If the PGA Tour was hoping for a big finish on Sunday afternoon for its first tournament back after the three-month break, it certainly has the manpower to make that happen.
A jam-packed, star-studded leaderboard will vie for the title at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas, and it will take a low one to do it.
There are 14 players within three shots of the lead held by Xander Schauffele who sits at 13-under par after his second consecutive 66-over at the Colonial Country Club. Seven of those are inside the top 20 in the world and all but two have won on tour and four have been FedEx Cup champions.
Five players sit a shot off the lead including major winners Gary Woodland, Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth. Harold Varner, the leader after 36 holes, was two back at 11-under par.
Six golfers are at 10-under including Rory McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau and Corey Conners.
The tangle at the top means Sunday could have plenty of lead changes, lots of scoreboard watching and even the possibility of a playoff.
“You’ve got to go out there and play well. You’ve got to play aggressive,” said Woodland, the reigning U.S. Open champion, who said the tournament had the feel of a major. “The greens are receptive. You’ve got to drive the golf ball in the fairway and you’re going to have to make birdies. There’s too many guys up at the top, too many great players. You’re going to have to go out and earn it tomorrow.”
“I feel comfortable going into tomorrow that I can shoot a good score,” said Spieth, who made four birdies on the front nine but none on the back. “If it happens, it happens, and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. But I learned a bit about what was going on when I really felt kind of the nerves kick in today, and hopefully compensate for that tomorrow and hit some better shots.”
Conners is looking for his second PGA Tour win and his second in Texas after capturing last year’s Valero Texas Open. So far this week he’s been playing to his strengths by hitting lots of greens. He sits tied for first in greens in regulation for the week and on Saturday he missed just two.
“My game feels nice,” Conners said. “I like the way I’m hitting it.”
He made five birdies on the day, four of those resulting from superb iron play where he hit his approaches to within seven feet. But he also missed four chances from inside 12 feet, three of those late coming on the back nine.
“I missed a few putts that I would have liked to make but the greens here are tricky and I misread a couple,” he stated. “I’m still feeling great with my putter.”
To win, Conners will need to get a few more of those to drop. He also said that play early in the round will be exceptionally important with such a crowd in the hunt.
“I’m going to try and play aggressive,” he said. “I think it will be important to get off to a fast start and maybe try and separate myself from the pack.”
For Conners and the rest of the gaggle of golfers, it will be a case of head down and try to go as low as possible. The only thing missing will be a loud cheering section. A tremendous finish in the silence could be strange.
“It’s starting to feel a little weird,” Conners said of the lack of fans.
Schauffele said it may feel more like the last round of a college or junior tournament where the competitive drive is there but the noise is not.
“I sort of feel like it might kind of feel like that tomorrow where coming down the stretch if you’re in the hunt, everyone is going to be — at least leaderboards are up, that kind of helps, but it’ll be really quiet and everyone is going to be minding their own business.”
But even in the quiet, there should be plenty of excitement.
