PGA Saturday: The leaderboard just got a whole lot more congested | Golf Channel Podcast

In this edition, the guys discuss all the top storylines from the third round of the PGA Championship: the pivotal swing at the 15th hole, the Saturday fades by Scottie, Rory and Brooks, and their picks to win at Valhalla. #GolfChannelPodcast #GolfChannel #PGAChampionship

Chapters:
0:00: First takeaways from the third round of the PGA Championship
03:00: How the 15th hole flipped this tournament on its head
04:30: Bless Johnson Wagner’s heart
06:30: Who on this leaderboard can you actually trust?
12:00: What happened to Scottie Scheffler on Saturday?
17:00: Discussing how far back is too far back
19:00: Disappointing third rounds from Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka
22:00: Tech wizards, help us out!
23:00: Who wins the PGA Championship and why, and what’s the final score
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PGA Saturday: The leaderboard just got a whole lot more congested | Golf Channel Podcast
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hello and welcome into this edition of the golf Chann podcast with Rex and lav and before we get into the low lights of his scoring Bonanza on Saturday at the PGA Championship the Scotty sheer the Brooks kka the Roy maroy rounds that cost him a shot at this title at Valhalla Rex nice tie let’s talk about this leaderboard sander scha and K morawa are now tied for the lead through 54 holes but I think the big story that transpired on Saturday is that is a much more congested leaderboard in all there are eight players separated by just three shots included in that mix are some very intriguing names Bryce Mambo Victor havland sah theala just to name a few let’s caught your eye this Saturday evening at Valhalla it’s just not you’re right it’s congested there’s a lot of players there you and I probably aren’t huge fans of Valhalla if we’re being honest I’m not giving away any secrets on your front if you look at how soft and I don’t want to say easy but comparative to a major champ I ship it is playing easy and so it’s not exactly the test that we would probably want but you can’t argue with what’s the results right now when you look at you have Colin MOA you have Xander shaay you have Shane Lowry right there in the mix Victor hin Bryson D Shambo Justin Rose like it’s not a leaderboard that you would Flinch at at all so apparently the golf course at least identifies the best players who are playing the best golf at the moment you and I can still have our opinions and and I would argue that they’re still valid that the thing that caught my eye is going into Sunday it’s we saw some flips today that I think will become the norm tomorrow there was a time when it looked like Xander was almost Stuck in Neutral if not reversed early on the front nine he just couldn’t make a putt he ends up giving up the lead col more CWA takes over we have a bit of a you know things are pretty frantic coming down the stretch tomorrow if that happens I would argue that it would probably be the best case scenario for the PGA and the PGA Championship because you have the names that you want and if you get sort of that frenzy if you get that back and forth that’s exactly the recipe that you want for Success yeah one of my criticisms of this golf course I think I expressed earlier this week potentially on Wednesday uh or Thursday is that there does not seem to be that sort of volatility that you get when conditions are really firm and fast or when you do have kind of those shaved areas around the GD there’s the zoa as as hard as Johnson Wagner is making it look on live from it’s actually quite easy for players to get up and down if they’re in that very shortcut I I dug in to your point rex on the 15th hole for story that’s now up on NBC sports.com gool as we mentioned Xander chafl had really struggled to separate himself through the day it was it was very frustrating if you’re a Xander shofet fan because he was he missed uh just two Fairways on Saturday he missed just two greens on Saturday and yet he uh had just a single shot lead before he rolled in a 30-footer for Birdie on 14 it seemed like okay this was his moment 15’s an attackable hole if you could hit the Fairway 18’s obviously a reachable par five it seemed like it potentially could have been gozone with 17 offering a birdy chance as well instead I talked to Xander about this after his round just kind of overcooked his nine iron may have misjudged the wind a little bit and was absolutely dead Behind the Green in contrast K morawa hit one of his best shots of the day kind of feathered a wed shot in there to six feet it wasn’t just one three- shot swing between Z Sha double Bogi and K Mor cows birdie it was two three shot Swings with sah fagala also having an unlikely chip in from behind the green and he now sits in Solo third place just a single shot back how much now uh 45 minutes an hour removed Rex do you think that that hole that momentum swing will ultimately decide the winner of this PG Championship do you feel like that was a pivotal moment for morawa and conversely kind of a critical error for shof uh it could I was taken earlier today by Rory maroy saying there was a six-hole stretch today and his comment was if I don’t win this Championship that it’ll be because of that six-hole stretch so it is interesting like you and I and tomorrow we’ll be sitting here and we’ll probably be dissecting another whole another set of circumstances because it’s always kind of your prison of the moment and that situation for the player I always am interested because they can always point to something that you