ATLANTA – For the second year in a row, Scottie Scheffler showed 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 huge advantage built up in the majors, the playoffs and the first 54 holes at East Lake lost something. in seven holes.
Thursday’s performance was similar — but it hasn’t yet cost him the FedExCup title.
The season-long leader, who had staked a two-shot advantage earlier in the week, appeared poised to go up six after he knocked his second shot to 6 feet on the par-5 sixth. hole. But that putt went out, starting a stretch that saw his lead not only shrink but disappear altogether. He played 4 over par the rest of the way – including a triple bogey on 15th hole – to shoot 71.
Full-field scores from the Tour Championship
Scheffler is now alone in fourth place, one shot behind the new trio of leaders: Viktor Hovland, Collin Morikawa and Keegan Bradley. Scheffler became the first No. 1 seed to not hold even a fraction of the lead after the opening round since the starting-strokes format was introduced in 2019.
“I’m obviously disappointed with how I played today,” Scheffler said. “I think it’s a little bit of a blessing to have a bad day and still be in the tournament. So just go out there tomorrow and just keep fighting.”
Scheffler’s biggest battle right now is with his putter. He had a historic season hitting the ball but was limited by a cold putter that ranked 145.th on Tour. Scheffler switched to a mallet-style putter at the start of the playoffs and now returns, with less success, to the blade he’s used for most of his career. In the first round he ranked last in the 30-man field on the greens, taking 33 putts and losing by more than three strokes.
But until a bad swing on the 224-yard 15thth that he lost his lead for good. His iron shot never stood a chance on the watery par 3, and then he compounded the error with three putts from 16 feet, including a miss from 3 feet for double. It was Scheffler’s fifth dropped shot in five holes.
“I expected him to continue after he started, but it’s just the golf course,” said Hovland, who chased Scheffler last weekend at BMW, finishing with a Sunday 61, and now leapfrogging him back on the leaderboard in end of time.
“He didn’t have the best stretch on the back nine out there, but he certainly couldn’t get out of it either.”
Scheffler 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 finished with three consecutive birdies for a 61, and Keegan Bradley, a two-time winner this season trying to make a final impression ahead of next week’s Ryder cup selections.
Morikawa is enjoying the best statistical season of his career, though it hasn’t translated into a win since the 2021 Open or a solid starting position here at East Lake. Morikawa is the No. 24 seed entering the week but now, after 18 holes, finds himself a share of the lead.
“It feels good,” said Morikawa, who finished about three hours ahead of the last group. “Shoot, there’s no better time, I think, than our Tour Championship to show up and start playing good golf.”
The same goes for Bradley, whose ultimate goal this season isn’t to win the FedExCup – it’s to represent the US on a Ryder Cup team for the first time since 2014. He’s thrust himself into the mix for an automatic spot after his Travelers win in June, but has yet to post a top-20 finish in four starts since and admitted he played last month “under so much pressure.” To join the leaders here, he shot a 63 on Thursday – five days before US captain Zach Johnson makes his sixth wildcard selection.
“I tried my hardest not to think about the Ryder Cup, but everyone was asking me about it, and as I walked the fairways, everyone was yelling at me about it,” Bradley said. “So it’s impossible for me not to think about it.
“I have to think: It’s a two-year qualification process, with the tournament in a month’s way, I don’t think everything is based on this tournament. But it can be done. So it’s better to play hard than not. They know how much I want to be on the team.
A FedExCup trophy would go a long way in his case, and the tournament is tighter at this early stage than ever.
Thirteen players are now separated by four shots, with three rounds to play.
And for the first time in six rounds, Scheffler was chasing.