McKINNEY, Texas — Scottie Scheffler‘s comfortable lead at his hometown CJ Cup Byron Nelson was the same late in the third round as it was at the start, even without the dominance the top-ranked player showed over the first 36 holes.
Then he found that form again and made a big lead even bigger at 23 under while finishing after sunset Saturday.
Scheffler has an eight-shot lead after a 5-under 66 capped by birdies on three of the final five holes — the last on the par-5 18th more than 13 hours after the day began with about half the field needing to complete the second round, including 18 players who hadn’t even started. There was a six-hour weather delay Friday.
Erik van Rooyen (65), Adam Schenk (65) and Ricky Castillo (67) are 15 under, with Kurt Kitayama (68) and Jhonattan Vegas (67) another shot back.
Scheffler had his first two bogeys of the tournament and was 2 under for the day through 13 holes after missing the PGA Tour record for the lowest 36-hole score by one shot at 124 (18 under). His six-shot lead after two rounds was a Nelson record.
At the short par-4 14th, Scheffler drove the green before settling for a tap-in birdie, then put his tee shot at the long par-3 15th inside four feet for another birdie.
The horn for darkness had already sounded after Scheffler, Castillo and Sam Stevens teed off on 18 when the group in front was still in the fairway but cleared them to hit to try to save time. The players had the option to finish.
Scheffler couldn’t see his second shot from the rough after impact, but it reached the green. He two-putted from 31 feet for the biggest 54-hole lead on the PGA Tour since Rory McIlroy also led by eight on the way to winning the 2011 U.S. Open.
“I saw it take off the way I wanted it to,” Scheffler said of his approach on 18. “But after that, I couldn’t see that far. Really, I’d say the most challenging part was reading a green.”
Van Rooyen was in the rough beside the green on 18 in two shots and looking for another birdie that would have matched the low around of the day, only to need four strokes from there for a bogey.
“The rough was quite thin, so I thought I could scoot the ball through it,” van Rooyen said. “I didn’t the first time. Then it came out dead the second time as well. So I just got it wrong.”
Schenk, who had missed six consecutive cuts coming into the Nelson, left with a similar feeling on his matching 65 after a bogey on 15 stalled his momentum at the TPC Craig Ranch course in the Dallas suburb.
Stevens started the day alone in second behind Scheffler, and was the only remaining player without a bogey when he had four in a five-hole stretch. The native of nearby Fort Worth was among five players at 13 under after a 70. That group included Antoine Rozner, who had the low around of the day at 63.
Jordan Spieth, Scheffler’s fellow Dallas resident and former University of Texas golfer, shot a second consecutive 67 and is 10 under. He was the first of the two to make his tour debut in the Nelson when he contended Sunday as a 16-year-old in 2010.
Scheffler’s first appearance was four years later, and it will take a massive turn of events for him not to be the first of the good friends to win perhaps their favorite event. He’s set to become the first high school golfer from Dallas to win the Nelson since Scott Verplank in 2007. He could also become the third wire-to-wire winner in the history of the tournament after Mark Hayes (1976) and Tom Watson (1980).
“I mean, I just walked off the golf course,” Scheffler said in the darkness of a post-round interview. “Tomorrow is not really a concern of mine right now.”
It will be the 14th time he’s entered the final round of a tour event with a lead in the past five seasons, twice as many as any other golfer over that span.
Scheffler’s first bogey came at the par-3 fourth hole, when his tee shot came up short and he missed a 7-footer for par. The two-time Masters winner missed five fairways after missing a total of six in the first two rounds.
“I definitely wasn’t as sharp as I was the last two days, but overall I posted a pretty good score,” Scheffler said. “Over a 72-hole tournament, you’re going to have days, or typically at least one day where your swing’s not firing on all cylinders like it was the first two days. It’s all about how you battle through that.”
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
