Xander Schauffele shakes Rory McIlroy’s hand after the third round of the Wells Fargo Championship.
andrew reddington
If you can get the most creative minds on the PGA Tour and his CBS to write a script for what will happen in a perfect Saturday Wells his Fargo his championship, what will Quail actually do in his Hollow? may be able to explain exactly what happened. Rory McIlroy takes over leadership from Xander Schauffele in four moves, tightens the situation at the top while the Hyders disappear, setting up something of a one-on-one showdown on Sunday during the sixth major event of the year do. The only person who might not like this result is Schauffele himself. His season was excellent on the one hand, and “almost” a fairy tale on the other. Seven top-10 finishes in 11 tournaments are testament to his incredible form, but Sunday’s setback at The Players Championship when Scotty Scheffler attacked him from behind added another to his ever-growing collection. He had some great chances to win, including adding the trophy.
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At Quail Hollow, after starting with a four-shot lead at 64-67, Schauffele was definitely hoping to have another great Saturday and relieve some stress before the final round. But he remained somewhat neutral, making only two birdies on the 70th. This was enough to keep him a leader at the age of 12. If he wants to get his first win since 2022, he’ll have to take the tough road like Rory McIlroy, who has taken advantage of his opportunities with three career wins at Quail Hollow, including his first PGA Tour victory in 2010. right. In 67 glasses without scarecrow. He has now dropped to 11 under par and remains in second place for the second consecutive day, but this time he will be closely pursued by Schauffele. Strange things are happening in the world of golf, but in the end it seems likely that one of them will win. Im Sung-jae finished the round with a good result and was in 3rd place in singles with a 4-stroke difference, followed by Sepp Straka at 7 under, and Jason Day and Day at 5 under. It would take a monumental effort or legendary collapse for either of them to pursue both leaders.
McIlroy has a busy week ahead of him off the course, and his attempt to return to the PGA Tour Policy Council was rejected just before he was added to the subcommittee that will negotiate with the PIF in merger talks in progress. But in Charlotte he was focused on his performance, and his driving on Saturday was particularly impressive.
“I would say it was a direct result of the emotions I felt in New Orleans a few weeks ago,” McIlroy said of winning the Zurich Classic with Shane Lowry. “Most of the time you’re trying to hit those little shots off the tee…The more confident you are, the more you want to just keep hitting shots.”
A whopping 358 yards by car from @McIlroyRory.
This is his second longest day with his 538 yard par 4 16th pic.twitter.com/oR7A8tLVXs
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 11, 2024
And he kept hitting. Like this gem that hit 358 yards on the 16th hole and made par on one of the most difficult holes on the course.
In his post-round comments, Schauffele realized he had let his Sunday drama into his life and blamed his sleepy wedges for making life difficult even in good spots in the fairway. “I have to earn it tomorrow,” he said. “Rory is breathing on his neck. I’m going to look at the leaderboard here in the near future, but yeah, if I hit the ball off the tee like I did today and just focused on the green a little more and picked my spots and then went through the whole process, I wish I could have been a little bit better. It should be in the state. ”