and I or the average golf fan probably missed and they can point and say yep that that’s where things swung in the wrong direction I know this is manyi podcast so I’m going to make this quick you mentioned poor Johnson Wagner bless his heart he’s doing God’s work this week and and we’re putting him in some really tough situations but I was just doing live from and I was on the set with Todd Lewis and we were waiting to to come up and do our little Spiel and Chris KO who of course is the swing coach working with Xander doing great work with Xander he walked up behind us right as Johnson was starting to do his whatever his segment was tonight and Chris being the consent professional he goes actually I watched the other night when he was hitting some bad chip shots he goes I think I can help him like tell him like I think I I can help I I really do think I can I saw some things and tell him to reach out to me and right as he’s saying this Johnson is hitting his first Chip Shot which went probably 20 yards right it was a dead shank and Chris’s reaction was yep nope nothing I can do never mind he seems like a lost cause I have to give uh Johnson Wagner who is a who was a great friend a unbelievable teammate for us on Golf Channel I have to give him as you say a monsoon of credit because he has is openly admitting that he has the Chip gips And that twice this week during our premere Prime Time programming they have put him in a position in which he has to face his fears and try to hit chip shots on live television it is not gone well uh but the the clip I think it was from Thursday night uh when he was boning chip shots and then chunking chip shots short of the fourth green uh was was some of the I think some of the best comedy that ever appeared on Golf Channel I was crying I was laughing so hard well and I don’t know I don’t think you’re probably listening to the sound because you were locked into writing your story but he said after he has shanked not one but two chip shots again tonight on live TV in prime time that I can’t wait to get to the US Open in Pinehurst and I thought that can’t be right because they can’t it’s not going to get any he put it everywhere he can put it everywhere but that’s not what we’re gonna ask him to do we’re not going to put him in a position for Success so we we we digress I’m sorry we do certainly digress we look at this leaderboard Rex I mean who do you feel most confident in because you can make I mean you can pick nits at all these players whether it’s K morawa who is trying to become the player that he was uh when he won two major championships by the age of 24 he’s kind of sort of been going at it alone uh he has reunited sort of with his longtime swing coach r r Rick cessing house uh but also at the Masters you know he was he was going at alone played in the final group of Scotty she faded with a final round 74 he said and this is a player who I’ve known for a very long time and has never been short on confidence he said he needed to give himself a pep talk on Saturday night to get himself in the proper head space to make sure he knows that he can go out and win this I found that very interesting Xander Xander sha we’ve talked about his struggles with the 54 hole lead even just recently last week at qu Hollow where he got lapped by Roy mroy overall he’s just two for eight when in that position sah thala is still relatively fresh on the PJ tour scene Shane loward has is won has not won an individual title since the open in 2019 Victor hoflin is just a week back into his work with Joe mayo and striking it well again Bryce dambo trying to capture his second major championship uh after a setback at the Masters all that in totality that was a 30,000 foot view of the players who are mostly in contention here Rex who do you feel most confident Sunday at Bala well and you proved the point that I was just about to make you can go down that list and find something wrong with all of them and that’s not a knock it’s we’re going to sit here and you’re going to pick nits as you just said but I can sit here and say that yes Kum morawa looks like his former self but I would say right now it seems like a shell of his former self this isn’t the guy who just just ball struck his way second he second and stru the green this week Rex how is he a shell of him for his former self he just doesn’t have that look of the guy that won the PGA Championship at Harding Park and probably has everything to do with the idea that of what he touched on that he does need to give himself a pep talk that he still look you can start you can lose your your swing and lose your confidence and then you’re slowly going to get it back and we’re probably seeing that right now we’re in the midst of that with Colin morawa and certainly Victor havin and that is a process but behind that process it’s there’s a lag to this getting your confidence back and I think in this particular case one follows the other and I don’t think either one of those players are back to 100% they’re close and they’re clearly playing well in a major championship and I’m not going to be surprised if either one of them uh wins tomorrow but you go down the list Xander chafl is doing what we talked about last week on Sunday at Wells Fargo where he started hot and then just didn’t seem to have any Sparks after that that’s what we saw today out of him it seems like he was stuck in neutral uh sahit the gala he’s never really been in this position before so you’re wondering how he’s going to respond Shane lry had a magical 62 today and a putt at a historic 61 but man that that was all putting you and I were talking about it I think he picked up