Scottie Scheffler Stumbles at PGA Championship After Frustrating Round 3

Scottie Scheffler's putter went cold on Saturday as he missed several close-range birdie putts.

Scottie Scheffler Stumbles at PGA Championship After Frustrating Round 3

Scottie Scheffler (Image via The Mirror)

Scottie Scheffler did not have the best of days on Saturday as his putter went cold. His 1-over par score saw him stumble in the rankings of the PGA Championship and end the day 7 shots behind the leader, Alex Smalley.

The golfer entered this tournament this week as the defending champion. Last year, he claimed his 3rd major title by finishing 5 shots ahead of the runners-up in this event.

The title defense did start good for him. In the tricky conditions of the Aroniminik Golf Club on Thursday, the World No.1 fired an opening round score of 67.

His 3-under par score saw him end the first round as one of the co-leaders. This marked the first time he was top of the leaderboard of a major championship after the first round.

The second round on Friday saw him stutter a little bit. He bogeyed 3 of his first 4 holes and finished the back nine while being 2-over par with a birdie on the 17th hole. On the front nine, he recovered a bit with 2 birdies and 1 bogey to finish the round 1-over par.

On the moving day, it seemed he would take a huge step towards the title. However, that did not happen as he struggled with his putter.

At the first hole, he missed a birdie putt from 10th feet as he missed the hole completely. He came back to make a par. He then missed another close-range birdie putt on the 3rd hole after finding the fairway.

This scene continued as he failed to make a birdie putt on the 5th hole as well. Following 5 straight pars to start the round, he eventually made a birdie on the 6th hole.

This was followed by back-to-back bogeys on the 7th and 8th holes. Another birdie putt miss on the 9th hole saw him end the front nine with a 1-over par score.

On the back nine, the 4-time major champion made a birdie on the 11th hole. After that, he carded 6 straight pars as his birdie putts lipped out on the 13th and 16th holes. A bogey on the final hole saw him end the proceedings on Saturday with another round of 71.

Scheffler fell 14 positions in the PGA Championship leaderboard and was T23 at the end of day’s play on Saturday. While the World No.1 has made some impressive comebacks in the past, he will need a huge performance on Sunday to retain his title.

I felt like I did a good job today kind of hanging in there. Yeah, hit some good shots, hit a lot of good putts that are kind of right around the edge. … So my thoughts on today is, if I continue to do what I’m doing and hole a few more putts, then I think I’ll be in a good spot when tomorrow ends.

Scottie Scheffler told the reporters at PGA Championship
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Scottie Scheffler was left surprised with bunched up leaderboard at 2026 PGA Championship

The 2026 PGA Championship is turning into a tight contest. The tricky conditions of the Aronimink Golf Club have seen several stars struggle, leading to the leaderboard being packed with several contenders. During the press conference on Saturday, Scottie Scheffler opened up about this

Scottie Scheffler
Scottie Scheffler (Image via PGA Tour)

On Friday, the golfer spoke against the “absurd” pin locations at this course. He admitted that he had never seen such locations during his PGA Tour career.

A day after this, the golfer claimed he had never seen such a close leaderboard and believes that it’s anyone’s game on Sunday.

First, I’ve never seen anything like this. When we were out there, I think it’s just the nature of a lot of different things, but yeah, I’ve never seen a leaderboard like this, this bunched up. Going into tomorrow, it’s quite literally anybody’s tournament. There’s a lot of guys that have a chance.

Scottie Scheffler told the reporters

At the moment, Alex Smalley leads the tournament while being 6-under par. There are a total of 22 players who are within 4 shots of the lead, the most in PGA Championship history.

Interestingly, Smalley has never won on the PGA Tour. If he can fend off the chasers on Sunday, his first victory on the Tour could be a major triumph. Only time will tell who will break through and hoist the Wanamaker Trophy this year.

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