The 29-year-old Scotsman, runner-up to J.J. Spaun at June\u2019s US Open, fired a two-under par 68 to stand on 16-under 194 after 54 holes at Caves Valley in suburban Baltimore.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe day was tough,\u201d MacIntyre said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t the plain sailing of the first two days, but I thought I managed it well.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was steady. Holed some nice par putts, missed a couple of chances I felt I could have got, but the pins were absolutely brutal.\u201d <\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755205269_854_poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
As for his electrifying final putt, MacIntyre said, \u201cHoling that putt is a massive boost going into tomorrow. That one shot is everything out here.\u201d <\/p>\n
US star Scheffler, whose four victories this season include major triumphs at the PGA Championship and British Open, fired a 67 to finish on 198 but clutch putting by MacIntyre kept him from closing the gap as they battled down the back nine.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did some good stuff out there. I would have liked to have been a little sharper with my irons,\u201d said Scheffler. <\/p>\n
\u201cI did a good job of staying patient. Would have liked to make a few more birdies, but overall for how I was hitting it, not a terrible score.<\/p>\n
\u201cBob has got a four-shot lead going into tomorrow. He\u2019s playing some great golf and it\u2019s up to me to go out there and chase him down.\u201d <\/p>\n
Hojgaard holes out for eagles TWICE! | 00:55<\/p>\n
Sweden\u2019s Ludvig Aberg was third on 200 after shooting 68 with England\u2019s Harry Hall and American Sam Burns on 202 and England\u2019s Tommy Fleetwood and American Maverick McNealy on 203.<\/p>\n
MacIntyre\u2019s two PGA wins came last year at the Canadian and Scottish Opens, the Canada victory coming after his only prior PGA 54-hole lead.<\/p>\n
The Scotsman shushed a heckler after making a clutch par putt at the 14th hole. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in America, playing against their sweetheart Scottie, who I get on well with, he\u2019s a great guy,\u201d MacIntyre said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI expected it today and I expect it again tomorrow. You give me crap, I\u2019ll give you crap back. I\u2019m not scared of that.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was just jeering. He was just shouting I missed it — he\u2019s pushed it. Pushed it right in the middle of the hole, I guess.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll give as good back as I get. There was obviously a couple of shouts. But there\u2019s plenty of security there that are hearing it and seeing it, and I did see them talk to a few people. I don\u2019t know if anyone was thrown out, but there was plenty of people to talk to.\u201d <\/p>\n
MacIntyre warned he\u2019s not one to be heckled, adding, \u201cIt\u2019s not the size of the dog in the fight, it\u2019s the size of the fight in the dog and I grew up fighting to be in this position.\u201d <\/p>\n
MacIntyre, who led Scheffler by five when the day began, opened with a bogey after finding a greenside bunker but birdied the par-five fourth from inside three feet then sank a seven-foot birdie putt at the ninth to lead by four at 15-under.<\/p>\n
Scheffler had tap-in birdies at the fourth and seventh holes, birdied the 11th from 14 feet but missed a par putt at 12 from just beyond 10 feet to fall four back, MacIntyre parring from just inside seven feet at 12.<\/p>\n
Solid start for Day despite late stumble | 00:51<\/p>\n
Scheffler rolled in an 18-foot birdie putt at the 14th but despite the heckler MacIntyre sank a clutch par putt from just outside seven feet at 14 — his fourth par putt of the day made from beyond six feet.<\/p>\n
The BMW is the second PGA playoff FedEx Cup event, with the top 30 in season points advancing to next week\u2019s Tour Championship in Atlanta.<\/p>\n
Australian Jason Day sits tied for 16th at two-under for the tournament after recovering from a disappointing finish to the second round, which saw him post a one-over 71 which ranked the worst in the top 20 at the time.<\/p>\n
American Akshay Bhatia, battling for one of the last spots in Atlanta, aced the 227-yard par-three 17th hole with a five-iron. He shot 66 to stand on 210 thanks in part to his first PGA hole-in-one and his sixth overall.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen that golf ball goes in, it was the craziest thing in the world,\u201d Bhatia said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t even feel my body.\u201d Bhatia said he will give the BMW he won for the ace to his caddie. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Robert MacIntyre closed with a 41-foot birdie putt to grab a four-stroke lead over top-ranked Scottie Scheffler after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-73790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73790","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=73790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}