ATLANTA — Justin Thomas was a tap-in away from polishing off a 7-under-par 63 on Saturday evening. And then the horn sounded, signaling a stop in play because of storms near East Lake Golf Club.
He'll have to wait until Sunday not only to finish his third round at the Tour Championship, but to figure out where it left him in pursuit of the FedEx Cup and its $18 million prize.
Top-seeded Scottie Scheffler was still in the lead, but barely. Xander Schauffele was still on his heels, even tying him ever so briefly. They were on the 13th hole and among 10 players who have to return Sunday morning for what could be a sprint toward a pile of cash.
Scheffler was at 19 under overall, at par for the round on a hot, steamy day with soft greens and very little wind, always the recipe for low scoring. Schauffele was 1 under for a wild round of back-to-back birdies, back-to-back bogeys and back-to-back birdies during a six-hole stretch on the front nine.
"It was an up-and-down day," Schauffele said. "Maybe a good thing to restart, kind of get focused for tomorrow."
The average score for the incomplete round was 67.
That's what Jon Rahm said he needed — another low round, and Scheffler to not have his best stuff. He got only the second part of his wish. Rahm, coming off a 63, had four bogeys to go along with five birdies and wasn't making up much ground.
Those who didn't finish had to return at 9:45 a.m., and only then would the PGA Tour's postseason finale have any clarity.
Sungjae Im was three shots behind at 16 under. Assuming Thomas makes his putt, he would be at 15 under. Rory McIlroy also was at 15 under, and he had two holes to play, including the par-5 closing hole.
Rahm, Patrick Cantlay and Sepp Straka were at 14 under and still had to finish.
The third round was scheduled to finish an hour later, and then lightning in the area stopped play for an hour. When the second batch of lightning arrived in the area, there was no chance to finish.
Hideki Matsuyama posted the low round of the day with a 63, and he was still six shots behind.
Scheffler started Thursday at 10 under and with a two-shot lead as the top player in the standings, with Cantlay two shots behind. Scheffler, already a four-time winner in 2022 and a lock to be voted PGA Tour player of the year, opened with rounds of 65-66 and at times has threatened to turn the Tour Championship into a runaway.
He stalled Saturday, and all that did was expand the possibilities.
"I was feeling all right," Scheffler said. "I wasn't playing my best, but I was kind of hanging in there. I was looking forward to giving myself some opportunities at the end, but then the horn went off."
British Open champion Cameron Smith is a three-time winner this year and would have needed a victory to make it a race for player of the year. He had a 68 and was 11 shots behind amid another round of reports that he is leaving for LIV Golf, along with some other PGA Tour members.
Those announcements are expected in the coming days. First up is a finish to a long and disruptive season with $18 million on the line for the winner.
LIV joins lawsuit
LIV Golf has joined the antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour in an amended complaint in which four players have removed their names.
That leaves seven players, most notably Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson, along with the Saudia Arabia-funded series as plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The four who withdrew their names are Abraham Ancer, Jason Kokrak, Carlos Ortiz and Pat Perez.
The amended complaint was filed Friday afternoon in the U.S. District Court in Northern California. Three players still party to the lawsuit — Talor Gooch, Matt Jones and Hudson Swafford — previously sought a temporary restraining order to compete in the FedEx Cup playoffs. U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman denied their request two weeks ago.
The lawsuit claims the PGA Tour has used monopoly power to try to squash competition and has unfairly suspended players.
Greg Norman, the CEO of LIV Golf, has said the league would fully support the players in any legal action they pursued. Now the series is directly involved.
In the amended complaint, LIV Golf argues that without a favorable ruling, its "ability to maintain a meaningful competitive presence in the markets will be destroyed." It also says that while LIV Golf has launched its tour despite "supracompetitive costs" and reduced access to players, "facing headwinds of this nature is not sustainable."