PGA Championship leaderboard LIVE: Scottie Scheffler crushes field to win third major title
The world No 1 was chased by Jon Rahm among others but proved too good for the rest at Quail Hollow
Scottie Scheffler crushed the field to clinch his first PGA Championship and the third major title of his career.
Scheffler began the day three shots ahead of his nearest rival, Alex Noren, and the world No 1 got away with some wild tee shots as the chasing pack failed to capitalise.
Eventually Jon Rahm came to the fore, briefly sharing the lead with Scheffler, but his challenge fell apart over the final three holes as Scheffler stormed clear.
Burns on a hot streak
Sam Burns is having fun out there, four under through the front nine. He has propelled himself up the leaderboard to be knocking on the door of the top 20 at two under par.
Scheffler has one hand on the trophy
Scottie Scheffler will look to put the finishing touches on a third career major title when he sets off in the final round later at Quail Hollow Club with a three-shot lead over Swede Alex Noren.
World number one Scheffler is scheduled to head out in the day's final pairing with Noren at 7.40pm BST with forecasts calling for breezy conditions and mostly cloudy skies.
Scheffler emerged atop the leaderboard late in Saturday's third round with a scintillating finish that saw him cover the last five holes in five under, a stretch that included a tap-in eagle at the par-four 14th hole.
"I have a good opportunity to go out there and try and win the golf tournament," Scheffler said after the third round. "But it's going to take another really good round.
"There's a lot of great players chasing me on the leaderboard and someone is going to put up a great round and it's up to me to go out there and have another really good round and finish off the tournament."
Homa fed up in final round
Max Homa is showing some incredibly relatable emotions right now, launching a club down the fairway in frustration as his approach to the third green goes awry. Homa followed his stunning 64 on Friday with a demoralising 76 on Saturday – oh golf! – and he’s already in trouble on Sunday.
So far today...
About half of the 74-strong field have now teed off in this final round, with mixed success so far. Rasmus Hojgaard shot 75 yesterday and he is already +3 through seven holes today, and +7 for the Championship. At the other end of the scale, Chris Kirk – who recorded a painful 78 yesterday – is four under through 14 holes and ticking along nicely. Tommy Fleetwood is two under for the day after seven holes, moving up the leaderboard to +1.
Round four tee times (BST)
1710 Robert MacIntyre (Sco), David Puig (Esp)
1720 JJ Spaun, Alex Smalley
1730 Taylor Pendrith (Can), Maverick McNealy
1740 Ben Griffin, Ryo Hisatsune (Jpn)
1750 Ryan Fox (Nzl), Max Greyserman
1800 Denny McCarthy, Ryan Gerard
1810 Lucas Glover, Cam Davis (Aus)
1820 Joe Highsmith, Garrick Higgo (Rsa)
1830 Matt Wallace (Eng), Adam Scott (Aus)
1840 Matthieu Pavon (Fra), Matt Fitzpatrick (Eng)
1900 Tony Finau, Bryson DeChambeau
1910 Jhonattan Vegas (Ven), Keegan Bradley
1920 Jon Rahm (Esp), Si Woo Kim (Kor)
1930 Davis Riley, JT Poston
1940 Scottie Scheffler, Alex Noren (Swe)
Round four tee times (BST)
1510 Richard Bland (Eng), Sam Stevens
1520 Tom McKibbin (NIrl), Corey Conners (Can)
1530 Luke Donald (Eng), Thorbjorn Olesen (Den)
1540 Marco Penge (Eng), Beau Hossler
1550 Max Homa, Wyndham Clark
1600 Harris English, Aaron Rai (Eng)
1610 Eric Cole, Nico Echavarria (Col)
1620 Rafael Campos (Pue), Cameron Young
1630 Michael Thorbjornsen, Tyrrell Hatton (Eng)
1640 Harry Hall (Eng), Taylor Moore
1650 Joaquin Niemann (Chi), Viktor Hovland (Nor)
Round four tee times (BST)
The final round is already under way, with Tommy Fleetwood and Rory McIlroy among those out on the course.
1310 Chris Kirk, Sergio Garcia (Esp)
1320 Bud Cauley, Byeong Hun An (Kor)
1330 Brian Campbell, Elvis Smylie (Aus)
1340 Austin Eckroat, Brian Harman
1350 Tom Kim (Kor), Michael Kim
1400 Nicolai Hojgaard (Den), Stephan Jaeger (Ger)
1410 Justin Lower, Kevin Yu (Tpe)
1420 Daniel Berger, Rasmus Hojgaard (Den)
1430 Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Collin Morikawa
1440 Xander Schauffele, Sam Burns
1450 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa), Rory McIlroy (NIrl)
PGA Championship prize money
The PGA Championship bumped its purse by $500,000 to $19m, third-highest among the three U.S. majors.
The Masters last month raised its purse by $1m to $21m. The U.S. Open will announced its purse next month at Oakmont. It was $21.5m in 2024. The British Open was $17m last year and its prize fund has yet to be announced.
The winner of the PGA Championship gets $3.42m. The last time it was at Quail Hollow in 2017, the purse was $10.5m and Justin Thomas won $1.89m. This year, the runner-up will get just over $2m.
Fitzpatrick fades on moving day
Former US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick is in a drought that has seen him go 20 straight tournaments without a top 10 dating to the Memorial last year, so it was worth noting that he worked his way into a tie for the lead at the PGA Championship.
He even had a 12-foot birdie putt for the lead on No. 12 and winced when it narrowly missed.
And then two holes set him back. He three-putted on the par-3 13th from down the slope 45 feet away. On the reachable 14, he drove right in thick grass on the hill leaving a delicate chip. He left that in the rough. The next one raced across the green into more rough.
Fitzpatrick had to get up-and-down with a 5-foot putt to make bogey on the easiest hole at Quail Hollow on Saturday.
He wound up six shots behind and looking at the big picture.
"I made big steps in where I've been over the last four or five months, so happy I'm up front," he said. "Always a day you like to go forward but not ideal."
Noren makes surprise bid for trophy
He got there with a burst at the finish, four birdies over his last five holes, for a 66 that gave him the lead until Scottie Scheffler played a closing stretch equally impressive.
Noren, a 10-time winner on the European Tour after a college career at Oklahoma State, has only two top 10s in the majors and has never seriously contended.
The injury involved a torn tendon in his hamstring on the sit bone. It was a tough injury because it requires so much time to heal. He couldn't swing a club. He couldn't run or jump, but he otherwise lived a normal life spending time with his family. That was nice.
"It's good to take a break sometimes," said Noren, who has a reputation as among the hardest workers in golf. "I missed it, but I also liked what I had at the time, which helps me maybe realize a little bit that I don't think it's the end of the world if you play bad."
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