Xander Schauffele Leads Colonial After 3rd Round
|The third round of the Charles Schwab Challenge morphed into “Super Saturday” with the leaderboard full of the the PGA Tour elite as the current top-10 includes four FedExCup Champions – Rory McIroy, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth Justin Rose. When the final putt dropped at Colonial Country Club, it was 2017 TOUR Championship winner Xander Schauffle leading by one shot.
Colonial is the first of five PGA Tour events to be played with out fans, so while the top of its leaderboard resembles a major championship, the atmosphere is more like “all’s quiet on the western front.”
“It was quiet, as always, or at least for the last couple days, and it was fast,” Schauffele said. “We played in twosomes, and it was a good day. You know, I tried to stay as cool as possible, hang out in the shade, and take care of my business.”
Schauffele has not won a major, but his resume does include a victory at the prestigious World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions among his four PGA Tour wins. When the final round begins on Sunday, there will be five golfers within one shot of the leader including major champions Thomas, Spieth and Gary Woodland.
Spieth held the lead for much of the afternoon while playing in the final pairing alongside Harold Varner III. A bogey on No. 15 dropped Spieth into the logjam at 12-under.
“Today was a day where I look at the last couple years and potentially say that would have been a 2- or 3-over and taken me all the way out of the tournament, and I like the progression I’ve been able to make,” Spieth said. “I feel comfortable going into tomorrow that I can shoot a good score.”
Varner opened the day with a birdie on No. 1, but struggled to get any putts to fall en route to an EVEN-par 70. He sits two shots off the lead going into the final round.
“I hit it really well, just hung in there, but obviously didn’t get any putts to fall,” Varner said. “I’m going to work on it, and I’ve obviously still got a chance.”
Thomas, the former No. 1 player in the world, was grinding his way around the iconic golf course and ended up with a 66 to get to one shot out of the lead in spite of the lack of fans.
“It’s just very quiet,” Thomas said. “It’s just like another round of golf. It’s just the 67 best players in the world this weekend playing here at Colonial. It’s different, but everyone has to adjust to it.”
McIlroy, the current top player in the world, is three shots behind Schauffele after his third round 69.
“I’m still going to be within striking distance going into tomorrow,” McIlroy said. “The golf course is holding up well. It’s not as if anyone is going super, super low. If I can sort of emulate what I did yesterday and post something in the low to mid 60s, hopefully I’ll have a chance.”
2018 Masters champion Patrick Reed had the round of the day when he posted a 63 to improve 26 spots into a tie for 9th and in the mix for Sunday.
“It’s what I needed to do today,” Reed said. “I think that was the biggest thing. Kind of coming into today, I just felt like I did a lot of things solid the first two days, but I just made too many careless mistakes, so I was trying to clean that up today, and I felt like I did a good job on that and just gave myself a chance with my putter.”
Schauffele and U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland will be the final pairing, teeing off at 1:10 on Sunday. They will be preceded by Justin Thomas and Branden Grace (1:00) and Collin Morikowa and Jordan Spieth (12:50).