Robert MacIntyre closes with 40-foot birdie to lead Scottie Scheffler by four at BMW Championship
Scheffler picked up one stroke on the five-shot deficit he faced at the start of the steamy afternoon at Caves Valley. He never got closer than three shots.
MacIntyre, the lefty from Scotland, got out of several jams, none bigger than the short fifth hole when he drove over a hazard line into the bushes . He decided to hack out, and it shot some 70 feet away for a putt straight down a series of ridges.
He two-putted for par, making an 8-footer, one example of his grit before a large gallery that favored Open champion Scheffler.
MacIntyre holed an 8-foot putt on the 14th, then turned toward a hospitality area and placed his index finger to his mouth, shushing whoever got under his Scottish skin.
He was at 16-under 194, and gets one more day with golf's best. Scheffler finally ended a streak of 37 holes without a bogey and efficiently put together a 67.
Ludvig Åberg entered the mix. The Swedish star appears to be emerging from a summer slumber and shot 68 that left him alone in third. He was still six shots behind MacIntyre.
No one else was closer than eight shots of the lead.
The BMW Championship is the penultimate postseason event that decides the top 30 in the FedExCup who advance to the Tour Championship for a shot at the $10 million prize.
Akshay Bhatia helped his chances with an amazing day that included a hole-in-one on the 17th hole to win a car, but more important project him inside the top 30. He also holed out with a wedge on the par-4 seventh for eagle, and turned in a card that had scores of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
Harry Hall of England, at No. 45 in the FedExCup, had a second straight 67 and was tied for fourth with Sam Burns (67), projecting him to reach East Lake for the first time and be assured of all the majors except the PGA Championship.
Rickie Fowler, who narrowly got into the top 50 to reach Caves Valley, had a 67 to put himself in position to move into the top 30. He was projected just outside the top 30, and those projections are likely to fluctuate wildly on the last day.
BMW Championship 2025: Final-round tee times, TV times, how to watch second playoff event
Final-round tee times and pairings for the BMW Championship, along with how to watch.
Golf Channel Staff
,
Players often talk about staying present. Hall takes that to another level.
'I've only got one job to do, and that's go recover and hydrate and get ready to hit that first show down the fairway tomorrow,' Hall said. 'My game plan won't fluctuate regardless of the situation I'm in. I think I'll try and do the right thing on every shot, and hopefully that will be enough.'
Fowler has an idea what he needs, but he kept it simple.
'Hopefully, just go wear out some fairways and then get the iron play back to where it's been and make some putts,' he said. 'But it sounds a lot easier than it is.'
Scheffler is going for his fifth win of the year, which would make him the first player since Tiger Woods to win at least five times in consecutive years. He hasn't had a round over par since the third round of the Travelers Championship nearly two months ago.
MacIntyre was clearly up for the test, though. He made five par putts from the 5- to 8-foot range, had a couple of birdie putts inside 6 feet and then ended his day with an uppercut celebration of a 40-foot birdie putt.
