Xander Schauffele has held the lead after each round of the 2024 PGA Championship. This will be his first time sharing it thanks to Collin Morikawa, who bested him by one in the final group during Saturday’s third round. Headed into Sunday’s final round, the two former American Ryder Cup teammates are tied at 15-under, sharing a one-shot lead at the top of a very crowded leaderboard. 13 players are within five shots of them.
Morikawa, Schauffele Go Back And Forth, Stay On Top
Morikawa birdied the par five finishing hole at Valhalla Golf Club to card a four under par 67 and tie Schauffele at the top of the PGA Championship leaderboard. Sahith Theegala also birdied the hole. Playing with them, he finished one back. Behind due to weather delays, Saturday’s third round was played in threesomes. Now they’re caught up, expecting good weather, so it will just be Morikawa and Schauffele in the last group Sunday.
Schauffele had only made a single bogey all week as he was playing the fifteenth hole with a two-shot lead. Things shifted abruptly at the PGA Championship when Xander’s approach went long left, landing in very thick rough. Morikawa’s second shot was spectacular. He had less than ten feet for birdie. Schauffele needed two chips to get on the green and missed a ten footer for bogey. Meanwhile, Morikawa made his birdie. It was a three shot swing.
Schauffele bounced back with a par, then birdied the final two holes to pull even again. The double bogey was the only blemish on Schauffele’s scorecard. Morikawa only had a single bogey himself, that coming early on, at the second hole. Both players looked extremely steady all day, though their putters have cooled considerably since Schauffele’s first round, PGA Championship record 62, and Morikawa’s bogey free 64 in the second round.
Chasing A PGA Championship Of Their Own
As good as the leaders are playing, there are a host of others close enough to claim the Wanamaker Trophy come Sunday night. Theegala will be in the second to last group in the final round of the 2024 PGA Championship. He’ll be joined by Shane Lowry, who tied Schauffele’s record 62 with one of his own in the third round. The Irishman won the Zurich Classic with Rory McIlroy less than a month ago. He’s in peak form.
Lowry played with European Ryder Cup teammate Justin Rose in the third round. The major winners spurred one another on all day. Rose nearly matched Lowry, finishing with a 64. He’ll enter the final round three back. Playing ahead of him, in the group behind Lowry and Theegala, will be Bryson DeChambeau and Viktor Hovland, two of the games most talked about young stars. Each sits at thirteen under, just two back.
Amongst the thirteen players within five shots of the lead is Louisville, Kentucky’s own, Justin Thomas. Having grown up a mere twenty miles from the venue, JT is feeling the love at the PGA Championship, which he’s already won twice. The 2017 and 2022 winner was filled with gratitude and glee following a third-round 67 that lifted him into a tie for tenth:
“This week has exceeded all my expectations,” Thomas said. “It’s been better. It’s been more fun. It’s been more enjoyable than anything I really thought or could have imagined.
“I mean, I’m very, very excited for tomorrow, and it should be a lot of fun. But I’m pretty bummed that the week is almost over. Just enjoy tomorrow as much as I can and see what happens.”
What Happened To Scheffler And McIlroy?
PGA Championship pre-tournament favorites, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, both remain in the top 25, barely hanging on to hope that they can lap the field on Sunday. McIlroy is eight under, Scheffler is one behind him. Both golfers had very different days in getting to their positions. Rory could’ve gone much lower, but missed multiple close-range birdie putts, carding just a three under 68 on his round.
The story was the opposite for Scheffler, who started his round just three back. It could’ve gone much worse than it did, given he was four over par after three. Early in the round, it seemed the shock of his Friday morning arrest took an extra day to set in. Scheffler managed to turn things around with a birdie on five. He played the last fourteen holes in two under par. He’ll enter the final round tied for twenty-fourth place.
The top two ranked players in the world, Scheffler and McIlroy, have dealt with significant off-the-course distractions this week. Both have been self-inflicted, though Scheffler’s unintentional. He was arrested for failing to follow traffic instructions while driving to Valhalla for his second round. McIlroy filed for divorce on Monday in Palm Beach, Florida. He and his soon-to-be former wife, Erica Stoll, have a three-year-old daughter together.
