– Matt Fitzpatrick (-17) has retained the solo lead after the third round with a 68, and has even extended his advantage heading into the final round. What has changed slightly is the range of main contenders or rivals for the Englishman, with the star appearance of Scottie Scheffler (-14), who has moved into the final group on Sunday thanks to a magnificent 65. The Englishman and the Texan, then, meet again this week at Harbour Town after playing together on Thursday and Friday, but this time with the title at stake.
– The special ties that bind Fitzpatrick to Hilton Head, the island home to the Harbour Town Golf Links, a Pete Dye design, are well known. The Englishman came here several times on holiday with his family as a child and, as he already pointed out when he won in 2023, it was probably the tournament he most wanted to win. The proof is that Matt has played it twelve times already and the last eleven consecutively, from 2016 to 2026 without missing an edition. Again this week, he wants to be a child once more.
– Both Fitzpatrick and Viktor Hovland (-11), the two members of the final pairing on Saturday, started in a decidedly calamitous fashion, each two over after the first three holes, which tightened the tournament considerably. But while the Englishman worked his way back into the day, Hovland’s round grew long. The man from Sheffield completed the comeback by holing a putt from off the green at the 14th, and then carding an eagle at the 15th, the course’s final par‑5, holing the ball again from off the green with a superb chip. It wasn’t the Englishman’s best day of golf, but he grew into the round and in the end could even have extended his lead further.
– Scheffler, for his part, put practically his entire arsenal into play in a round that was far from perfect (he missed up to seven greens in regulation), but one that was always under the Texan’s control. Scottie, who began like a whirlwind with a five‑under stretch in the first third of the round, was then somewhat checked on the greens, but he kept his patience, avoided major mistakes and still produced a late surge with birdies at 16 and 18 that certainly boost his chances. Fitzpatrick, as has already been written this week, is not easily impressed at this stage, so the duel is on and it should by no means be ruled out that the Englishman can hold onto his three‑shot lead — far from it — to win the tournament for a second time. If the Englishman regains the good form of the first two rounds with his irons and wedges (today his second shots caused him more problems), Scheffler will have it very tough.
– Brian Harman (-13) posted the best score of the day, a 63 that some contender could well repeat on Sunday to put pressure on the leader, so Harman himself remains in the mix, as do Si Woo Kim (-13), Sepp Straka (-13), and even Gary Woodland (-12), who has taken a liking to the final Sunday groups, Andrew Novak (-12), Patrick Cantlay (-12), Aldrich Potgieter (-12) and Ludvig Aberg (-12), who finished with a bogey at 18 when he was still fighting to get closer to the leader after a poor shot from the fairway that sent the ball into the bunker.
– Analyses involving Scheffler are sometimes overly subjective. On one hand, a win for him tomorrow might finally confirm his complete rehabilitation, according to the monstrous standards, in the best sense, that this player had set in previous seasons. On the other hand, it sometimes feels ridiculous to speak of ‘rehabilitation’ about a player who just finished second in the first Major of the year… Be that as it may, something tells us that even Scheffler would privately feel that things have returned to normal if he can come from behind and take the tournament.
