Scottie Scheffler watches his shot off the third hole during the third round of the Charles Schwab Challenge golf tournament at the Colonial Country Club, Saturday, May 28, 2022, in Fort Worth, Tex.The Associated Press
Scottie Scheffler continues to sit atop the leaderboard of the Charles Schwab Challenge, only this time he’s by himself.
The co-leader after 18 and 36 holes, Scheffler shot a 2-under-par 68 in Saturday’s third round to take a two-shot lead into Sunday’s final round on a windy day in Fort Worth, Tex. Scheffler was one of eight leaders on Thursday and shared the lead with two others after 36.
Scheffler sits at 11-under 199, two strokes ahead of Scott Stallings (70) and Brendon Todd, who fired a third-round best 65.
Harold Varner III fired a 68 to sit solo in fourth at 8 under, three shots back. Four players are tied for fifth at 7 under, four shots back.
Scheffler had a quiet round going out before carding three birdies and a bogey on the back nine. He nailed a 30-foot birdie putt on the 18th to cap his round at Colonial Country Club.
“I was glad it was going toward the cup,” Scheffler said of the putt. “I hit it a little bit too firm. I struggled a little bit with the speed of the greens today. It’s tough when the wind gets blowing that hard.
“It was really tough out there,” Scheffler added. “The winds were up really high. The greens were actually pretty firm, and so it was challenging. The birdies were not coming easy to anybody out there late in the day.”
Scheffler is seeking to become the third player in PGA Tour history to record his first five wins in the same season.
Todd played his way into Sunday’s final pairing with an eagle on No. 1 and three birdies. He played bogey-free golf.
Stallings carded three bogeys in four holes making the turn but recovered for three birdies on the back nine, including No. 18.
“I felt like the shots are fine because you can know that the ball – the ball is in the air, so you can understand that (the wind) will touch it,” Stallings said. “But when the ball is on the green and then you start reading putts that are right to left and then the wind is in off the left, you’re trying to find that like common ground as far as if it’s going to touch it or not.
“Everyone had to deal with it, and I didn’t do a very good job early, but it was nice to see a few go in late, closer to where I wanted to be going into tomorrow.”