Scheffler set to defend title after solid 3rd round
COVER PHOTO: World No. 1 golfer and defending Memorial champion Scottie Scheffler strolls down the no. 2 fairway during the third round of the 50th annual Memorial Tournament on his way to taking the lead at the end of the day. Picture by Nicole McCray/Columbus Wired.
If you’re going to let Scottie Scheffler hang around, then be prepared to suffer the consequences.
After Saturday’s third round at the 50th annual Memorial Tournament, the world’s No. 1 golfer shot a 4-under par, 68, while Nick Taylor and Ben Griffin (who co-led to start the round at 7-under) went 2-over and even par, respectively. Scheffler now sits atop the leaderboard, leading Griffin by one stroke as Taylor sits in third place.
“I thought I was doing pretty good,” Scheffler said. “Around this golf course, even par today would have been a pretty solid score.”
It was Scheffler’s first-ever bogey-free round in his fifth tournament appearance since 2020.
However, the defending Memorial champion said he felt like he could’ve done better.
“I felt like I was playing nice and just a couple lips here and there would have changed the score a little bit, but overall, I felt like I was doing good stuff. I didn't feel like I needed to change much.”
After shooting dead-even through the first 13 holes, Scheffler birdied four of the last five holes.
“There's opportunity there on 14 and 15, and 13 if you're in the fairway. With the wind direction we had today those holes are downwind, so there's some good opportunities there for birdie, 15 being a reachable par-5.”
On par-4, no. 14, Scheffler knocked his second shot from 98 yards out to within 10 feet of the cup and then drained his first birdie of the day. After putting his second shot from the fairway on no. 15 into the left rough, he chipped it from a little over 19 feet away to within a foot of the cup and then knocked down his second straight bird.
After parring the par-3, no. 16, Scheffler drained an 8-foot birdie putt on par-4, no. 17 and followed it up with a 13-footer on the last hole for his fourth and final birdie of the round.
Even though Scheffler made it look easy on some of those putts, they weren’t.
“It felt like where the pins were today, there was so much break around the cup,” he said. “I'm playing, like, 3 feet of break sometimes and it was challenging out there.”
Also challenging was the fact that by no. 8, Griffin held a five-stroke lead over the entire field and it looked like he was going to lead going into Sunday for the third straight round.
Scheffler knew what Griffin was doing but didn’t let it deter him.
“Yeah, I did see that Ben got to 10-under, but … it's not going to change my play in the middle of a Saturday,” Scheffler said. “This golf course is really challenging and no lead's safe around this place. I knew if I kept going and played a decent round, I would be in somewhat of a position to chase him down tomorrow.”
Scheffler and Griffin will be in the final pairing, however as of this writing, the tee time has yet to be announced.
OTHER NOTABLES
Sepp Straka: Scheffler’s playing mate during the first two rounds of this year’s tourney not only shot two strokes better than Scottie, but also went bogey-free. It was the six-time Memorial participant’s best-ever round to date with his prior best also coming in a third round, which was last year. Straka currently sits tied-for fourth with Keegan Bradley and Jordan Spieth.
Keegan Bradley: This year’s Ryder Cup captain is on a roll and nearly had a bogey-free round of his own if it weren’t for some mis-hits on par-5, no. 11. He put his first two shots in the left rough and his third bounced along the left cart path. Then his fourth shot landed seven-and-a-half feet from the hole but his par putt came up four inches short. The 15-consecutive-year tourneyman then birdied four of the last five holes, including a 10-and-a-half-foot putt on par-3, no. 16 and a 14-and-a-half-footer on par-4, no. 18.
Jordan Spieth: The world’s 51st-ranked golfer has seen some better days as of late. But he’s definitely seen some worse. In 22 starts last year, the three-time Major champion placed in the top-10 three times but missed seven cuts - not including a DQ he got for signing an incorrect scorecard after the second round of the Genesis Invitational. However, the 13-consecutive-year Memorial participant has regained his mojo on Jack’s course where he’s finished in the top five twice before, with his best finish coming 10 years ago when he tied-for third. Two years ago, he finished tied-for fifth.
Rickie Fowler: Talk about up-and-down. The world’s No. 124 has three top-20 finishes this year but has finished outside the top 20 in Jack’s tournament nine times including five cuts. His best finish at the Memorial was sole possession of second in his first-ever tourney in 2010 and tied-for second in 2017. The 16-consecutive-year Memorial veteran is currently tied-for seventh with Patrick Cantlay and Shane Lowry after a bogey-free round consisting of three birdies on nos. 5, 8 and 14.
Patrick Cantlay: The two-time Memorial winner (2019, ‘21) started off inauspiciously with a double bogey on par-4, no. 2. However, he went bogey-free with five birdies up until no. 17 bit him in the keister with a bogey as his third shot from the right bunker landed less than five feet from the hole but his par putt missed the mark by a foot-and-a-half.
Shane Lowry: The nine-year Memorial participant shot three bogeys on nos. 8, 13 and 14 before carding his first birdie of the day, which came on no. 15 after his 57-foot eagle putt came up a little over four feet shy but knocked it in from there for the bird. His second birdie came on the last hole when his second shot from the fairway landed seven inches from the hole.
All official tee times and pairings as of this writing have yet to be announced.