Xander Schauffele overcomes four-shot deficit to take lead at THE PLAYERS Championship

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) – Xander Schauffele erased a four-shot deficit Saturday with another bogey-free round on a course where trouble is around every corner, capping off a 7-under 65 with a superb chip to save par and take a one-shot lead into the final round of THE PLAYERS Championship.

U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark, who had a four-shot lead at the start and stretched it to five with a birdie on the opening hole, did well to make sure the deficit wasn’t greater.

They were tied going to the island green on the par-3 17th. Clark hit it so clunky that his wedge shot came up some 15 yards short of land. But he hit the next one to 7 feet and escaped with bogey, and then saved par on the 18th for a 70.

For a short time on a balmy afternoon, it looked like THE PLAYERS could turn into a two-man race between Clark and Schauffele. But there were enough birdies, enough bold shots and big rallies, to suddenly make Sunday filled with possibilities.

Schauffele was at 17-under 199.

The Open champion Brian Harman was slowed briefly by a bogey on the par-5 ninth that required him attempting a right-handed shot, and then the little lefty birdied four of his next five holes and finished with a 64. He was two shots behind.

Maverick McNealy and former U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick each had a 68 and were four shots behind, each with a share of brilliance and blunders.

Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world coping with a neck pain this week, kept alive his chances of becoming the first back-to-back winner in 50 years of the PGA TOUR’s flagship event. He birdied his last three holes for his 26th straight round under par this year, a 68, that left him in range at five shots behind. He was joined by Sahith Theegala (67).

Schauffele has only one hole over par through three rounds on TPC Sawgrass' Stadium Course. That was a double bogey on the 11th hole Friday. Making up ground was more about making birdies, and he was up to the task, even if it didn’t look that way at the start.

Schauffele, winless since the Genesis Scottish Open in the summer of 2022, missed a 4-foot birdie putt on the first hole and Clark hit from deep rough to 5 feet and converted for bogey.

Schauffele kept pecking away with birdies, closed to within one shot at the turn, caught Clark with a birdie on the reachable par-4 12th and took his first lead with a birdie putt from just inside 60 feet on the 14th.

But he lost some chances coming in. Schauffele went from deep rough to the soft sand of a bunker some 45 short of the green on the par-5 16th, taking an easy birdie out of the picture. Then, after Clark went into the water on the 17th with a front pin, Schauffele went well long and did well to lag his putt across and down the slope to tap-in range.

He also found the pine straw right of the 18th fairway, leading him to scramble for par.

And now he has two major champions right on his heels — Clark going after his second win this year and playing better golf than anyone but Scheffler, and Harman looking for his first win since he captured the claret jug at Royal Liverpool last summer for The Open Championship.

The surprise in the mix was McNealy, recently returning from a back injury. He delivered plenty of thrills down the stretch, starting with a 43-yard shot he holed for birdie on the 14th. He hit a 60-foot birdie putt off the green on the 15th, and then holed that pitch from 35 feet for par.

He put a wedge into the water on the 16th — there was no recovering from that one — and then birdied the 17th to put himself into the conversation on Sunday.