Xander Schauffele shot a third consecutive score in the sixties to maintain his lead at the 106th PGA Championship in Louisville on Saturday, where he was joined by 2020 champion Collin Morikawa who is in the midst of a career revival. Sahith Theegala continued to fly the Indian-American flag with sole possession of third place one shot behind the leaders at Valhalla.
Scheuffele (62-68-68) and Morikawa (66-65-67) are tied on 15 under par 198 while Theegala (65-67-67) needed to overcome an early slump on Moving Day to retain his third place on 14 under 199. The 21 year old dropped two strokes midway through the front nine but came back strongly with six birdies between the ninth and 18th holes.
Ireland’s Shane Lowry, a recent winner alongside Rory McIlroy at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans matched Schauffele’s record-breaking first day score with a bogey-free 9 under par 62 of his own and climb into a share of fourth place besides Bryson DeChambeau and Viktor Hovland on 13 under 200. The burly Irishman in fact had a chance to finish with an all-time best of 61 but ran his closing birdie putt just wide.
Eight players are within three shots of the lead an as many as 15 are 10 under par or better, essentially leaving the issue of who will win wide open. Only Scottie Scheffler looks to have dropped out of the race for the Wanamaker Trophy with an off-colour run on Saturday,
World number one Scheffler finally seemed to feel the after-effects of his dramatic Friday and slipped away from the leading pack with a 2 over 73 that dropped him into a share of 24th place on 7 under 206, one stroke behind event co-favourite McIlroy (66-71-68).
“I was definitely– did not feel like myself today,” Scheffler, who went 4 over in his first four holes in Saturday, said later. “Yesterday happened and I did my best to recover from it and come out here and compete today. I did a great job yesterday of coming out and competing, riding the adrenaline and this morning was definitely not my usual routine for a round, if that makes sense.
“I was battling as hard as I could but it seemed every time I birdied, I bogeyed the next hole, which is quite frustrating. I was able to make enough birdies to get a decent round but just way, way too many mistakes today.”
Scheffler double-bogeyed the par-4 second hole, three-putted on the third for bogey and hit his tee shot out of bounds to drop yet another stroke. The 73 also meant Scheffler’s streak of 42 consecutive under-par rounds came to an end, still 10 behind Tiger Woods’ all-time record of 52 that was set in 2003.
Schauffele needed two birdies to hold on the lead after double-bogeying the par-4 16th hole while Morikawa’s matching birdie on 18 pulled him into a share of the lead. This is the ninth occasion Schauffele either has or shares the 54-hole lead, which he has converted into victory twice. He was also on top of the Tokyo Olympics leaderboard after three days, going on to win gold on that occasion, while Morikawa is 1 from three from a third-day lead.