SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — World No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler knows what\u2019s at stake in Sunday\u2019s final round of the 126th U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club.<\/p>\n
If Scheffler can make something special happen — or if leader Wyndham Clark can somehow come back to the field — he will have a chance to become only the seventh golfer to complete the career Grand Slam.<\/p>\n
Scheffler would accomplish the feat on his 30th birthday and Father\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n
He trails Clark by six shots heading into the final round. They will play together in the last group.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to be in these positions,\u201d said Scheffler, who was tied for second at 1 under. \u201cThis is why we practice and play, to have the opportunity to win golf tournaments, and that\u2019s what tomorrow is. I have an opportunity to go out there and have a great round and give myself a chance to win the tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n
After three straight birdies on the back nine put Scheffler back into contention Saturday, he had a chance to get even closer on the final two holes. He narrowly missed a 7-foot putt that would have saved par on the 17th.<\/p>\n
On the par-4 18th, Scheffler hit his approach to about 4 feet but missed a tricky downhill putt for birdie.<\/p>\n
\u201cLate in the day, the greens, there\u2019s a lot of activity, and with so much pitch and wind, there\u2019s a bit of mystery as to how the ball is going to break,\u201d Scheffler said. \u201cWe had a kind of inside left read, hit a solid putt, and [the ball] just kind of kept breaking.\u201d<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t seem like Scheffler would be in contention at all after his opening two holes. On the first, he pulled his drive into the rough on the left. Scheffler said he had \u201cthe worst lie I\u2019ve seen from anybody all week\u201d and could advance his ball only 48 yards. He walked away with a bogey.<\/p>\n
On the par-3 second, his tee shot bounced into a left greenside bunker. He couldn\u2019t get up and down and made another bogey.<\/p>\n
After carding seven straight pars, Scheffler started turning things around on the 10th with a 7\u00bd-foot birdie putt. He had a nice par save with a 6-footer on the 12th.<\/p>\n
On the par-4 14th, Scheffler blasted a 351-yard drive down the right side of the fairway. His ball stopped below the green, about 65 feet from the hole. He chipped in for another birdie to get back to even par.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt that point, I\u2019m still over par for the tournament, staring at a pretty tough up-and-down,\u201d Scheffler said. \u201cSo to steal a shot there at least is a pretty good feeling. We\u2019ve been battling for three days now, and at that point over par for the tournament, you can feel like it\u2019s kind of slipping away. To steal one there was really nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scheffler wasn\u2019t done. He made a 12-foot birdie putt on the 13th to move to 1 under. On the par-5 16th, he reached the green with a fairway wood from 274 yards. He narrowly missed a 13-foot eagle putt and settled for another birdie to get to 2 under.<\/p>\n
It was the first time in Scheffler\u2019s career that he made three straight birdies in a U.S. Open round.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can hit a lot of good shots and end up in some spots where you\u2019re going to be frustrated with the result, but I think that\u2019s part of the U.S. Open test,\u201d Scheffler said. \u201cWe did a good job of staying patient and stealing some shots where we could. The back nine, [I] definitely stole a couple shots.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, the odds are stacked against Scheffler and the rest of the field.<\/p>\n
Twenty-one golfers had a lead of six shots or more entering the final round of a major, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. All but one went on to win; Greg Norman carded a 6-over 78 in the final round of the 1996 Masters and lost to Nick Faldo by five strokes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been battling hard for a few days, and I did a good job of keeping myself in the tournament,\u201d Scheffler said. \u201cI\u2019ll need a really nice round tomorrow if I\u2019m going to try and catch Wyndham.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — World No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler knows what\u2019s at stake in Sunday\u2019s final round of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":751878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-751877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=751877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/751878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}