AUGUSTA, Ga. — After his highest first Masters score in three years dropped him down the leaderboard on Friday, No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler posted a career-best round at Augusta National Golf Club on Saturday to climb into contention.
Scheffler’s bogey-free, 7-under 65 in the third round was his best score in 27 rounds at the Masters.
The career-best round could have been even better if some of Scheffler’s putts fell, but he wasn’t interested in talking about it after being asked what he felt it could have been.
“That’s just a bad question,” Scheffler said. “Next question. Bad.”
At the end of the day, Scheffler trailed defending champion Rory McIlroy and Cameron Young by four strokes, but felt he had done enough to give himself a chance to win a third green jacket Sunday at the 90th Masters.
“Maybe it wasn’t that bad, but it could have been less,” Scheffler said. “But like I said, I did what I had to do. [I] I went out and did it to give myself opportunities. More of that tomorrow, and I think I’ll be in a good place.”
Scheffler matched his best score to advance to the major tournament. He was also 7 under in the second round of the Open Championship at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland when he claimed his fourth major title in July.
After a 2-over 74 in the second round left him even after 36 holes, Scheffler didn’t wait long to make it Saturday. On the second par-5, he hit his approach 6 feet and sank the putt for eagle.
Following four pars, Scheffler closed out the front nine with three straight birdies. He made a 7-foot putt on No. 7, a 3-footer on No. 8 and a 4-footer on No. 9. His approach shot on the par-4 ninth hit the cup and almost went in for another eagle.
He made the turn at 5-under 31.
“I hit it well today,” Scheffler said. “I felt like I was very sharp in the irons. I got there; I gave myself a lot of chances. I felt like I took advantage of those on the front 9, then I came back and did a lot of good things. [I] in fact, it’s very close to seeing more coming in.”
Scheffler made two birdies on the second nine, rolling in an 8-footer on the par-4 11th and a 10-footer on the par-3 16th.
He had many chances to get close. He narrowly missed the 8-foot birdie on No. 10. On the par-5 13th, he hit a ball into the green and made par. On the 14th, he didn’t miss another birdie putt on the high side.
“I hit it well,” Scheffler said. “The greens here are challenging. The limits are small. I mean, I rolled it pretty well today. I’d like to see what the numbers are. I’m sure they’re still hopeful, but when you have a lot of birdies, I think sometimes you wish they could all go in.”
On the 18th, Scheffler hit his tee shot under a tree on the left side of the fairway, leaving himself with an awkward lie. He went 101 yards, then spun his way back to 9 inches to save par.
On Sunday, Scheffler will have to try to win the Masters from behind. In 2022, he entered the final round with a three-stroke lead and won by the same margin. Two years later, he had a one-stroke lead and extended it to four.
He’ll have to chase down a handful of the world’s best golfers to do it again.
“I think that’s what high-level players and competitors do, they’re able to rise to the occasion,” Scheffler said. “I think if you look at major tournaments you would struggle to find another tournament bigger than this one, especially mine.
“When you get here, I think that’s why it’s such a big test. Because not only do you have to overcome this golf course, you have to overcome the changing conditions, a difficult country club golf course … but you also have to overcome your nerves to make this happen here.”
