While Scottie Scheffler will be taking all of his challengers seriously, he would be forgiven for being a little more concerned about Bryson DeChambeau being inside the top 10 heading into the final round of the PGA Championship.
Bryson DeChambeau has got his work cut out if he is going to go one better than his runner-up finish at the PGA Championship last year. The 31-year-old is currently tied for eighth, six shots back of Scottie Scheffler.
It could have been so much better for the LIV Golf star. DeChambeau was five under for the day before dropping three shots in the final three holes on Saturday.
The big error came on the 17th hole when his tee shot ended up in the water. It was in stark contrast with Scheffler, who was two under for the final three holes in the third round.
What Bryson DeChambeau needs to shoot to stand any chance of winning the PGA Championship
DeChambeau has a potential advantage on Sunday in being able to put a bit of pressure on up ahead of the world number one.
But speaking on Dan on Golf, Dan Rapaport suggested that DeChambeau is going to need to post one of the rounds of his life to stand any chance of winning his third major title.
“Golfers have a really amazing ability to not blame themselves. It’s an individual game. I think if you can externalise mistakes as much as possible, I think that’s strategically advantageous. ‘It’s not that I hit a bad shot, it’s not that I hit it too spinny and it looped in the wind, it’s actually that it was the wind’s fault, or something happened that was out of my control’. He was so solid until then, he was bogey free until then,” he said.
“He’s had a chance to win now five of the last six majors. He had a chance to win three majors in 2024. He missed the cut at The Open Championship. But he had a chance to win The Masters, that was kind of the first show of force that we’d seen from Bryson in a little while. And then he had a really good chance to win at Valhalla at this tournament last year. He ended up losing by one to Xander Schauffele with a birdie on the 72nd hole, and then he wins at Pinehurst, and obviously was playing in the final round with Rory McIlroy [at The Masters this year]. So, if there’s a major championship in the United States, Bryson DeChambeau has been in the mix in the last year and a half.
“But I feel like he’s probably a little too far back. He’s going to need to shoot something like Scottie shot today and then hope that Scottie has a bad day. And I don’t really see it happening.”
Familiar issues for Bryson DeChambeau at Quail Hollow
The worry for DeChambeau will be that some of the issues he had going into the tournament do not appear to have been dealt with.
Of course, it was DeChambeau’s iron play which really cost him at The Masters. But it felt like a potential turning point at LIV Golf Korea as he finally converted a winning position into a victory.
Unfortunately, the approach play has been a weakness once again at Quail Hollow. DeChambeau has been no higher than 52nd for strokes gained approach in any of the first three rounds, according to the PGA Tour website.
It is hard to imagine that he stands any chance of winning on Sunday if he does not find something with his irons, particularly with Scheffler seemingly getting better and better.
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