Players Championship 2023: 3 Instant Reactions to Saturday Leaderboard Scores
The Players Championship continued on Saturday after the second round was suspended Friday due to inclement weather at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
Players still on the course at the conclusion of play Friday finished out their rounds beginning Saturday at 7 a.m. ET. The third round kicked off in groups of three on the No. 1 and No. 10 tees at 10:40 a.m.
So there was a lot of golf to be played Saturday to catch the tournament back up to its original timeline. That was perfectly fine with the field, which took full advantage of pristine scoring conditions to shoot low all morning and afternoon.
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When the day ended, World No. 2 Scottie Scheffler took the 54-hole lead into the clubhouse at 14 under. Min Woo Lee is second at 12 under. Cam Davis is third at 10 under, and seven others sit lurking at eight or nine under.
Here's a look at the three big storylines from the day.
Scheffler Leads the Pack
Scheffler hasn't finished worse than 12th in his last eight tournaments and has a trio of top-three results, including a win at the Phoenix Open.
He's in the driver's seat for another victory this year after shooting a seven-under 65 in the third round.
No one has been more consistent this week than Scheffler, who has simply played good golf all weekend (just one bogey per round). He's also the only golfer with three rounds in the 60s. In addition, Scheffler has gained over 14 strokes tee-to-green this week, and that's helped overcome a so-so putter.
On Saturday, Scheffler caught fire on the front nine with a five-under 31. A chip-in eagle and a lip-in birdie helped the cause.
He closed with a birdie on the last hole for a two-shot lead over the field, making him a clear favorite for the win.
Hoge Breaks Course Record, Continues Tremendous Turnaround
No one would have blamed you if you wrote off Tom Hoge after he shot a six-over 78 to start his tournament. He followed that up with a four-under 68, but that didn't appear good enough to make the weekend with the cut line hovering at one over.
However, some golfers dropped down the leaderboard, and two over ended up being good enough. That led to Hoge catching fire on Saturday by shooting five under on the front nine and back nine for a course-record 10-under 62 at The Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. Nine different players held the previous record of 63.
Hoge finished the job with a 10-foot birdie on the par-five ninth for the record.
Hoge told Damon Hack of NBC Sports after his round that he was looking to book plane tickets home after his second round. Turns out he has a great shot at a top-five finish after making history.
Historically Low-Scoring Round
The tough conditions during a rainy and windy Friday afternoon gave way to a positively pleasant and sunny Saturday with soft fairways and greens ripe for historically low scoring.
How low? The course average of 69.57 strokes was the lowest seen since the Players Championship moved to TPC Sawgrass in 1982.
Nearly everyone took advantage of them in the third round, and a few golfers had a chance to match or beat the single-round record of 63 (nine-under) before Hoge got it done.
Sungjae Im found himself eight-under through 15 holes after starting on the back nine, but he took a penalty on No. 8 and finished bogey-birdie. Still, he's got a great chance for a top-five finish after starting the third round at even par.
Four players finished at seven-under 65: Scheffler, Tommy Fleetwood, Aaron Rai and Taylor Moore. Fleetwood had an outside shot at the course record after entering the final three holes at seven under, but he finished with three pars. Still, that was good enough to enter Sunday tied for fourth at nine under.
He's joined there by Rai, who couldn't have finished hotter down the stretch thanks largely to a tremendous ace on the infamous No. 17 hole.
He went birdie-ace-birdie down the stretch to vault up the leaderboard.
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