It’s easier for a pig to fly over the East Lake course in Atlanta this Sunday than for Scottie Scheffler to lose the FedEx Cup. With the permission of the great John Benjamin Toshack, we borrow his legendary comparison to try to best define the situation of the Tour Championship with 18 holes left. Scheffler has the cup in one hand and with the other he is starting to cash the 25 million dollar check for the champion.
The efforts of Xander Schauffele and Collin Morikawa seem in vain. Schauffele has fallen out of the equation today with a horrible day on the greens and Morikawa holds on but with a purple face from how tight Scottie’s rope is. The world’s Number One has handed in a card of 66 strokes today and has placed himself at -26. He has a five-stroke lead over Morikawa (-21) and nine over Sahith Theegala (-17). Thinking of a victory by another player other than Scheffler is science fiction. Like the pig thing…
What cannot be, cannot be, and it is also impossible. Just the day that Scottie benevolently decides to falter from tee to green, leaving half of the streets along the way and practically half of the greens, it turns out that he putts like the angels. Only Shane Lowry (-13), author of the best card of the day with 65 strokes, was better than the Texan on the greens. He has a thousand rabbits in his hat.
The third round has not been a walk for Scheffler. Morikawa has tightened. He has gone as far as he could. He has managed to get within three strokes of Scottie, pressuring, but the response of the virtual champion has been devastating. He has signed four birdies in the last five holes, including three in a row in the last three. Devastating. All of them, however, with very good putts that have gone from three to six meters.
Sam Burns said this Friday, shortly after finishing the second round, that if Scheffler is usually a super player, when he is in the lead he is almost unpleasant, joked his good friend, referring to the fact that he is practically unapproachable. That’s what he’s showing. He measures the times, plays calmly, better fits the mistakes and, above all, putts with much more finesse, the club moves with more freedom. Either you take him with your tongue out from minute 1, or Scheffler doesn’t give you a chance.
Really, only Morikawa seems to have a chance to unsettle Scheffler. To do this, he will have to play like today from tee to green and greatly improve his performance on the greens. There is no other way. Anything other than handing in a card of 63 strokes, eight under par, seems to make any sorpasso to Scheffler impossible. To do something like this you have to plug in a lot.
It should be said that Scheffler’s exhibition is aside from the ten strokes in his favor that he received as Number One of the FedEx before the Tour Championship. In fact, with the raw classification, Scottie would be second with -16, only one stroke behind Morikawa. Don’t you also doubt that Scheffler’s great goal this Sunday is to also be the best without the strokes facilitated before the tournament?