more than five and a half Strokes Strokes game putting I’m not quite sure that’s sustainable given where what his stats say he is up to this point this year I can keep going on and on like Bryson D Shambo is the one that excites me like that’s the story I would want to write tomorrow night because he is just the content fountain that just keeps on giving but he closed down the range last night in the dark and he was the second guy off the range tonight so Bryson is being maximum Bryson and still searching for South it’s hard for me to point to one name on that lader board and be like yep that’s my guy that’s why I think this this makes this Sunday just just so intriguing uh and I would go I think I probably feel the most confident in Xander choffle if nothing else be just because the eye test seeing Xander choffle play golf he’s hitting it on an absolute rope he’s the most consistent ball Striker on that leaderboard to me he’s the most consistent player on that leaderboard consistent everything yeah yeah I mean he’s he’s consistently good in everything yes have the the putt sort of dried up over these past 36 hes yeah without a doubt I think it was also unrealistic he was going to continue the tour Pace that he showed on Thursday when he became the first player in history to record his second 62 in a major championship and as much as he’s been faulted for his final round performance and again two for eight the 54o lead in individual events on the PJ tour he has not been terrible you know it’s not like he has has totally imploded or self-immolated when he has been inside ropes on Sunday he’s still 56 on the PJ tour in Final Round scoring average yes that’s worse than his round one round two round three scoring average but I think that’s also pretty natural that when you get into the pressure and The Cauldron of a Sunday yeah you probably play a little bit tense and a little bit tight I think when you look at that jam-pack leaderboard with again six players separated by Just Two Shots knowing that he’s going to have to play fearlessly knowing that he’s going to have to play aggressively knowing as he said that there’s blood in the water and that if multiple players have shot 62 this week he fully expects someone’s going to throw down a number and he’s going to have to potentially go out and Chase it throughout the rest of the day I think that can only help him keep his mind uh flipped to that in the way that he’s hitting it the length that he’s hitting it uh the quality of iron shots that he is hitting at the 15th hole notwithstanding I do think I have the most confidence recks in Xander chafl on Sunday how about Scotty Sheffer we talked about him on the Friday podcast a Friday podcast unlike any other in uh our podcast history most certainly he dropped Scotty sheff de all the way down to a tie for 24th five Bogies in a double bogey in what was a round of 73 snapped the streak of 42 consecutive rounds on the PJ tour of par or better most critically he was 70th out of 7 78 players around the green to have scrambling made a mess of the second hole and followed it up with back toback double uh back toback Bogies to get off track how surprised are you by what Scotty put up on Saturday not very and here’s why uh Todd Lewis talked to Scotty after his round and Scotty spoke with the CBS after his round but he didn’t go into the normal scrum area for a lot of reasons I don’t think anybody was overly surprised given what happened yesterday but Todd talked to him and I guess he had like a 30 minute conversation with his lawyer this morning and I think things finally did sort of I don’t want to say crash down but things probably did crystallize a little bit where the lawyer sort of walked him through okay going forward this is what the process is going to be his arraignment is going to be Tuesday here in Louisville at 9:00 am uh he doesn’t have to be there for that I would imagine he’s not going to be there for that but does Laura probably painted a picture that Scotty probably hadn’t taken the time or the effort or the energy to understand a little Shell Shocked to be honest with you and I if he talks tomorrow my guess is he’s going to to cop to that it was always going to be difficult to follow up what he did yesterday after such an emotional day where you start the day getting arrested getting stuffed in the back of a patrol car stretching on the floor of a cell and then going out and shooting around and keeping yourself in contention we talk about following up good rounds like it’s one thing to follow up a good round that’s following up an unprecedented day and I think it was going to be difficult and and it proved that once the adrenaline wears off you never quite know exactly what you’re going to do how you’re going to play in this I’d be very curious to know why they felt that was the time to have that conversation Scot Sheffer was three shots off the lead heading into the third round that is exactly what you have an agent for that’s exactly what you have a manager for to be the to be the in between to be the liaison if if if you’re the lawyer and skot Sh is not getting arraigned until Tuesday why are you planting this in his head at the halfway point of a major championship when the single season slam is still at this point very much alive well first and foremost we don’t know exactly what that conversation was I think Todd reported it was about 30 minutes my guess is the lawyer probably felt like these were things his client needed to know and look these are these are C tell his agent these are crazy circumstances and the lawyer has I’m sure has never been in this situation we had a client who was