After Two Equipment Changes and an Improbable Eagle, Scottie Scheffler is In Contention Again

Scheffler, the top-ranked player in the world, finished eagle-birdie on Saturday and trails the leaders by three shots heading into Sunday.

LOS ANGELES - It’s not fair to say Scottie Scheffler is in a slump, but since his win in the 2022 Masters, the tall Texan has threatened several times in majors, but hasn't brought home another trophy.

Through three rounds here, he's three shots back of Wyndham Clark and Rickie Fowler after an eagle-birdie finish, and the drought, if you can call a five-major winless streak a drought, can end Sunday in Los Angeles.

“I didn't do a great job of that for most of the day, but I grinded it out pretty hard,” Scheffler said of his 2-under 68. “I felt like today was one of the days where I got punished for my mistakes, whereas yesterday I felt like I wasn't getting punished at all. I was hitting it all over the map and getting some decent lies and figuring it out from there, and today it seemed like every time I got offline, I was really fighting for par.”

Scheffler started the day five shots behind Fowler, the leader at 10-under par, and Scheffler was hoping to make some birdies and avoid the bogeys. That didn’t come to pass, and when he stood over his approach shot on the 17th hole, he was 1-over, 4-under for the championship and seven shots back. But his next swing may have changed everything.

“I saw where it landed and I thought it would funnel out on to the green and I'd have a look for birdie,” Scheffler said of 194-yard shot that found the bottom of the cup for an eagle 2. “And then you could see everybody as the noise started to kind of rise, got excited, and then they erupted, which is always nice when you're standing back there in the fairway."

Now 7 under and within striking distance to win his second major, Scheffler had two equipment issues to address this week: first he swapped out his putter for a slightly larger model, the he added a new driver after a rough post-round practice session Friday evening. (His gamer was literally tossed aside, and his backup became the starter.)

“I used a putter this shape when I won the U.S. Junior; I used it when I made a deep run at the U.S. Am,” Scheffler said. “Just something that was kind of an older look for me and something that just looked slightly different, maybe looked a little bit bigger line, would feel more forgiving or something like that. I feel like I'm rolling it nice this week.”

Scheffler was runner-up to Matt Fitzpatrick at last year's U.S. Open at The Country Club and also runner-up to Brooks Koepka last month at the PGA Championship at Oak Hill.

Along with his six other top 10’s in majors, Scheffler is battle-tested. But he's human as well. A win would further bolster his resume as the current No. 1 ranking player in the Official World Golf Rankings and the SI World Golf Rankings.

“You're nervous whether or not you're leading or chasing," Scheffler said. “I want to win the golf tournament. It doesn't matter what tournament it is. I'm showing up and I want to play good and I want to win. Going into tomorrow I'm going to be chasing, but it's not going feel any different. If I was in the lead it's just I'm four shots behind instead of four shots ahead or whatever it is. Got to go out there and execute and do the best I can.”