{"id":616749,"date":"2026-04-19T08:39:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T08:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/616749\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T08:39:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T08:39:10","slug":"rbc-heritage-scottie-scheffler-flies-into-contention-but-matthew-fitzpatrick-extends-lead-at-the-top-golf-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/616749\/","title":{"rendered":"RBC Heritage: Scottie Scheffler flies into contention but Matthew Fitzpatrick extends lead at the top | Golf News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Matt Fitzpatrick had a slow start that brought Scottie Scheffler back into the mix Saturday until holing two shots from off the green on the back nine that sent him to a three-under 68 and a three-shot lead in the RBC Heritage.<\/p>\n<p>Scheffler, the world&#8217;s No 1 player who won at Harbour Town two years ago, was seven shots behind going into the third round and surged into contention with five birdies through six holes.<\/p>\n<p>He finished by smashing a nine-iron from 196 with the wind at his back to 10 feet for a final birdie and a seven-under 64, enough to briefly tie Fitzpatrick for the lead. Just not for long.<\/p>\n<p>Fitzpatrick rolled in a 25-foot birdie putt from off the green at the par-three 14th. He was right of the green with his second shot on the par-five 15th and chipped in for eagle to restore the margin to three shots.<\/p>\n<p>Fitzpatrick, the 2023 winner of the RBC Heritage, closed with three pars to reach 17-under 196.<\/p>\n<p>        Twitter<\/p>\n<p>                This content is provided by Twitter, which may be using cookies and other technologies.<br \/>\n                To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.<br \/>\n                You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Twitter cookies or to allow those cookies just once.<br \/>\n                You can change your settings at any time via the <a href=\"#privacy-options\">Privacy Options<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>                Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Twitter cookies.<br \/>\n                To view this content you can use the button below to allow Twitter cookies for this session only.<\/p>\n<p>                <a href=\"#\" class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__link ui-consent-roadblock-permanently\" data-single-click-vendor-name=\"twitter\" data-show-on-fallback=\"false\" data-testid=\"consent-roadblock-allow\">Enable Cookies<\/a><br \/>\n                <a href=\"#\" class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__link ui-consent-roadblock-once\" data-single-click-vendor-name=\"twitter\" data-testid=\"consent-roadblock-allow-once\">Allow Cookies Once<\/a><\/p>\n<p>He started another warm, breezy day with a one-shot lead over Viktor Hovland (73), four clear of everyone else. Fitzpatrick goes into the final round with four players within four shots of the lead, starting with the No 1 player in the world.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Good to be back in the tournament,&#8221; Scheffler said. &#8220;I was a little bit behind the 8-ball going into today, but had a nice round to put myself back in position.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So did Brian Harman, who recovered from a slow start for the second straight week. The former Open champion opened with a 71 and had his best score ever at Harbour Town with a 63 that left him four behind along with Si Woo Kim (66) and Sepp Straka (67).<\/p>\n<p>Even before Fitzpatrick teed off, Scheffler was making a move &#8211; a pair of birdies in the 6-foot range, a pair of birdies from the greenside bunkers on the par fives and a 15-foot birdie putt on No 6.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It felt like I had already gotten myself into contention there,&#8221; Scheffler said, figuring the last group had not even started.<\/p>\n<p>        Twitter<\/p>\n<p>                This content is provided by Twitter, which may be using cookies and other technologies.<br \/>\n                To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.<br \/>\n                You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Twitter cookies or to allow those cookies just once.<br \/>\n                You can change your settings at any time via the <a href=\"#privacy-options\">Privacy Options<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>                Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Twitter cookies.<br \/>\n                To view this content you can use the button below to allow Twitter cookies for this session only.<\/p>\n<p>                <a href=\"#\" class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__link ui-consent-roadblock-permanently\" data-single-click-vendor-name=\"twitter\" data-show-on-fallback=\"false\" data-testid=\"consent-roadblock-allow\">Enable Cookies<\/a><br \/>\n                <a href=\"#\" class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__link ui-consent-roadblock-once\" data-single-click-vendor-name=\"twitter\" data-testid=\"consent-roadblock-allow-once\">Allow Cookies Once<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Fitzpatrick went long on the first hole and left and long on the third, both times failing to save par. He made another bogey on the par-three seventh, and by then an entire cast of contenders were back in the tournament.<\/p>\n<p>Scheffler, Harman and Kim each had at least a share of the lead at one point. Harman closed out his round by holing a bunker shot on the par-three 17th.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Just tried to keep the pedal down. It&#8217;s going to take a low number to win,&#8221; Harman said.<\/p>\n<p>But it started to turn for Fitzpatrick when he ripped driver on the 315-yard ninth , the ball landing on the front of the bunker and hopping onto the green to about 75 feet away, leading to a two-putt birdie. Three holes later, he converted a 10-foot birdie putt and was on his way.<\/p>\n<p>        Twitter<\/p>\n<p>                This content is provided by Twitter, which may be using cookies and other technologies.<br \/>\n                To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.<br \/>\n                You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Twitter cookies or to allow those cookies just once.<br \/>\n                You can change your settings at any time via the <a href=\"#privacy-options\">Privacy Options<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>                Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Twitter cookies.<br \/>\n                To view this content you can use the button below to allow Twitter cookies for this session only.<\/p>\n<p>                <a href=\"#\" class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__link ui-consent-roadblock-permanently\" data-single-click-vendor-name=\"twitter\" data-show-on-fallback=\"false\" data-testid=\"consent-roadblock-allow\">Enable Cookies<\/a><br \/>\n                <a href=\"#\" class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__link ui-consent-roadblock-once\" data-single-click-vendor-name=\"twitter\" data-testid=\"consent-roadblock-allow-once\">Allow Cookies Once<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Scheffler and Fitzpatrick played together the opening two rounds, and the Englishman put seven shots between them to the 36-hole lead.<\/p>\n<p>Scheffler, coming off a runner-up finish in the Masters, figured he would need one of his best rounds to at least have a chance. He also needed a little help. His 64 was the best score of the 14 players ahead of him, and all but three of those players did no better than 68.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Fitzpatrick goes out today and shoots 64, that&#8217;s going to make things really hard for me,&#8221; Scheffler said. &#8220;You need a tiny bit of help, but I can&#8217;t control what those guys are going to do. If somebody shows up and shoots 28 under on this golf course, sometimes you just get beat.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So going into today I was just going to do my best and see where that left me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Watch the RBC Heritage live on Sky Sports Golf. Coverage of the PGA Tour Signature Event begins on each day of the tournament at 12pm. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sky.com\/tv\/sports?dcmp=Ilc_skysports_nc_articlelink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Get Sky Sports<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nowtv.com\/watch-sky-sports-online?DCMP=ilc_skysports_nc_articlelink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">stream with no contract<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/golfnow-logo.png\" class=\"sdc-interactive-golfnow__branding-image\" alt=\"Golf Now logo.\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"sdc-interactive-golfnow__branding-text\" class=\"sdc-interactive-golfnow__branding-text\">Get the best prices and book a round at one of 1,700 courses across the UK &amp; Ireland<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matt Fitzpatrick had a slow start that brought Scottie Scheffler back into the mix Saturday until holing two&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-616749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}