The Players: At Sawgrass, things have suddenly got interesting

Schauffele: When we close our eyes at night and fall asleep, you want to get to the 18th hole with a six- or seven-shot lead and smiling at your caddie and the crowd. I think that’s what we all want, but it’s not always the case'

Rory McIlroy: Birdied the last three holes.

The 50th Players Championship – which was shaping up to be a potential snoozefest of a blowout – got a lot more interesting on Saturday.

Xander Schauffele erased Wyndham Clark’s four-stroke margin and took over the lead by a shot heading into Sunday’s final round at the TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course. Schauffele fired a bogey-free 65 Saturday to get to 17-under, one better than Clark who shot 70 and stumbled out of a share of the lead by saving bogey after a chunked tee shot into the drink on the 17th hole.

Sunday sets up to be a little more interesting with four major champions in the top six within five shots chasing an Olympic gold medalist.

Schauffele expects to be pressured on Sunday: “No one is going to lay over here and play dead. Guys are aggressive at all times. It could be low tomorrow, but for the most part I'm going to try and enjoy myself and stay in my lane. … I think if you ask anyone out here they want to sort of do what Scottie (Scheffler) has been doing or what Rory (McIlroy) has done – you want to get to the 18th hole with a six- or seven-shot lead and smiling at your caddie and the crowd. I think that’s what we all want when we close our eyes at night and fall asleep, but it’s not always the case.” 

Schauffele will have a lot of guys to think about overnight heading into Sunday.

Reigning Open champion Brian Harman shot 64 Saturday, the low round of the week, to get within two shots at 15-under. Former U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick shot 68 to share fourth place at 13- under with Maverick McNealy.

Scheffler, the 2022 Masters and defending Players champion, birdied the last three holes to salvage a 68 of his own and get within five shots of the lead at 12-under with Sahith Theegala. The largest final-round comeback to win in Players history is five strokes by Justin Leonard in 1998.

“I was battling my swing a little bit today, but overall I’m pleased being able to get in the house in a few under par,” said Scheffler. “I wouldn’t say I’m out of the tournament. I’m definitely on the outside looking in, but a hot day tomorrow could go a long way.” 

Rory McIlroy birdied his last three holes as well to shoot 69, but tied for 12th at 9-under and eight shots behind will probably need to have a record-setting Sunday and a lot of help to win a second career Players.

Clark’s opening pair of 65s threatened to make this Players a yawner. The only three times in Players history that anyone started 14-under or better at the midway mark turned into at least four-shot victories.

But the reigning U.S. Open champion wasn’t at his sharpest Saturday. He gouged a birdie out of thick rough on the opening hole to briefly push his lead to five strokes, but he battled along as Schauffele chipped away at the lead, catching him with a birdie on 12 when Clark saved par after driving into the water and then pulling ahead with a 58-foot birdie putt on 14.

Clark squared their scores with a birdie at 16, but laid the sod over his wedge shots on 17 that splashed 15 yards short of the bulkhead on the island green. He dropped another ball back on the tee and stuffed it to 6 feet for a “massive” par save.

“It's unfortunate on a hole that's so iconic and has a bunch of trouble to have kind of your worst swing of the day,” Clark said. “But yeah, I followed it with a great swing and a great putt. I'm in the final group tomorrow, which is huge. I'm hoping that's a huge point in the tournament and we look back after tomorrow and look at that hole and say, hey, that was maybe the shot and the putt that meant it all." 

The left-handed Harman battled back from an opening round 72, seven shots worse than Clark playing in the group with him. But he bounced back to match Clark’s 65 in the second round and his 15-under 129 in the middle rounds matched the two best consecutive rounds ever shot on the Stadium Course.

“Thursday was just a dud. Just one of those days … I don't know, just some bad oatmeal,” said Harman, who finished third in the 2021 Players and twice tied eighth. “The last two days have felt more like what my preparation was like. So frustrating that I couldn’t get off to a better start, but at least I know that the prep that I was doing, I knew I was going to play well at some point.” Fitzpatrick bounced back himself from a double “that got away from me” at the fourth hole and bogey at the sixth to make six birdies on his last 10 holes to give himself a chance four back.

“The attitude about myself mentally and how I'm playing physically was a big thing in helping me turn around,” Fitzpatrick said.