going into a Saturday of a major championship in contention and he had to clear up some paperwork with him so I’m not quite sure there was a blueprint for this one so so I’m going to let the lawyer off the hook and given the seriousness of the charges and we touched on this last night there was four counts but one of them is assault on a police officer that’s a felony it’s a very serious charge and Scotty probably needed to hear this and I I know that’s not what you want to hear right now going in to the third round of a major championship and and Scotty probably could have decided that nope let’s just talk on Monday morning or Sunday evening when this is all over with even if he didn’t have that conversation I’m not quite sure it would played out any differently today to be honest with you there was there was going to be a let down you’re right like I can only imagine the adrenaline that was pumping through his body last night when his head hit his pillow still because he was talking about trying to control his breathing and shaking and and just not knowing what he went through I guess I guess the part that I have a harder time wrapping my mind around and it’s not impossible but it kind of shows you his mindset is that if indeed whatever was laid out to him this morning before he teed off is something that he didn’t know like at one point yesterday you didn’t turn on a TV you didn’t check the internet like anyone who has either one of those things yesterday knew pretty much exactly what you’d been charged with and knew what you were facing so that would be my my only question I’m just flabbergasted that the lawyer would do that before the the third round and Scotty wanted to know I mean you’re you’re kind of you’re jump ass certainly I mean but Scotty said after the round with CBS that he didn’t feel like himself that it was not a quote unquote normal routine this morning to be sure and he was not himself it’s just I I hope we can talk to Sky shuer after this round on Sunday I’ll be very curious to know why he wanted to know that on the eve of the third round when he has a chance to win the championship still SAU his figures up please continue well I wanted to turn this conversation into the sports radio thing how far back is too far back because it’s important to point out there’s been not one but 262 shot this week Xander on Thursday and then today Shane la and that is the fifth well it was the fourth and fifth in major championship history just to give you some context on exactly how easy bahala is playing so as I look at that board and I start doing the math is nine under too far back if a 62 is out there tomorrow yes nine under is too far back the magic number in these major championships particularly the PJ Championship is two two shots back is a magic number that has been the case for I believe it’s somewhere in the 20s something of like 23 the past 24 winners at the PGA Championship have all been within two shots of the lead the only uh example of that that was not the case was Justin Thomas who matched the major championship record he was seven shots back two years ago at Southern Hills and as we’ve talked about on this podcast a couple times now valhall is not Southern Hills there’s not a a blowup hole there’s not all that much trouble yes if you could make Bo but you can make them up quite easily because the soft scorable conditions with the birdies uh this the the champion is going to come from K morawa Xander shley sah theala shade Lowry Victor hofland or Bryson Des Shambo all of those players are at or within two shots of a lead one player actually two players Rex who were not included in that group who I do want to touch on in this mini podcast was Roy mcroy who’s now in a tier 19th at one point on Saturday I think everyone was getting excited everyone was taking the bait everyone had seen this movie before he got to within three shots of the lead and then he played a seven hole stretch on numbers 11 through 17 in two over par where his putter went cold to stretch that he said later he will Rue what do you think what do you make of Rory’s performance through 54 holes was this just yet another tease uh I don’t agree with your two shot rule simply because how easy this golf course is playing so I think I would open it up a little bit further that said uh I don’t think Rory R has no chance at this championship and I I guess I say that because the putter has seemed like it has been relatively cold all week long I mean he’s had stretches where he’s made some putts but it doesn’t look like he’s entirely comfortable on the greens and it doesn’t also look like he’s entirely comfortable on the T which is odd given how dominant he was last week at qu Hollow given how dominant he was on this very Golf Course back in 2014 when he L won his last major championship I think this one this particular major and like we can dissect these things all sort of in a silo but when it comes to this one I think Rory’s probably going to look at a combination of factors because of what’s transpired over the last two weeks winning last week at the Wells Fargo not being voted onto the policy board being appointed to some something called the transaction subcommittee filing for divorce on Monday all of those things added up to where he is right now and when we talk about Scotty’s head spinning and I’m sure it is for a lot of different reasons I would imagine Rory’s head is spinning as well in the interest to full disclosure I absolutely butchered that stat it wasn’t 23 the past 24 whatever I just said it’s 12 of the last 13 PJ championships were won by a player without El leading more than two shots of the lead