LOS ANGELES — Like commuters on the 405 freeway at rush hour, the players at the top of the leaderboard at the start of play found it difficult to make much forward progress during Saturday’s third round of the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club.
Among the final 10 players to tee off on Saturday, the best score posted during an extremely difficult day of golf was a 2-under 68 posted by Scottie Scheffler. As a result, six players will start Sunday’s final round within six shots of the lead held by Murrieta native Rickie Fowler and Wyndham Clark, who are tied at 10-under 200. Rory McIlroy, looking for his first major title in nine years, sits in third place following his 1-under 69 on Saturday that leaves him at 9-under par 201. Scheffler is alone in fourth at 7 under.
Through 16 holes Scheffler was among the crowd feeling extremely frustrated, primarily because of his inability to convert any of the birdie opportunities he gave himself that could have propelled him closer to the players above him on the leaderboard.
Scheffler’s outlook and his position heading into Sunday’s final round dramatically changed when his second shot on 17 bounced on the green and proceeded to roll into the cup for an eagle, putting him back in red numbers for the first time since a birdie on the first hole. He followed the eagle by making a long birdie putt on 18, giving the former Masters champion some strong momentum heading into Sunday.
“I was fighting all day today, trying to just get myself back in position, just trying to make some birdies and avoid the bogeys,” Scheffler said. “I didn’t do a great job of that for most of the day but I grinded it out pretty hard. 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. Today it seemed like every time I got offline, I was really fighting for par. Just fortunate to see that shot go in on 17 and then a nice birdie on 18 to kind of get myself back into it.”
After grinding so hard for much of the round, Scheffler’s big finish could very well provide the jump start he needs to rally from behind on Sunday and win his second career major championship.
“I’m standing there on 17 tee looking up at the board and I’m seven shots back and I’m thinking maybe I can steal one shot coming in, but really I’m just trying to hit the fairway there just to give myself some sort of chance, because if you miss that fairway on 17, I am going to be fighting for par again,” Scheffler said. “Then I hit a nice drive and the (second) shot goes in and it’s a huge boost. Then I hit another two good shots into 18, nail the putt, and all of a sudden instead of seven shots back I’m only three. So definitely a huge momentum boost going into tomorrow, and hopefully I’ll just keep it rolling.”
Before the leaders had even showed up at the course to begin preparing for their rounds, Tom Kim provided some hope for those needing to post a really low round when he went out and fired a 6-under 29 on the front nine. Kim started with a birdie on one and added four more birdies over his next five holes. After a par on seven, he birdied eight and nine, making the turn at 6 under. But three bogeys on the back nine led to a 2-over 37, leaving Kim with a 4-under 66.
“That back nine is really hard. You just don’t really have any bailouts,” Kim said. “Those three bogeys really don’t feel like bogeys because I barely missed it by a yard or two. But major championship golf, U.S. Open really brings it out of you. Would have been nice to kind of par in and see that bogey-free or see one or two more birdies, but if you told me at the start of the day, I’d take that score.”
Fowler will be attempting to go wire-to-wire when he tees off Sunday in search of the first major championship title of his career. Unlike Friday’s roller-coaster second round which saw Fowler post eight birdies and six bogeys, Fowler’s third round was much less frantic. Throughout the 18 holes he was never more than one shot higher or lower than his starting score of 10 under.
“A little bit of a grind out there today,” Fowler said. “Still hit some good shots, but with the firmer conditions and the pins being some kind of tucked front pins. When you miss the fairway, it makes it very hard to make par. I had to accept some bogeys there in the round early on, but I feel like we did a good job of kind of staying present, moving forward, and like I said, still a lot of quality shots. Through three rounds we’re in the spot that we want to be in.”
It appeared as if Fowler would finish the day alone at the top of the leaderboard but his short par putt on the final hole lipped out, dropping him into a tie with Clark. The miss seemed to surprise Fowler, who gestured with his hands in disbelief.
“You could see from the first putt, there’s a lot of slope there,” Fowler said. “I’m not sure why it didn’t move. It should have. I hit a good putt, just a bummer. It would be nice for that one to go in. Really doesn’t matter, having the lead, being one back, two back. You’re going to have to play good golf tomorrow.”
While Fowler said he has experienced the usual nerves that go with trying to win a golf tournament, he feels overall he’s been able to handle the pressure that goes with chasing a major championship better than he has in quite a while.
“This is the best I’ve felt all year and definitely in a long time,” Fowler said. “We all feel nerves at times, depending on certain shots or circumstances, but I mentioned it yesterday and then still stand by it. This is the best I’ve felt, let alone in a normal tournament but especially a major, and I would say really ever in my career.”
Early in the round, it appeared McIlroy might be ready to go low and distance himself from the pack. He birdied two of his first three holes and had good opportunities for birdies on several other holes on the front side. But time and time again his birdie putts just missed and over the final nine holes he, like everyone else in the field, found himself battling to keep from dropping strokes.
“The golf course definitely got a little bit trickier today than the first couple of days,” McIlroy said. “I felt like I played really smart, solid golf. Hit a lot of fairways, hit a lot of greens. Overall, yeah, pretty pleased with how today went, and feel like I’m in a good spot heading into tomorrow.”
While he’s one of the few players near the top of the leaderboard who have won a major, McIlroy said he doesn’t believe his previous success gives him any type of leg up heading into Sunday.
“It’s been such a long time since I’ve done it,” McIlroy said. “I’m going out there to try to execute a game plan, and I feel like over the last three days I’ve executed that game plan really, really well, and I just need to do that for one more day.”
As he strives to win the biggest tournament of his career, Fowler was asked what winning a US Open title would mean to him.
“I mean, obviously it would be huge, especially being here in Southern California, having a lot of people, family and friends that are out here this week,” Fowler said. “We have a chance tomorrow. I mentioned out there after going through the last few years, I’m not scared to fail. I’ve dealt with that. We’re just going to go have fun, continue to try to execute, leave it all out there, see where we stand on 18.”
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