Scottie Scheffler closes in on $25 million FedEx Cup prize with late burst of birdies

ATLANTA (AP) — The most PGA Tour victories in 15 years. A Masters green jacket and an Olympic gold medal. And now Scottie Scheffler is one round away from capping off this astonishing season with a FedEx Cup title and its $25 million prize.

Scheffler had four birdies over his last five holes Saturday for a 5-under 66 to extend his lead to five shots over Collin Morikawa in the Tour Championship at East Lake.

He also knows the work is not done.

Two years ago, Scheffler finished the third round of a rain-delayed Tour Championship on Sunday morning by building a six-shot lead. He fell apart that afternoon with a 73, and watched Rory McIlroy race past him to capture the PGA Tour’s big prize.

The task for Scheffler is simple.

“Keep doing what I’ve been doing, staying in the moment, staying patient out there,” Scheffler said. I’ve bogeyed the first hole two of the last three days, and both times when I bogeyed the first hole I didn’t make any bogeys after that. So that’s kind of good momentum for me.”

It was even better moment at the end, with Morikawa (67) staying on his heels. Morikawa birdied three of his last four holes, but still ended up falling one more shot behind than the four-shot deficit he faced at the start of the third round.

“Not exactly the moving day that I needed, but I knew this entire week I was going to need something special to come out on top and I’m going to need something very special,” Morikawa said. “But I believe in myself, and hopefully that comes out tomorrow.”

Scheffler, who started at 10-under par and with a two-shot lead — six shots ahead of Morikawa, the No. 7 seed — was at 26-under par.

No one else was closer than nine shots.

Sahith Theegala might have been two shots closer except for calling a two-shot penalty on himself on the third hole for lightly touching the sand with his club out of a bunker. Video was not entirely clear, but Theegala informed officials and his par turned into a double bogey.

“Pretty sure I breached the rules, so I’m paying the price for it, and I feel good about it,” Theegala said. “I’m not 100% sure. But I’d say I’m 98, 99% sure that some sand was moved.”

He responded with seven birdies on the back nine and shot 66, leaving him nine shots behind.

Morikawa got within two shots of the lead when he holed a birdie putt from just inside 10 feet on the par-5 sixth hole. But that was as close as he got.

On the next hole, Scheffler holed a 15-foot birdie putt while Morikawa came up short of the green, lagged a putt to just outside 3 feet and missed it, a two-shot swing that restored Scheffler’s lead to four.

They also played in the final group at the Masters, where Scheffler pulled away to win by four. Morikawa knows by now what to expect.

“Five shots is a lot, but two-shot swings happen. I think I’ve seen a couple over the past few days,” Morikawa said. “Look, I’ve just got to play my game. I’ve got to go low. I know that. I’ve got 18 holes left to the season. I keep talking about that, but I’m going to put everything I have into these next 24 hours.”

His raw score was 17-under 196, one shot better than Scheffler.

Scheffler didn’t hit as many fairways and greens as he did the opening two rounds, but he was ranked No. 2 in the key putting statistic on Saturday. And he has kept his distance over every challenger so far this week.

“I feel like I’ve done a lot of stuff well and played solid, so I’m looking forward to the challenge of trying to finish off the tournament tomorrow,” he said.

British Open and PGA champion Xander Schauffele never got on track. Starting the day five shots behind, he had two bogeys in the opening four holes and failed to birdie the three par 5s in his round of 71. He was 10 shots behind.

He has never hit more than seven fairways each of the three rounds, and it has cost him at a time when he needed to go low to stay in the game.

“I was just not playing well enough to shoot consecutive 7-under pars,” Schauffele said. “You’ve got to be hitting at least 12 fairways to give yourself some serious looks and then obviously do a lot of good after that, but it starts with your ball on the short stuff.”

For everyone else, it’s a race for cash.

The FedEx Cup winner gets $25 million, with second place worth $12.5 million and third place paying $7.5 million.

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf