PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — He clawed back inside the top 30 at the Players Championship on Saturday afternoon, but Scottie Scheffler wasn’t overly impressed with himself.
After flirting with the 36-hole cut and fighting through some frustrations the first two days at TPC Sawgrass, Scheffler put together a five-birdie, no-bogey effort during the third round that perhaps put to rest some angst about his game. [Follow our third-round live blog here.]
Scheffler hasn’t been awful but he’s not been, well, Scheffler, of late. He’s coming off two of his worst performances in more than a year. For a guy who had 18 consecutive top-10 finishes and won two major championships in 2025, that is reason for at least some mild concern.
“ I was a little sharper today than I was the first two days,” Scheffler said after he finishing well before the tournament leaders teed off. “I felt like I was swinging it better each day of the tournament. Today hit a few more fairways and was able to give myself a few more looks for birdie.”
Scheffler found himself on the cutline Friday after a sloppy three-putt bogey at the par-6 16th. He needed to par the 18th to make it to the weekend and birdied the final hole to make his 70th consecutive cut on the PGA Tour, the second-longest streak since Tiger Woods’ record of 142.
Still, Scheffler has had his struggles of late, getting off to slow starts at several events after winning the American Express Championship in January for his 20th PGA Tour title.
His tie for 24th last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational was his worst finish in more than a year. Had he missed the cut this week, it would’ve been his first since the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship.
“It's more fun fighting to be near the lead is how I would describe it,” he said. “Was it a different kind of nervous? I mean, I think I'm always grinding and trying to fight to shoot a good score, and I felt like that's what I was trying to do yesterday as well. Yeah, I don't know.”
Scheffler was far from reflective or introspective about the whole thing.
Scheffler finds his groove in Round 3
But he clearly found some comfort during the third round and was back in some familiar territory, ranking third in strokes gained off the tee and ninth in the strokes gained approach.
He hit 11 of 14 fairways to give himself a few more chances, although he hit just nine greens. On the par-5 11th he found water but still managed to make par.
Scheffler will try to build on that in the final round with the Masters looming. He said he is undecided if he will enter another tournament before the year’s first major championship.
“I think with the way I hit it the first couple days, to kind of have the attitude that I did and the fight that I did, I think that—when I look at tournaments, I'm not thinking about winning, I'm thinking about approaching things the right way,” he said. “I did my best to stay committed and I did a good job I think of keeping the right attitude and keeping my head on straight in order to grind out a couple rounds that were difficult.
“And then I shot a nice round today as well. So overall I think I've been in a good spot with how my attitude and commitment has been to my shots. So that's, for me that's a good week.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Scottie Scheffler Looked More Like His Old Self in Round 3 at Players.
