Scottie Scheffler sank an 8-foot birdie putt at the 18th hole to complete an eventful 1-under 71 and take sole possession of the lead after three rounds of the 88th Masters on Saturday in Augusta, Ga.
Scheffler broke a tie with Collin Morikawa and headed to the clubhouse at 7-under 209. The World No. 1 and 2022 Masters winner will play with two-time major champ Morikawa in the final pairing on Sunday at Augusta National Golf Club.
“It’s nice to have that experience (of winning in 2022), but going into tomorrow, that’s really all that it is,” said Scheffler, 27. “And I can reflect on some of that stuff from that round, and this is a position I’m very familiar with. I’m excited for the challenge of going and trying to win the golf tournament.”
Morikawa made the most of moving day at the Masters, shooting a 3-under 69; Chris Kirk’s 68 was the only other round in the 60s on Saturday. Morikawa, 27, would be a U.S. Open shy of the career Grand Slam if he wins on Sunday.
“Look, Scottie is the No. 1 player in the world for a reason, and what he’s done over the past few years is incredible,” Morikawa said. “But at the end of the day, it doesn’t scare me. I still know that (I’m) at my best and what I truly believe I can do.”
Max Homa is in third place at 5 under after posting a 73, Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg moved into fourth at 4 under with a 70 and Bryson DeChambeau salvaged a 75 with an improbable hole-out birdie at No. 18 to take fifth place at 3 under.
Morikawa opened his round with three straight birdies — including a 27-foot putt at the first hole and an 11-footer at the third. That brought him to 6 under, where Scheffler, Homa and DeChambeau had started the day.
Morikawa picked up his only bogey at the par-3 sixth before rebounding with a short birdie at the par-5 eighth.
Five players were tied for the lead roughly midway through their round, but one by one they picked up a bogey to drop out of the group until only Morikawa remained at 6 under.
Scheffler, meanwhile, chipped in for birdie at the first hole and added another at the third to briefly stand at 8 under before a bogey at No. 4. But things began coming apart when he made a mess of the 10th hole, narrowly missing a 60-foot par putt before his 4-footer for bogey lipped out.
He followed that double with a bogey at No. 11 to slip to 4 under, but Scheffler reached the green in two at No. 13 and made a right-to-left putt from 31 feet for an eagle — the only eagle on the hole all day — to tie Morikawa for the lead.
“I would say (the eagle was) extremely important,” Scheffler said. “That’s why I think you saw a bit of emotion there from me on 13 because it was an important time in the tournament. And it was a nice kind of turning my Saturday around.”
One birdie and one bogey later, Scheffler stuck his approach shot at the last hole in close range and drained one last putt for the lead.
Morikawa finished his round with 10 straight pars, though he might regret a three-putt par at the par-5 13th. Still, Morikawa was pleased with his choice to switch from a mallet back to an old putter after finishing his opening-round 71 early Friday.
“Sometimes you don’t know how it’s going to feel in the tournament,” Morikawa said. “Through that Thursday and then Friday morning round … I just wanted to get the putter out of my hands because I couldn’t get comfortable with it.
“And thankfully I had a backup, something — a copy of what I’ve putted with in the past, pretty much the past year and a half. Felt like old times and nice to have that in the back again.”
Homa never got his putter going, making 17 pars with one bogey at the par-3 12th.
“If I catch myself thinking about what could go wrong, I let myself dream about what could go right,” Homa said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. … If you told me I made no birdies today, I would have thought I imploded. You just kind of go with the flow.”
Aberg, a rising star and Ryder Cup participant competing in his first major, had reached 6 under thanks to four birdies before missing back-to-back short par putts at Nos. 14 and 15.
Through DeChambeau’s first 16 holes, he mixed three birdies with five bogeys and a disastrous double at the par-5 15th that saw him duff an approach shot straight into the water. But at the par-4 18th, DeChambeau stuffed his 77-yard third shot near the pin, his ball took two short hops and side-spun left, straight into the cup.
“You just have to stay positive no matter what,” the 2020 U.S. Open champ said. “I had a great break on 18. I’ll take that any day of the week.”
Denmark’s Nicolai Hojgaard briefly held the solo lead at 7 under when he birdied Nos. 8, 9 and 10. He proceeded to bogey his next five holes, carding a 74 to drop to 2 under and a tie for sixth with Xander Schauffele (70) and Australia’s Cameron Davis (73).
Cameron Smith of Australia, Cameron Young, Tommy Fleetwood of England and Byeong Hun An of South Korea all shot 72 and are tied at 1 under.
Tiger Woods posted a 10-over 82, the worst Masters round of his career, to drop to 11 over for the tournament but said he will return Sunday to finish the event. Sunday will be Woods’ 100th career round at the Masters.
Woods was undone by a four-hole, 6-over stretch, as he made bogey, double bogey, double bogey, bogey at Nos. 6-9. He had just two birdies on the day along with eight bogeys, including another four in a row at Nos. 14-17.
–Field Level Media
