Scheffler is two shots ahead of Jon Rahm and Nick Taylor and is trying to win again in the desert.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – People have said several times this week that the atmosphere at the WM Phoenix Open is probably what the Saudi-backed LIV Golf league was going for when they came up with the slogan “Golf, but louder.”
Saturday at TPC Scottsdale, on the other hand, is a different story.
Rickie Fowler said after his third-round score of 67, which tied him for sixth place, “This place can’t be copied.” “You can try, but this has been worked on for decades and took a lot of time and effort to get where it is now.”
Fowler is 9 under for the tournament and four shots behind leader Scottie Scheffler. His approach shot on the 18th hole almost went in, which made the crowd go crazy. As the former winner of the Phoenix Open stepped up to tap in his 9-inch birdie putt, he raised his flat stick in the air to get the crowd going. This was a bit of a surprise, since he had been pretty quiet during the round.
Fowler said, “I don’t think anything will ever be as good as this.”
At the famous 16th hole, a tricky front pin location and an awkward distance of 128 yards in the middle made Saturday afternoon a lot calmer than it was last year, at least in comparison. When Jon Rahm, Adam Hadwin, and Scheffler played at the Coliseum and lit the place up, everything changed.
Hadwin, who was the last player of the day to tee off on hole 16, hit his wedge to a foot and a half. It wasn’t an ace, but it was the closest call of the day, and the beer showers had to happen at some point, so fans threw their commemorative cups (there were no beer cans for sale this year) all over the green.
The party kept going after that. Rahm made a 40-foot birdie putt after he hit his tee shot too far from the hole, and the eruption started up again right away.
“We could feel the chaos. I just thought it would be best not to wait too long,” Rahm explained. “I didn’t want to give the crowd too much time to decide what else to throw. So someone threw a bottle at me while I was doing my routine, and I just went up and hit it.”
Scheffler, on the other hand, got a par in the middle of all the chaos, which was in line with his steady round as a whole.
The defending champion shot a 3-under 68, which gave him a two-shot lead over Rahm and Canada’s Nick Taylor going into Sunday. Scheffler missed a 6-foot birdie putt on the par-5 third, but he made up for it with a birdie on the fourth. Later, Scheffler’s drive on the reachable par-5 13th hole went into the native area. He had to take a penalty shot and made a sloppy bogey because of this. Again, the world’s No. 2 golfer got back on track after a hiccup by making a birdie on the tough par-4 14th hole. On Sunday, he looks like the person to beat.
The Phoenix Open, which will start again on Sunday at 8:55 a.m. local time, was exactly what it was meant to be on Saturday: A completely unique show with some of the best golf in the world and the rowdiest crowd in all of professional sports.
