole leader, he made a mess of the 11th. Chipped right through the green.
The immediate response? A birdie, which was nice, but then another bogey went on his card. Another test. Another reason to raise questions about a game that hasn’t looked quite right since he cut his hand on a wine glass at Christmas.
Until recently, those questions were framed as a slump, but he won his first tournament of 2025 a fortnight ago, and the momentum carried through the 14th hole here. That meant taking aim at a driveable 305-yard par four and leaving himself two feet for eagle. Drained.
Scottie Scheffler will take a three-shot lead into the final round of the PGA Championship
Scheffler showed his class during a round of 65 as he moved closer to another major win
He got a birdie on the final hole to cap off a brilliant round of golf
The same was then true of his birdie putt on 15 and the 18 footer for another on the par three 17th. Wrapping up with one more on the last, he had played the ‘green mile’ closing stretch of three holes in two under. Brutal and brilliant.
And if you’re one of those hunting him down, then possibly quite deflating.
But a word on those in behind, because it is quite the cast and utterly in keeping with a tournament that for so long was favouring the rank and file. Alex Noren is at eight under, and Davis Riley, JT Poston, Si Woo Kim and Jhonattan Vegas are within a further two strokes. Poston, at 46 in the world, is the highest ranked; the rest fall between 64 and 100. Great stuff.
Their worry, beyond catching Scheffler, is that some other giants have stirred. None is more burly than Jon Rahm, who is six under, and none more bonkers than Bryson DeChambeau, whose round of 69 mimicked the eccentricity of its creator.
Through 15 holes, he had fist-bumped and hollered his way to eight under, but unlike Scheffler, he was fried on the green mile.
A bogey on 16 was the first blip but then it was compounded brutally on the 17th, a nasty 187-yard par three over a lake. With a wild hook, he dumped his first in the drink, overcooked his pitch from the drop zone and two-putted to a double.
A par on the last stemmed the bleeding but all the joy of back-to-back birdies on 13 and 14 had gone, replaced with the grimace of a man likely to spend an evening searching the driving range, and possibly the wider cosmos, looking for answers.
Rahm’s 67 was marginally more sedate, though it did include an approach to the 11th that clattered off a fan’s head. The man at least. Rahm said: ‘I told Adam (Hayes, his caddie), well, get the Sharpie ready because I’m going to have to give him something, like a signed glove.
‘His response was, “That may not be enough”. He was a great sport about it.’
Jon Rahm could be one of the players to chase Scheffler down on Sunday
Bryson DeChambeau has also given himself a shot at getting into contention to win
Rory McIlroy will not be adding to his Masters triumph after another inconsistent round
For all the chatter about the Spaniard’s relatively poor major performances since joining DeChambeau on LIV, he has found some of his old self at Quail Hollow. A Sunday duel with Scheffler would be a delight.
He added: ‘It’s hard to express how hungry I may be for a major. It’s about as hungry as anybody can be in this situation.
‘Me going to LIV and playing worse in majors had nothing to do with where I was playing golf. My swing was simply not at the level it had to be for me to compete.
‘I think the problems began earlier than people think. But I’m now getting closer to a position of being comfortable. I think this week so far and this round has been a show of it.’
As for Rory McIlroy, he is at two over after a 72, though his narrative related to the discovery on Friday night that his driver had been replaced pre-tournament due to non-compliance.
While no specific details of the breach have been made public, it is understood the face of his TaylorMade Qi10 driver had worn too thin. As such, it could flex beyond the limits imposed to safeguard against an advantageous ‘trampoline’ effect upon contact with the ball.
Kerry Haigh, the chief championships officer at the PGA of America, said they had no ‘concerns about player intent.’
