Rough return to ‘normal’ sends Scheffler down the leaderboard at PGA Championship

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Scottie Scheffler arrived at the golf course in plenty of time. Once he got there, nothing felt quite right.

A day after he powered through his odyssey to the jailhouse, then back to the course just in time to get to the opening tee box, Scheffler enjoyed a more regular schedule but struggled to keep things together at the PGA Championship.

He shot 2-over 73 in Saturday’s third round to close at 7 under for the tournament and drop from fourth to a tie for 24th with the leaders still on the course. It snapped a string of 42 straight rounds of par or better for the world’s top player, dating to Saturday at the Tour Championship last year.

Though he said his arrest and trip to a holding cell the day before left his heart thumping and his head spinning, it didn’t show on the course or the scoreboard; he shot 66 in Round 2. A day later, he was still adjusting to the stunning events of the previous 36 hours.

“I definitely did not feel like myself today,” he said. “Yesterday happened, I did my best to recover from it and come out and compete. This morning was not my usual routine for a round. At the end of the day, I came out hoping to have a good round but I wasn’t able to get it done, which was frustrating.”

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He started losing ground even before he stepped onto the course.

Justin Rose and Shane Lowry led the way, shooting 64 and 62 in a group more than an hour ahead of Scheffler’s.

But this was no day for going low for the reigning Masters champion.

He made two bogeys and a double over his first four holes, finished the front nine in 38 and shot his worst round of the season. Even though he struggled, he still felt the love. Chants of “Scottie, Scottie, Scottie,” were scattered across the course, never louder than when he made a short birdie putt on 18 to close the day.

Before that, it was an ugly mix of missed tee shots, bad lies in the rough and a few struggles with the putter that had more or less gone away during a season in which he has won four times.

“I was battling as hard as I could all day but every time I’d make a birdie, I’d bogey the next hole,” he said. “Way too many mistakes today. Obviously I’m pretty frustrated with the result.”

His struggles started on the par-4 second, where his approach shot landed deep in the rough to the left of the green. It took him two shots to get to the putting surface and he made double bogey.

On No. 4, his tee shot landed left of a fence in a penalty area to the left of the green. After taking a drop, Scheffler chunked the next chip. He made a 10-foot putt to save bogey.

He made two birdies after that, but three-putted from 30 feet on the par-3 eighth, the second putt a push from 3 feet that took a 270-degree spin and stayed out.

Scheffler’s 73 was better than only five players in the 78-man field.

One possible boost for Sunday will be the return of his caddie, Ted Scott. Scott left town to attend his daughter’s high school reunion, leaving the bag duties to Scheffler’s friend, the tour chaplain Brad Payne.

Scott is scheduled to return for the final round, which will start much earlier than Scheffler might have expected on a week where very little has gone to plan.

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