Glory, not ranking, on Scheffler's mind ahead of Sawgrass Sunday

While the American can move back to World No.1 with TPC victory, he's only focused on the title

Sun, 12 Mar, 2023 - 00:12

Scott Michaux

With the No. 1 ranking within easy reach, Scottie Scheffler has a much bigger prize to chase in the “fifth major” Sunday.

Scheffler made birdie on 18 Saturday to cap a 7-under 65 to reach 14-under par and take a two-shot lead over Australian Min Woo Lee with one round remaining in the Players Championship. Lee's fellow Australian Cam Davis is third at 10-under.

“I think the ranking is just an algorithm; I’d much rather win than return to No.1 in the world,” said Scheffler, the reigning Masters champion who only needs to tie for fifth or better to take the top ranking back from Jon Rahm.

It took only two holes Saturday for Scheffler to turn a two-shot deficit into a one-shot lead. He chipped in for eagle on the second hole while 36-hole leader Adam Svensson made bogey, a three-shot lead that propelled the world No. 2 to the top of the leaderboard.

“I got off to a nice start, which is always good and kept it rolling from there,” Scheffler said. “Good finish as well. So overall very solid day, only one bogey, which is really good around this golf course.”

Scheffler and Lee started to separate themselves as each played the front side in 31. Lee claimed the lead after a huge par save on 10 kickstarted a birdie-birdie combo on 11 and 12. But Lee failed to sustain his momentum and walked off with a disappointing lip-out bogey on the last to shoot 66. Scheffler’s birdies at 16 and 18 set the mark.

Lee, a two-time DP World Tour winner playing in his first Players Championship, is thrilled to have a chance for what could be the biggest day of his young career. The crowd embraced him, chanting “Woooo!” as he played through 16, 17 and 18.

The opportunity almost didn’t happen as Lee eked into the field by slipping into the OWGR top 50 at the deadline after the Honda Classic.

“It would have been gutting to come 51st in the ranking and not get in,” said Lee. “So I think it ended up being one eighth of a shot with the ranking points. Things did favor in my way, and you got to make the most of it. Like I said, I wouldn't have known that this course was really nice for me. I love to shape shots and hit good tee shots off the tees and, yeah, I really love playing here.” Lee, who opened the third-round with a hole-out eagle on 1, is embracing the moment.

“(Sunday) could be the biggest day of my life, but I'm going to go out there and have fun again,” he said. “It's been the motto for the last three months. Not taking it too seriously. I like to have fun and interact with the fans when I can. Unlike others, you know, they're very serious. So, yeah, I'm just out here enjoying my time, and like I said, I just crept into this tournament and making the most of it and soaking it all in.”

A course softened by overnight rain and benign weather favored just about everybody and made for a scoring spree in Saturday’s third round. Several players including Cameron Young and Sungjae Im got off to torrid starts and threatened to break the tournament scoring record of 63. Young faded and Im shot 64 to climb to T8. England’s Tommy Fleetwood and Aaron Rai both shot 65s to move into a four-way tie for fourth at 9-under par overall with Chad Ramey and Christiaan Bezuidenhout.

But it was Tom Hoge who set the Players Championship scoring record with a flawless 10-under round of 62. That was 16 shots better than Hoge’s opening-round 78 and vaulted him into the mix at T8 with Im and David Lingmerth.

“It was as easy as a 10-under could look,” said Justin Thomas, who played with Hoge and Shane Lowry. “I played the (Web.com Tour) with Tom and when he gets on like that it’s really impressive. When he gets that putter rolling he made 10-under look effortless. It easily could have been 59 or 60, which is really scary.” Hoge, who had to wait all morning to see if he made the cut, didn’t even realize what he’d done until Lowry told him after he holed his 10th birdie putt of the day on the ninth hole.

“I didn't even know it was a course record until after we got done,” he said. “Today was going to be the day to do it if you were going to out here because it was soft with little wind, so you felt like you could make birdies and keep trying to make birdies. So just felt fortunate and tried to take advantage of it the best I could.”