AUGUSTA, Ga. — Scottie Scheffler was in the lead and seemingly in control of his game during the third round of the Masters until realizing there was no such thing Saturday at Augusta National Golf Club.
He posed after another beautiful shot at the flag on the 10th hole and was stunned to see the ball take a hard hop over the green and roll down into the bushes. He made a double bogey and suddenly was one stroke behind.
"Make another bogey at 11," Scheffler said, "and all of a sudden I'm probably going from in the lead to a few out of the lead -- and then, you know, things happen pretty fast out there."
It was so fast and furious that it was hard to keep up. Six players had at least a share of the lead at one point. There was a five-way tie on top early on the back nine. No one was safe, and it was like that to the very end.
Scheffler made an eight-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a 1-under-par 71 to move to 7-under 209 through 54 holes at the year's first major tournament. That gave him a one-shot lead over Collin Morikawa, the two-time major champion who has largely disappeared from the elite in golf but is now one winning round away from the third leg of the career Grand Slam.
Bryson DeChambeau looked to be on the verge of a meltdown when he drove into the trees right of the 18th fairway, punched out to the short grass and then hit a wedge shot from 77 yards that spun the ball into the cup for a birdie to sum up a wild day for the field.
"Easier than putting," said DeChambeau, adding that he was joking.
There was some truth to that, however: The 2020 U.S. Open champion three-putted three times on the back nine Saturday.
Max Homa has gone 32 holes without a birdie, and he was only two behind, alone in third after a round of 17 pars and one bogey for a 73. Xander Schauffele has gone 25 holes without a bogey, and that goes a long way. He was five back after a 70, tied for sixth.
DeChambeau (75) was one shot ahead of Schauffele and one shot behind Sweden's Ludvig Aberg (70).
The pair of Baylor School graduates who made the cut Friday, Harris English and Luke List, were among those tied for 28th at 5 over. It was a slight move down the leaderboard for English, who shot a 75, and a big move up it for List, whose 71 followed back-to-back 75s. List had a double bogey on the par-4 18th Saturday; his start to the round was much better as he went birdie-eagle.
"I had nothing to lose today, and I tried to take that mindset into it because I didn't expect to be playing," List said of making the cut on the number after the projected line moved late Friday. "It was a nice bonus, and today I tried to freewheel it. I did for the most part.
"I hit some really good shots and some good putts. It stung a little bit at the end to finish with a double, but that's part of it. Hopefully I can go out and have a good round tomorrow."
AP photo by Charlie Riedel / Baylor School graduate Luke List walks toward the green on the 15th hole at Augusta National Golf Club during third round of the Masters on Saturday.Augusta National didn't need a ferocious wind to be wildly entertaining. The course was tough as ever, with a wind that would have felt scary if not for the day before, when it made the second round about surviving rather than thriving. On Saturday, the greens made players feel as though they were putting on linoleum floors.
Scheffler is going for a second green jacket after winning his first at the 2022 Masters. He's also trying to extend a dominant stretch that includes two wins on tough courses (Bay Hill and TPC Sawgrass) and a runner-up finish in his past three starts on the PGA Tour.
"It's nice to have that experience, but going into tomorrow, that's really all that it is," he said.
Morikawa made two tough pars to finish off a 69, with one of those following a long birdie putt that hit the lip and spun 12 feet away. He is the only player to break par all three days at this Masters. Not bad for a someone who only found a swing key on Monday, switched putters after the first round and hasn't had a top-10 result since the first week of the year.
"If you asked me at the beginning of the week, I'd be one back heading into Sunday, I would have taken that any time," said Morikawa, who won the 2020 PGA Championship and the 2021 British Open. "You give yourself a chance with 18 holes left, that's all you can really do."
Homa's most recent birdie was on the fourth hole of the second round. He has made 32 pars in his past 36 holes as he seeks his first major title; his best result in of golf's biggest four annual events was a tie for 10th at last year's British Open.
Eight players were separated by five shots going into the final round at Augusta National, where the greens are likely to be even faster, crispier and more frightening Sunday.
Tiger Woods was not among the contenders. Neither was Rory McIlroy.
Woods, having made his Masters-record 24th consecutive cut Friday, started the third round seven shots out of the lead and hopeful of at least making his massive following think there might be more magic left in that battered 48-year-old body.
Instead, the five-time Masters champ posted his highest round in three decades playing the majors. He shot an 82, the third time he has failed to break 80 in a major, and the first since the 2015 U.S. Open.
"Just hit the ball in all the places that I know I shouldn't hit it," said Woods, whose bid for a 16th major title will have to wait.
McIlroy came to the Masters thinking this might be the year he finally got the last leg of the career Grand Slam. All he could muster was a 71 that left him 10 shots behind with 20 players in front of him.
There were no shortage of challengers.
Aberg, the rising star playing in his first major, was among those who had a brief share of the lead until missing a pair of short par putts on the back nine. He still managed a 70 and was only three shots behind.
Another newcomer to the Masters, Nicolai Hojgaard of Denmark, had the lead to himself with three straight birdies around the turn. He celebrated that good fortune by running off five straight bogeys, putting the ball in the water on both par 5s.
And then there was DeChambeau, who started the third round tied with Scheffler and Homa.
AP photo by Charlie Riedel / Max Homa hits from a bunker on the 18th hole at Augusta National Golf Club during third round of the Masters on Saturday.DeChambeau kept making enough birdies to hang around and was only one shot behind until he decided to go for the green from the trees on the par-5 15th. He went well right toward the 17th fairway -- the second time in as many days he played a par 5 from two holes -- only this one didn't work out so well.
He chunked his wedge shot and watched the ball tumble into the pond. He took a penalty drop, pitched on and two-putted for a double bogey. Then he three-putted for a bogey on the 16th. And right when it appeared to be falling apart, he made his surprise birdie to limit the damage and get within four shots.
Scheffler didn't escape the craziness. He reached 8 under quickly by chipping in across the green on No. 1 and making a 30-foot birdie putt on No. 3. But all it took was two holes to make it feel like his head was spinning.
What saved his day was a seven-foot par putt on No. 12, and then a 30-foot eagle putt on the par-5 13th that dropped on its final turn and elicited rare emotion from Scheffler.
"Come on, baby!" he yelled when the putt dropped.
"Things got a little dicey in the middle," Scheffler said. "On No. 10, I hit what I thought was a decent shot eight feet from the hole, and it wound up in the bushes. I did a good job of staying patient."
He'll need another dose of that virtue on Sunday, even with the experience of winning on this course. Two years ago, he had a three-shot lead going into the final round and spent the morning in tears as his wife, Meredith, gave him soothing words of confidence.
Now she's back in Dallas, expecting their first child at the end of the month. Scheffler brought in his best friends from home to stay with him.
"I didn't want to be in the house all by myself this weekend," Scheffler said. "Didn't really seem that exciting to me."
There's plenty of that inside the ropes.