Scottie Scheffler took control of PGA Championship with 4 swings

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Ninety minutes is all it took for Scottie Scheffler to put a stranglehold on the 2025 PGA Championship on Saturday at Quail Hollow Club.

He did so in trademark Scheffler fashion, utilizing an array of physical and mental tools others can only dream of possessing.

Inevitable, inescapable, unavoidable, relentless. Choose your adjective to describe the World No. 1. You can’t go wrong after he fired a third-round six-under 65 to take a three-shot lead and move to within 18 holes of a third career major title.

Scheffler, by his own admission, scraped it around Quail Hollow Club through the first two rounds, entering Saturday at five under and two shots back of 36-hole leader Jhonattan Vegas. Oh, to be able to scrape it around like that.

He opened his third round with a bogey but birdied No. 4, No. 5 and No. 7, grabbing a share of the lead on the 43rd hole of the tournament. He stayed in a jammed pack of contenders for the next six holes as a major championship leaderboard finally settled in.

Then, like a boa constrictor, Scheffler choked the life out of the tournament with just four swings.

The first came on the drivable par-4 14th. Scheffler stepped up to the tee box and hit a three wood from 305 yards to three feet. The result? An eagle and the outright lead.

“Hit it really solid and was fortunate to get up there on the green,” Scheffler said of his shot on 14 after the round. “From that distance, yes, I executed the shot. Did I execute it thinking I hit it two feet or whatever it was? I mean, there’s a little bit of luck involved in that when you’re at 300 yards, but overall, I executed the shot exactly how I wanted to.”

Scheffler’s second brilliant shot came in the 16th fairway, facing 198 yards into a back right pin with wind going straight across. With a small side hill lie, Scheffler faced a precarious second shot. He pulled 7-iron and hit his approach to 12 feet. Where Bryson DeChambeau and others made bogey, Scheffler made an easy par.

Next came the par-3 17th, the hardest hole of the day, which had already claimed victims in DeChambeau (double bogey) and Jon Rahm (bogey).

Unbothered by the magnitude of the moment, Scheffler once again pulled 7-iron and pured it to 17 feet. He rolled in the putt for good measure to stretch his lead to two.

But perhaps the best moment of all in Scheffler’s unconscious 90-minute stretch came on Quail Hollow’s closing hole, the par-4 18th.

The 18th has battered the field all week — Bryson DeChambeau suggested the best competitive strategy for mere mortals off the tee was simple: “Hit and hope.” Scheffler split the fairway with his drive, but his ball rolled into a divot.

That type of bad break has derailed many major dreams. But where others might have allowed the pressure to seep in and speed them up, Scheffler was unfazed. He hit an 8-iron to nine feet underneath the hole, poured in a birdie putt and punctuated an oxygen-removing moment with a fist pump.

“F–k yeah,” Scheffler exclaimed as his fist pierced the humid North Carolina air.

On Saturday at Quail Hollow Club, contenders rose and fell.

Rahm shared the lead but fell back. He trails by five. DeChambeau led alone but played the last three holes in three over. He trails by six.

As a quiet week turned into a PGA Championship late Saturday afternoon, Scheffler found what eludes so many in golf’s most pressurized cauldrons: calm in the chaos.

“I think I try to focus as much as I can on executing the shot, and there’s things out there that you can’t control,” Scheffler said of his ability to steel himself when others crumble. “I can’t control what other guys are doing. I can’t control getting bad wind gusts. I can’t control how the ball is going to react when it hits the green. All I can do is try to hit the shot I’m trying to hit. That’s what I’m focused on out there. Some days it works better than others. Today was a day down the stretch where it worked well.”

Early in the week, Scheffler was asked what part of another player’s game he would steal if he were forced to. He talked about how much he learns from playing against the best players in the world. Rory McIlroy’s driving and Jon Rahm’s fire drew mentions, among others. All superpowers in their own right, but arguably none as great as Scheffler’s.

Two years ago at LIV Singapore, Brooks Koepka described his ability to elevate his game in majors as the “ability to lock in and go someplace where I think a lot of guys can’t go.”

That superpower now belongs to Scheffler. The ball-striking is immaculate, the short game pristine and the putter has become a weapon.

But Scheffler’s separator in these moments is his ability to settle in the chaos swirling around him. He has an innate ability to block out the major-championship havoc, rely on his preparation, and execute his plan. The blinders stay on, the emotions stay in check and he rises while others watch their major dreams crash and burn.

There are 18 holes left at Quail Hollow, but it felt like Scottie Scheffler put his name on the Wanamaker Trophy in 90 superhuman minutes on Saturday.

All that’s left is another walk through the chaos on Sunday … and the engraving.