PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Xander Schauffele kept his head down and tried to post his best score Saturday in his bid to make up a four-shot deficit in The Players Championship, and he did better than that.
A bold shot from the pine straw led to one birdie. A 60-foot birdie putt gave him his first lead. And a superb up-and-down finish on the 18th hole gave him a 7-under-par 65 and allowed him to stay one shot ahead of Wyndham Clark, the reigning U.S. Open champion who had set such a tough 36-hole pace with back-to-back 65s on Thursday and Friday at TPC Sawgrass.
“At times in the past, I’ll get a bit ahead of myself and lose a little bit of confidence when I shouldn’t,” Schauffele said. “Today I tried to stay in my own little box there.”
Clark had his head down for another reason. His sand wedge to the famed island green on the par-3 17th of the Stadium Course came up some 15 yards short of dry land, and he stooped over in disbelief. Remarkably, he reloaded and hit the next one to seven feet from the cup to escape with a bogey.
“It’s unfortunate on a hole that’s so iconic and has a bunch of trouble to have kind of your worst swing of the day,” Clark said. “But yeah, I followed it with a great swing and a great putt. I’m in the final group tomorrow, which is huge.”