He was generally safe to make it to the Tour Championship at No. 20, but it could be quite a payoff tomorrow, upward of $6 million with the prize money and bonus for reaching No. 3 in the FedExCup with a win.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
42 minutes ago
- USA Today
Ahead of 2025 Tour Championship, the Scottie Scheffler-Tiger Woods comparisons continue
ATLANTA — If the late ESPN SportsCenter anchor Stuart Scott was still alive, he'd use one of his trademark lines to describe Scottie Scheffler's play of late: Just call him butter 'cause he's on a roll. Scheffler won for the fifth time in 2025 last Sunday at the BMW Championship, erasing a four-stroke deficit quickly and chipping in at 17 to seal the deal in impressive fashion. This week, he has caddie Ted Scott back on the bag and aims to become the first back-to-back winner of the FedEx Cup. He'll have to do so at East Lake Golf Club at the 2025 Tour Championship without a two-stroke lead on his nearest competitor this year after the Tour scrapped the Starting Strokes handicapping system that has been in place since 2019. Instead, all 30 players in the field will start the tournament on Thursday at even par. 'I guess no more sandbagging for me at the end of the year,' Scheffler cracked before turning more serious. He isn't pouting over receiving no advantage despite lapping the field in the season-long points race. His lead of 3,769 over second place is more than the number of points that Rory McIlroy has earned this season (3,687). 'I was not a huge fan of the starting strokes format,' Scheffler said. 'I was a fan of the points format, but I understand why people wanted to move away from that with FedEx being a huge sponsor and having to give out two trophies at the end of the week and explaining the season long race. This to me is a much simpler format to end the year. We all start even par, and it's time to go chase what you want.' With a win, Scheffler would join Tiger Woods (2007, 2009) and Rory McIlroy (2016, 2019, 2022) as the only players to win multiple FedEx Cup titles. He's been on a dominant run with 14 Tour wins in his last 33 starts. Since the Players Championship ended in March, Scheffler has played 13 events, including all four major championships. Across those events, he has 'lost' to players over the course of four days just 34 times (or three times per event). It's Tiger-like stuff. Following his win at last week's BMW Championship, Scheffler became the first player since Woods (2005-07) to record five or more wins in back-to-back seasons. In May, Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee went so far as to compare Scheffler's tee-to-green game to Tiger in his heyday. 'I never thought I'd see that,' Chamblee said. But the comparison to Woods also seems premature. Scheffler, 29, likely will claim a fourth straight PGA Tour Player of the Year award win or lose this week. No one is questioning that he stands alone at the top of the mountain. He has been World No. 1 for 118 straight weeks and counting, but to break Tiger's all-time record of 281 consecutive weeks, he needs to hold the top spot until Halloween 2028. Scheffler has 18 career wins; Tiger has 82. Scheffler will need to win at least five tournaments every year for the next 13 years to surpass Tiger. It's a bit like Aaron Judge being the fastest player in Major Leage Baseball history to reach 350 career home runs, achieving the milestone in 1,088 games. But Judge has a long way to go to get to Hank Aaron or Barry Bonds as the all-time home run king. He's not even halfway there. Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy once seemed on pace to match Tiger but haven't been able to keep up with Tiger's longevity. Scheffler may have Tiger-like staying power at the top of the game but for now it's more comparable to Vijay Singh's run of winning four times in 2003 and nine times in 2004. It's kind of like making birdie at the first three holes and saying he's on track for the course record. How many Tigers are there? Only one. Scheffler echoed that sentiment. 'In the simplest form, I think it's very silly to be compared to Tiger Woods,' he said. 'I think Tiger is a guy that stands alone in the game of golf, and I think he always will. Tiger inspired a whole generation of golfers.' Just as Scheffler is inspiring comparisons to greatness, and that's not such a bad thing.
Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
Tour Championship: Scottie Scheffler Derails Tiger Woods Comparison as 'Silly'
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. We're just hours away from the final leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, and Scottie Scheffler has never looked more locked in. The world No. 1 arrives at East Lake with five wins this season and a chance to become the first player to win back-to-back FedEx Cups. But none of this was handed to him when he first picked up the club. It was only through patience, practice and persistence that the "Tiger-esque" level of greatness was achieved. Since last year, there has been this whole debate around Scheffler being the "next Tiger Woods." But when the same was asked to him, the 29-year-old Texan bluntly derailed the ongoing comparison as 'silly.' LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 16: A detail view of a pin worn by Scottie Scheffler of the United States in honor of Tiger Woods' mother Kultida "Tida" Woods on the first green during the... LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 