Scottie Scheffler Remains in Contention at U.S. Open

The Texas product had his chances to take the lead on Saturday, but a uneven back nine put him two shots back

Scottie Scheffler is still in the hunt at the U.S. Open after a 1-over-par 71 in Saturday’s third round at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass.

Scheffler started the day two shots out of the lead and finished the day two shots out of the lead. But it could have been much better for the Texas product.

At one point, Scheffler was 3-under for the day, 6-under for the tournament and had a two-shot lead after 10 holes.

Scheffler started the round birdie-bogey-birdie and then put together a beautiful eagle on the 560-yard par-5 eighth hole. Scheffler’s drive found the rough, and then he punched out into range for a pitch to the green. His approach hit the green near the pin, spun back to the right and fell into the cup for the eagle.

But he gave that eagle back at the 141-yard par-3 11th hole. His tee shot flew over the green and found the rough, landing near the red hazard line. Scheffler pitched out but his shot fell short of the green and remained in the rough. Coming out of the rough and on a steep uphill lie, his third shot rolled well past the cup and he two-putted for the five.

After that, Scheffler struggled, as he bogeyed the 12th, 13th and 14th holes to drop to 1-under par, before bouncing back with a birdie at No. 17.

Fellow Texas product Jordan Spieth shot a 1-over-par 71 and is tied for 25th at 3-over-par for the event. He will tee off at 11:28 a.m. central with Patrick Cantlay.

Will Zalatoris and Matt Fitzpatrick lead the way after three rounds at 4-under-par. Defending U.S. Open champion Jon Rahm is third at 3-under. Scheffler shares fourth place with Keegan Bradley and Adam Hadwin.

Scheffler will tee off at 1:23 p.m. central on Sunday with Hadwin in the third-to-last group in the event.

Scheffler is in the midst of the best season of his PGA Tour career, as he is No. 1 in the FedEx Cup Standings.

He capped his incredible stretch of spring golf at the Masters in April, as he won his first major championship by five shots with a 12-under-par score. At that point, he was already the world’s No. 1-ranked player, and he’s still in that spot. He became the first player to make the Masters his first win after becoming the world’s No. 1 player since Ian Woosnam did it in 1991.

Before that Scheffler had a breakthrough, winning his first three PGA Tour events — the Waste Management Phoenix Open, the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the WGC-Match Play at Austin Country Club. He’s already won $11.3 million this season.

Since his Masters win, Scheffler has played in five tournaments and missed the cut just once, which happened to be at the PGA Championship at Southern Hills, where he shot a 6-over 146.

He finished in a tie for 18th at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, and in a tie for 15th at the AT&T Byron Nelson. After missing the cut at the PGA, he came in second at the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth and finished in a tie for 18th at the Canadian Open last week.

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You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.

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