PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — The chasers know the enormity of the task. It’s daunting, one requiring a nearly perfect round of golf, while needing—in all likelihood—something that is quite rare from Scottie Scheffler.

Sure, Scheffler has his frustrating moments on the golf course. He’s had his share of them this year. He doesn’t win every tournament and he has instances when things are not going his way.

But when he plays like he did over the past two days at Royal Portrush, it’s difficult to envision him coughing up his advantage during the final round.

Scheffler didn’t make a bogey Saturday, shooting a near-perfect 4-under-par 67 to expand a one-shot advantage to four over China’s Haotong Li. Matt Fitzpatrick, who played alongside Scheffler, shot 71 and lost ground and is five back.

Rory McIlroy, who delighted a raucous crowd following him in his own country, shot 66 and was able to make up only a single shot.

The word associated with Scheffler often over the past three years again comes to mind: inevitable.

“He’s playing like Scottie,” said McIlroy, the Masters champion who is playing the Open some 60 miles from where he grew up. “I don’t think it's a surprise. Everyone’s seen the way he’s played or plays over the last two or three years. He’s just so solid. He doesn’t make mistakes. It looked like he could have made bogey on 14 there [but didn’t].

“He’s turned himself into a really consistent putter as well. So there doesn’t seem to be any weakness there. Whenever you’re trying to chase down a guy like that, it’s hard to do. But he’s incredibly impressive.”

If there was a moment or two when things could have gotten away from Scheffler during the third round, it was early, after the entire golf course was in full throat as McIlroy made an early charge, birdieing three of the first four holes while playing several groups ahead.

Scheffler got home in two at the par-5 2nd hole, but three-putted for a disappointing par. At the par-3 3rd, he missed the green and then left himself a 10-footer for par. And he made it.

Aside from the 11th and the 14th, which McIlroy referenced—where Scheffler needed to make another 10-footer for par—there didn’t seem to be a good deal of stress. It was a nice, warm, breezy day, but Scheffler kept a windbreaker on the entire time.

If he was cold, it was more to do with his ruthlessness than his body temperature.

“Tiger Woods did this, Jack Nicklaus did this, and I think it’s a testament to the truest mastery, the absolute height of the game and it’s so rare that you see someone take this game to a level where there is no past, there is no future, they’re just completely in the moment,” said Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee. “What we’ve seen ... is absolute, true mastery.”

Much like Woods in his heyday, Scheffler is developing a reputation in which it is believed you can do no wrong if you want to beat him. Because he’s not going to beat himself. That inevitably leads to mistakes by those in pursuit.

For McIlroy, for example, to make up a six-shot deficit: if he shoots 6-under-par 65, he needs Scheffler to shoot even-par 71 to tie. So far, Scheffler has scores of 68-64-67. Is a score that is approximately five shots worse than his average for the week possible? Of course. Golf is funny that way. But it also seems unlikely.

“I never thought in my lifetime I’d see a player as close to Tiger as this man currently is,” said Jim “Bones” Mackay, Phil Mickelson’s longtime caddie who now works for NBC. “Scottie Scheffler just blows my mind every time I watch him play.”

Li is a fine player who has made tremendous strides this year after a lengthy slump. In 2017, he finished third at the Open to earn a spot the following year in the Masters.

But this is his first major championship since he missed the cut at the Open three years ago. It was his only major that year and the year prior. He began the year ranked outside of the top 300 in the Official World Golf Ranking and a year ago was outside of the top 500. Playing the DP World Tour, he has climbed to 111th. He won the Qatar Masters earlier this year and has had four other top-10 finishes to earn a spot in the Open field via a DP World Tour points list.

In 2018, he held off McIlroy to win in Dubai, a big win for the Chinese golfer, one of his four DP World Tour wins. But at age 29, after several years of struggles, is he capable of toppling Scheffler, playing beside him, on such a big stage?

“I think to play without expectation is kind of a good thing for me,” Li said.

Fitzpatrick won the 2022 U.S. Open at Brookline, where one of the challengers that day was Scheffler, who had won the Masters that year but wasn’t quite, well, Scheffler. Trailing by one to start the day, he’s now five back.

“Let’s be realistic, he’s five ahead. It’s not easy,” Fitzpatrick said. “But if you get off to a good start, then obviously put a bit of pressure on early doors and hope for the best really. You get 3 under through six, like some of the guys today, seven, the par-5, and all of a sudden you’re kind of right back in it, you would hope.

“For the most part, you don’t want to be behind, you want to be leading as much as you can. It’s clear what I have to do tomorrow.”

After a slow start to the season caused by a hand injury suffered at Christmas, Scheffler has again established himself as a tough player to beat.

He’s not been outside of the top-10 in his last 10 starts, which includes victories at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, the PGA Championship and the Memorial Tournament. He finished fourth at the Masters and tied for seventh at the U.S. Open. Last week, he tied for eighth at the Scottish Open.

A victory here would be a fourth major title for Scheffler and victories in three of the four major championships. That would mean the chance to complete the career Grand slam next year at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock.

The last time it was played there, in 2018, Scheffler had played in two U.S Opens as an amateur. He was a virtual unknown player in the larger part of the game.

Now he’s on the verge of a 17th PGA Tour title.

Not that any of it fazes him.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Scheffler said when asked why he is so strong in this position. “I like being out here competing. This is why we work so hard is to have opportunities like this, and I’m excited for the challenge of tomorrow.

“Winning major championships is not an easy task, and I’ve put myself in a good position. Going into tomorrow I’m going to step up there on the first tee and I’m going to be trying to get the ball in the fairway, and when I get to the second shot I’m going to be trying to get that ball on the green. There’s not really too much else going on.

He’s the only player with top-10s in all of the majors so far this year and his record with a 54-hole lead—11 of 17—is pretty strong, too. It’s going to take something special to beat Scheffler on Sunday—and likely some help from him, too.

More British Open on Sports Illustrated


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Scottie Scheffler, Showing No Weakness, Is Closing in on the Claret Jug.

Test hyperlink for boilerplate