Steve Hummer: Scottie Scheffler strengthens his Tour Championship case

ATLANTA — This week at the Tour Championship they’ve thrown everything at Scottie Scheffler save a bad-tempered Louisville traffic cop. And still he hasn’t flinched. One more big title and one more really big payday is beginning to look a lot like, as nobody in his hometown of Dallas says, a fait accompli.

Saturday normally is called moving day on the PGA Tour. But Scheffler refused to budge. He came to the first tee with a 4-shot lead and he left the 18th green up by 5. He’s the stubbornest goat on the top of this mountain.

He’s beating up both the rejuvenated East Lake course and everyone else who walks it. Can they call a golf tournament on account of cuts?

His 5 under 66 Saturday almost completes his set of sterling scores, joining the 65 and 66 of the previous two days. Tack that onto the 10 under he received gift-wrapped at the door of the East Lake clubhouse before the tournament began, and he’s listed at an astounding 26 under now with 18 more holes to play.

There was some hurley-burley beneath him on the leaderboard, hardly enough to bother Scheffler, though.

Xander Schauffele shot 71, which will send him in search of some consolation millions Sunday. Five back of Scheffler after the third round, he’s now 10 back at 16 under.

Sahith Theegala put up seven birdies on the back nine — perhaps some karmic reparation for the two-stroke penalty he called on himself for disturbing a few grains of sand in a fairway bunker on No. 3. In spite of the noble penalty, Theegala shot 66 and moved into third place, 9 back of Scheffler.

Somewhere, East Lake’s patron saint smiled at the act of sportsmanship. Theegala may not win the replica of Bobby Jones’ Calamity Jane putter they give the Tour Championship champion Sunday, but he’s deserving of at least something from one of Jones’ old shaving kits.

Which pretty much leaves the lonely chore of putting any kind of competitive heat on Scheffler to Collin Morikawa. Shooting 67 Saturday, he remained tucked behind Scheffler in second place, five shots in arrears at 21 under.

Bless his heart, Morikawa is game. “Not exactly the moving day that I needed,” he said of his Saturday round, “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. But I believe in myself, and hopefully that comes out tomorrow.”

One little disclaimer: Scheffler has been known to give up a final round six-shot lead in this event (2022). But, then, how often can you count on a meteor striking the head of the same pin?

Here at the start of college football season, it only seemed appropriate to ask: How you gonna finish the drill, Scottie?

“Keep doing what I’ve been doing, staying in the moment, staying patient out there,” he said after his third round.

“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 and continuing to do that.”

We’ve seen a version of the Scheffler-Morikawa Show before, why, just four months ago at another fairly famous Georgia golf course with ties to Bobby Jones but a whole lot fewer Coca-Cola signs.

Their final pairing Sunday at the Tour Championship mirrors that of the last Masters Sunday. And, frankly, it just might be break-into-regular-programming news if the result is much different this time. At Augusta, Morikawa came to the final round one back of Scheffler, and following a couple ugly double bogeys finished seven back of the champion.

Paired together for the third straight day now, they do provide an interesting contrast in style.

There’s the world’s No. 1 player, the one who does the ol’ soft shoe every time he swings a club. Even Scheffler has fun with his unorthodoxy. Like when he was asked Saturday about some “awkward” swings off the tee. His response dripped with good-humored sarcasm: “Yeah, it’s pretty unusual for me to finish awkwardly. Probably going to have to go take a look at that.”

Versus the fella with a swing as smooth and perfectly balanced as 21-year-old single malt. When Morikawa swings a club, instructional videos feel so unworthy that they erase themselves.

There were no clues Saturday that left much hope of catching Scheffler. Even when you think he might be struggling a little bit — he had by far his most errant day off the tee, hitting only half the fairways in regulation — you look up at the end and he has just birdied four of the last five holes to finish off a sneaky 66.

Nothing else has worked to slow down Scheffler. Now they’ll throw the full might of the 160-pound Morikawa at him.