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Scottie Scheffler on PGA Championship leaderboard: ‘I’ve never seen anything like this’
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Written by Paul Hodowanic
NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — The day was off to a rollicking start. Scores were low, the winds were down and Scottie Scheffler looked ready to assert himself in the third round of the PGA Championship.
He hit the first fairway, spun a wedge to 5 feet. A birdie start seemed like a given. Scheffler missed the hole entirely. Par.
At the par-3 fifth, still even for the day. Scheffler hit a majestic iron into the teeth of the wind that settled inside 10 feet from the hole. Another chance, another miss that slid by without touching the hole. Par.
This scene played out throughout Scheffler’s third round, a 1-over 71 on a day that almost every other contender shot under par. Scheffler’s putter bears the brunt of the blame. He lost 2.2 strokes on the greens on Saturday, his worst single-round performance since he nearly lost three strokes in the second round of the 2025 Charles Schwab Challenge, almost 12 months ago.
“Hit a lot of good putts that are kind of right around the edge. It’s kind of like a little bit of a dice roll at times when you have so much slope and so much wind,” Scheffler said. “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.”
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Scottie Scheffler on PGA Championship leaderboard: ‘I’ve never seen anything like this’
That’s the good news. A historically bunched leaderboard has kept Scheffler in the mix. He trails Alex Smalley by five strokes and is three behind the cluster of players at 4 under. It also makes Scheffler’s third round all the more maddening. What could have been had Scheffler simply been able to putt to the field average? He’s made zero putts outside 10 feet in the last two rounds and lost almost four strokes total. That’s the difference between a tie for 23rd, his current position, and solo second at 5 under.
“I won’t think much about this round past today. Like I said, I hit a lot of good shots, felt like I hit some good putts,” he said. “It’s a challenging golf course, and like I said, there’s a lot of slope on the greens. The winds were quite heavy when we were out there this afternoon, and it’s just tough.”
Scheffler’s misses frustrated him while on the course. He three-putted the seventh green for bogey and missed a 5-footer to drop another shot at the eighth. He also missed birdie putts of 6, 8 and 12 feet, carding only two bogeys for the day.
Three years ago, this type of round occurred with regularity. Scheffler had already matured into the best iron player in the world, but he wasn’t winning at the clip we’ve come to expect because the putter continually held him back. Since then, Scheffler has slowly turned his putting from a deficiency to an asset, with the help of Phil Kenyon. Scheffler ranks as a top-15 putter this year. But Aronimink Golf Club’s greens, its biggest defense, have proven fickle for the world’s top player.
Will it keep Scheffler from back-to-back PGA Championships? It already might have.
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May 15, 2026
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