ATLANTA – For the second year in a row, Scottie Scheffler showed just how much can change in a hurry at the Tour Championship.
Last year he coughed up a record-tying six-shot lead in the final round, his massive advantage that was built up across the majors, the playoffs and the first 54 holes at East Lake gone in a matter of seven holes.
Thursday’s performance was similar – but it didn’t yet cost him the FedExCup title.
The season-long leader, staked to a two-shot advantage at the beginning of the week, appeared poised to go up by six after he knocked his second shot to 6 feet on the par-5 sixth hole. But that putt lipped out, beginning a stretch that saw his lead not just dwindle but altogether disappear. He played 4 over par the rest of the way – including a triple bogey on the 15th hole – to shoot 71.
Scheffler now is alone in fourth place, a shot behind the new trio of leaders: Viktor Hovland, Collin Morikawa and Keegan Bradley. Scheffler became the first No. 1 seed not to hold at least a share of the lead after the opening round since the starting-strokes format was introduced in 2019.
“I’m obviously pretty frustrated with how I played today,” Scheffler said. “I guess it’s a little bit of a blessing to have a pretty bad day and still be in the tournament. So just go out there tomorrow and just keep fighting.”
The biggest battle Scheffler is waging currently is with his putter. He has put together a historic ball-striking season but has been limited by a cold putter that ranks 145th on Tour. Scheffler changed to a mallet-style putter at the beginning of the playoffs and has now switched back, with little success, to the blade that he’s used for the majority of his career. In the first round he ranked last in the 30-man field on the greens, taking 33 putts and losing more than three strokes.
But it wasn’t until a poor swing on the 224-yard 15th that he forfeited his lead for good. His iron shot never had a chance on the watery par 3, and then he compounded the mistake by three-putting from 16 feet, including a miss from 3 feet for double. It was Scheffler’s fifth dropped shot in a five-hole span.
Triple bogey for Scheffler on No. 15.
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 24, 2023
He now trails by two @TOURChamp. pic.twitter.com/JM6FNIFdlc
“I was expecting him to keep going after that start that he had, but that’s just this golf course,” said Hovland, who chased down Scheffler last week at the BMW, closing with a Sunday 61, and now has leapfrogged him again on the leaderboard at the season finale.
“He didn’t have the best of stretches on the back nine there, but he’s definitely not out of it either.”
Scheffler just has more competition at the top.
Hovland turned in a bogey-free effort just days after the best round of his career. His first-round 68 put him at 10 under par, tied with Morikawa, who closed with three straight birdies for a 61, and Keegan Bradley, a two-time winner this season who is trying to make one final impression ahead of next week’s Ryder Cup selections.
Morikawa is enjoying the best statistical season of his career, even if it hasn’t translated to a victory since the 2021 Open or a strong starting position here at East Lake. Morikawa was the No. 24 seed entering the week but now, after just 18 holes, finds himself in a share of the lead.
“It feels great,” said Morikawa, who finished some three hours ahead of the final group. “Shoot, no better time, I guess, than our Tour Championship to show up and start playing some good golf.”
The same goes for Bradley, whose ultimate goal this season wasn’t to win the FedExCup – it was to represent the U.S. on a Ryder Cup team for the first time since 2014. He thrust himself in the mix for an automatic spot after his victory at the Travelers in June, but he hasn’t posted a top-20 finish in four starts since and has admitted that he’s played the past month “under so much pressure.” To join the leaders here, he shot 63 on Thursday – five days before U.S. captain Zach Johnson makes his six wildcard selections.
“I try my hardest not to think of the Ryder Cup, but everybody asks me about it, and as I’m walking down the fairways, everyone’s yelling to me about it,” Bradley said. “So it’s impossible for me to not think about it.
“I’ve got to think: It’s a two-year qualifying process, with the tournament a month way, I don’t think everything is based on this tournament. But it might be. So it’s better to go play well than to not. They know how much I want to be on the team.”
A FedExCup trophy would go a long way toward helping his case, and the tournament is more congested at this early stage than it’s ever been.
Thirteen players are now separated by just four shots, with three rounds still to play.
And for the first time in six rounds, Scheffler is the one chasing.
