Sunday’s PGA Championship final round at Aronimink is guaranteed to be a wild ride.
“An absolute free-for-all,’’ is the way Xander Schauffele described the tournament as it careens into the final round.
After two days of widespread player angst with what Schauffele described as “diabolical pin placements’’ coupled with whipping winds, Saturday’s third round morphed into one of the most fascinating days in recent major championship history.
It began as a birdie fest with calm winds and more favorable pin placements.
But, as the afternoon wore on, the winds again cracked and played mind games with the leaders with later tee times.
All of it left one of the most bunched final-round leaderboards in memory.
Alex Smalley, a 29-year-old who’s seeking his first career win and is ranked 78th in the world, will take a two-shot lead into the final round at 6 under par after rallying from a 3-over start on his first four holes to shoot 68 thanks to birdies on six of his final 10 holes.
Five players are tied at 4 under par — Jon Rahm, seeking to become the first Spaniard to win a PGA Championship, Ludvig Åberg, Aaron Rai, Nick Taylor and Matti Schmid.
Then come four players at 3 under par, including major championship winners Rory McIlroy (66 on Saturday), Schauffele (66) and Patrick Reed (67), along with Maverick McNealy (71).
A dozen players are at 2 under par, including Chris Gotterup from Little Silver, N.J., Max Greyserman from Short Hills, N.J., Cam Smith, who’d missed his last six cuts at major championships before this week, Justin Rose and Ben Griffin.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who struggled mightily with his putter Saturday, leads a group of players who are 1 under that includes three-time PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka and Rickie Fowler.
In all, there are 30 players within five shots of the lead, 22 within four, 10 within three and six within two.
“I’ve never seen a leaderboard like this, this bunched up,’’ Scheffler said. “Going into [Sunday], it’s quite literally anybody’s tournament. With so many people close on the leaderboard, it’s going to take a great round.’’
Eleven of the last 14 winners of the PGA Championship came out of the final pairing.
Smalley and Schmid will occupy that final pairing Sunday.
“Anybody who wants to play golf for a living dreams of winning on the PGA Tour when they’re younger,’’ Smalley said. “I recognize that I have an opportunity to do that. I recognize that it’s on a stage that’s a little bit larger than most other Tour events.
“I’m trying to downplay that as much as I possibly can just to make it seem like any other golf tournament, because essentially that’s all it really is.’’
It was a wild third round Saturday, with five rounds of 65 posted after only one had been shot in the first two days.
“On Saturday, you’re just chasing,’’ Schauffele said. “You’re just trying to stay positive and give yourself a chance. It’s a jam-packed leaderboard. Come [Sunday], there’s going to be 25, 30 guys within striking distance with 9 to 10 holes to play.
“It’s going to be great to watch as a fan, but as a player, it’s pretty stressful.’’
McIlroy, who made a spirited charge up the board with a 66, spoke of how the PGA of America “protected’’ the golf course from yielding low scores with the setup the first two days.
“When you have a set of greens like this [with a lot of undulation], you can start to frustrate people pretty easily,’’ McIlroy said. “It’s frustrating to us, but at the same time, it creates a hell of an entertaining championship. If I wasn’t playing this tournament, I’d love what’s going on this week. But watching and playing are two different things.’’
Smalley is the only player in the field who’s shot all three of his rounds in the 60s.
“I’m hoping to put up another under-par score [Sunday],’’ he said. “We’ll just add them up at the end of the day and see where that takes me.’’
Saturday on the PGA Tour is traditionally labeled “moving day,’’ with players jockeying for position to put themselves in a good place to make a final-round run.
Scores for birdies are generally marked in red on the leaderboards, and there was so much red on the Aronimink leaderboards early Saturday it looked like they were bleeding.
The rabbits Saturday, showing early in the day that there were low scores to be had, were Michael Kim, who birdied six of his first seven holes, Chris Kirk, who had birdies on five of his first seven holes, and Rose, who had birdies on four of his first six holes.
It was an all-out assault on the very golf course that had spent the first two days violating the best players in the world.
“We’re the best players in the world,’’ he said, “So, when they throw a really hard challenge at us, that’s when the top players are going to show up.’’
