ATLANTA – Scottie Scheffler will need to work overtime if he wants to win the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup on Sunday.
That’s because play was suspended with only 15 of the 29 players in the field having completed the third round at East Lake Golf Club on Saturday. Scheffler hit his tee shot at 13 into the right rough before play was suspended for the second time that afternoon due to lightning in the area at 6:36 p.m. and later called for the day. Play is expected to resume at 9:45 a.m. ET, and the final round will tee off at 11:15 a.m.
While slightly more than half the field finished their rounds on Saturday and can sleep in, Justin Thomas wasn’t so lucky. He has to get up and come back to the course to hit a 2-foot birdie putt and complete his third round. His eagle effort at 18 from 34 feet was struck just as the horn sounded. If he makes it, he will shoot 7-under 63.
When play was suspended, Scheffler was still 19 under for the tournament, but his two-stroke overnight lead had been trimmed in half by Xander Schauffele. South Korea’s Sungjae Im was 4 under through 14 holes and three strokes back of the lead.
Scheffler stuck in neutral
Scottie Scheffler didn’t move anywhere on Moving Day. He made par on the first seven holes, stretching his par string to 13 holes dating to Friday’s second round. He finally broke the birdie seal at No. 8, knocking a fairway bunker shot to 12 feet and holing the putt.
“Not many guys can pull that shot off, and then to follow it up with the putt…it was so important for Scheffler to make a birdie today before a bogey,” NBC’s Paul Azinger said.
Scheffler tugged his tee shot at the par-3 11th into a greenside bunker and failed to get up and down for his first bogey in 38 holes. He was even for the day and 19 under for the tournament when play was called for the day.
“I wasn’t playing my best, but I was kind of hanging in there,” Scheffler said. I was looking forward to giving myself some opportunities at the end, but then the horn went off.
Azinger noticed that Scheffler didn’t have his best stuff. “You can just tell by the way he’s carrying himself. He’s just trying to hang on. He’s just not dialed in,” he said. “A couple of dicey wedges for a guy who ordinarily, that’s his strength. He’s just hanging in there today, trying to figure something out.”
Schauffele applying pressure
Xander Schauffele…
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