heading into the final round just did want to button that up another player who will not be hoisting the water maker trophy on Sunday is Brooks kepka who’s now tied for 47th had a terrible day off the tea continues to struggle I think he’s now missed nine putts inside Ted feet Rex it now appears that more punishing workouts are in the future for Brooks kka after a third round 74 again during what was the second lowest scoring third round in PJ championship history house Surprise Were You by Brooks’s crash back to Earth very wildly absolutely like I can come up with a bunch of different words to say it because you and I talked a lot about this earlier in the week we felt like he had quote unquote flipped the switch and I really thought that like oh this is going to be the guy he’s embarrassed about what happened at the Masters you’re right he put himself through these punishing workouts I felt like the win in Singapore on the live tour was sort of that turning point that we had last year when he won in Orlando at the live event there and then went on contended at the Masters and ended up winning the PGA Championship it felt like this was the blueprint I’m like oh I’ve seen this before I know how Brooks can do this he can he can turn it around really really quickly and he’s just he hasn’t looked like the dude that walks with the Swagger this week he hasn’t looked like the too cool for school kid this week he looks like he’s struggling he looks like he’s trying to find answers last night he was going back and forth to the putting green with multiple Putters like clearly he’s got some stuff he needs to work on yeah not quite sharp enough this week just as he was not quite sharp enough at Augusta National for the Masters as well I guess in a larger sample size when you zoom out Liv Singapore may have actually been the anomaly with the aberration to how Brooks kept is playing in 2024 rather than the Norm one thing I did want to button up which has been a topic of conversation on this podcast Rex all week long you and I yes are in the same location we are both in the media center here at Valla Golf Club in fact we’re probably separated by 10 feet what you and I cannot or do not know how to do is record together don’t get too close because then our mics will pick it up and then we’ll have issues we are not pod experts this is a very barebones operation that we were trying to bring you folks uh here on YouTube or wherever you’re getting your podcast on a on an audio platform if anyone knows how we can use use streamyard and also record together at the same time without having to pass back microphones back and forth like idiots please let us know in the comments section we’re dying to know with that said Rex who is your winner of this 106 PJ championship and at what number uh I’m not entire comfortable with this and you’re right this is probably one of those things as I mentioned earli in the week we should have passed through before we actually started the podcast I’m going to go with Xander as well after I just got through sitting here chewing him up a little bit and talking about how I don’t like his chances I feel like I’m not quite as on board as you are I haven’t picked him to win every major for the last decade but I do feel like his time has come his work with Chris KO has created a more consistent swing a more powerful swing and you combine that with his short game you combine that with a mind that is clearly just better than other mins or a lot of other mins on the PGA tour he never gets too high he never gets too low all of those things are a combination of a guy that not only should win Majors but should win multiple major championships and if you look at that board as I just said you can pick apart pretty much every player on that on that board and say well this is the problem I have with this guy and this is the problem I have with that guy with Xander that list is much smaller so I like Xander you pick 20 under at the beginning of the week I don’t think they get there I think something around 18 oh I’m not so sure that 18 is going to be enough to win this Championship I think it’s supposed to be 86 degrees and light winds uh obviously the golf course will continue to be soft on Sunday I think he’s going to have to go out and get it I think that was well put your description your rationale for why you’d pick Xander chaffle I feel the best about him yes I think they all have uh sort of uh picks nits that you can pick but I think Xander schafle is the most complete player on that leaderboard he is most certainly due and just feels it just feels proper rex that a player of Xander Sha’s caliber who has been a now uh excellent player a complete and talented player on the PJ tour for the past six or seven years gets crowned as a major Champion I do think that comes on Sunday and I do think it’s going to take him getting to probably 19 if not 20 under par to do it I think all of the years of heartache and close calls end on Sunday then again you not I’ve also been wrong before and most certainly will be wrong again all right that is going to do it for this edition of the Golf Channel podcast with Rex and lav in the meantime you guys know the drill NBC sports.com golf for all the latest news notes and updates from the PGA Championship on Sunday night we will return to a regularly scheduled program that is not limiting ourselves to 25 minutes we can go for 30 we can go for 45 depending on what actually transpires on Sunday of aalla hell we may even go an hour long as always we appreciate you listening thanks for the support we’ll talk to you guys in 24 hours after the conclusion of this PJ championship