16: A detail view of a pin worn by Scottie Scheffler of the United States in honor of Tiger Woods' mother Kultida "Tida" Woods on the first green during the final round of The Genesis Invitational 2025 at Torrey Pines Golf Course on February 16, 2025 in La Jolla, California (Photo by) More Getty Images "I think it's very silly to be compared to Tiger Woods," he told reporters during the Wednesday conference. "I think Tiger is a guy that stands alone in the game of golf, and I think he always will. Tiger inspired a whole generation of golfers. You've grown up watching that guy do what he did week in, week out; it was pretty amazing to see." That intensity, Scheffler thinks, is what separates champions from contenders. "I talk about a mental change I made because I played one round of golf with him in a tournament," he added during the press conference. "I've only played one round of tournament golf with Tiger Woods, and it completely changed the way I look at how I play tournaments. "He had this chip shot, and he looked at it like it was an up-and-down to win the tournament. I'm like, this is incredible. I've never seen anything like this before in my life." Not only this, but Scheffler also came clean about the one lesson from Big Cat that changed his golfing journey and mindset. Scheffler Reveals Tiger Woods Lesson That Still Drives Him to Be No.1 "My biggest takeaway from playing with Tiger (Woods) was the amount of intensity that he took to every shot," Scheffler told reporters one day before teeing off at East Lake. "Tiger was just different in the sense of the way he approached each shot; it was like the last shot he was ever going to hit." That round came at the 2020 COVID-era Masters, where the 15-time major winner made a 10 on the infamous par-3 12th hole. But instead of coasting to the finish, he birdied five of the last six holes. "He's won the Masters four or five times. Best finish he's going to have is like 20th place at this point," Scheffler recalled during the same conversation. "I just admired the intensity that he brought to each round, and that's something I try to emulate." Scheffler's own approach has since evolved. "If I'm going to take time to come out here each week -- like it's not an easy thing to play a golf tournament. If I'm going to take a week off, I might as well just stay home. I'm not going to come out here to take a week off. If I'm playing in a tournament, I'm going to give it my all. That's really all it boils down to," he told reporters during the Wednesday conference. More Golf: Ben Griffin Blames Creatine 'Overdose' for Derailing BMW Championship Run
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Scottie Scheffler says Tiger Woods showed him intensity needed to be the best
World number one Scottie Scheffler credits Tiger Woods for inspiring the crucial change to his game which has made him arguably the best golfer since the 15-time major winner's pomp. Scheffler won the US PGA and Open Championship this year, with three of his four majors coming in the last eight events, and also has three other PGA Tour victories in 2025. He is the last player since Woods to win five tournaments in back-to-back seasons and while he continues to play down comparisons, he does admit the influence of golf's modern great sparked a turning point in his own career. 'Tiger was just different in the sense of the way he approached each shot, it was like the last shot he was ever going to hit,' said Scheffler, who is attempting to become the first player to successfully defend a FedEx Cup title in the season-ending Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta. 'I've only played with Tiger once in a tournament, in the 2020 Masters and I think he made a 10 on the 12th hole and then he birdied, I think, five of the last six. 'It was like 'What's this guy still playing for? He's won the Masters five times. Best finish he's going to have is like 20th place at this point'. 'I just admired the intensity that he brought to each round. That was something that I just thought about for a long time. 'I felt like a change I needed to make was bringing that same intensity to each round and each shot. 'I don't hit the ball the furthest, the things that I do on the golf course other people can do, so I think it's just the amount of consistency and the intensity that I bring to each round of golf – not taking shots off, not taking rounds off, not taking tournaments off. 'When I show up at a tournament, I'm here for a purpose and that's to compete hard and you compete hard on every shot.' Those are ominous words from a player who is currently top of the FedEx standings with almost twice as many points as second-placed Rory McIlroy. However, unlike previous years, when there were shots advantages to be earned from your place in the 30-man standings, every player now starts level par and the winner over four rounds wins not only the Tour Championship but the FedEx Cup and a 10 million US dollar (£7.4m) bonus. 'I'm maybe part of the minority. I didn't hate the starting strokes,' said McIlroy. 'I thought that the player that played the best during the course of the season should have had an advantage coming in here but the majority of people just didn't like the starting strokes. 'But you could also argue if it was starting strokes this week Scottie with a two-shot lead probably isn't enough considering what he's done this year and the lead that he has in the FedExCup going into this week.'
