Scottie Scheffler storms into a 3-shot lead in the PGA Championship with another major in sight

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — One swing was all Scottie Scheffler needed to send Quail Hollow into delirium Saturday, to briefly rattle Bryson DeChambeau, and to give this PGA Championship the star power it had been lacking.

Scheffler stood on the 14th tee, 304 yards from the hole, thinking it might come up a little short with the wind gusting right-to-left against his preferred fade. It was nearly perfect, the ball climbing onto the green and settling just inside 3 feet away.

The eagle put him atop the leaderboard for good and started a closing stretch that was nothing short of a clinic, 5 under over the last five holes. It sent him to a 6-under 65 and a three-shot lead as Scheffler closed in on a third major championship.

“I executed the shot,” Scheffler said. “Did I execute it thinking I hit it 2 feet or whatever it was? I mean, there's a little bit of luck involved in that when you're at 300 yards. But overall, I executed how I wanted to.”

He did that a lot in the final hour and left so many contenders feeling helpless against the No. 1 player in the world.

Jon Rahm made a run with three straight birdies. Bryson DeChambeau briefly had the lead until his tee shot on the par-3 17th found the water. He was trying to salvage a bogey putt from 25 feet away when the loudest cheer from across the lake by the 14th green made him back off.

Scheffler, of course.

The world's No. 1 player turned a three-shot deficit into a three-shot lead over Alex Noren (66), who only last week returned from seven month away with a hamstring injury and now gets his first opportunity to play in the final group of a major.

Rahm was among those five shots behind. DeChambeau was six back. They thought they would be closer until Scheffler wasn't satisfied with taking the lead. He wanted a proper finish, and delivered it with two birdies, each packed with a little more emotion.

It ended with an 8-iron from the seam of a divot to just inside 10 feet for birdie on the 18th, and Scheffler pumped his fist accompanied by, “(Expletive) yeah, baby!”

“I typically don’t show much emotion. I don’t know how much I showed there. I don’t really think about what I’m doing,” Scheffler said. "I just felt like I hit two really good shots in there ... and was able to just take advantage of the opportunity.

“Wherever the emotion came from, felt like an important part of the round to finish off the round the right way.”

DeChambeau, the U.S. Open champion who has been a major force at golf's biggest events, briefly took the lead with a birdie on the par-5 15th. And then it all came undone.

He missed a 4-foot par putt on the 16th. He was stunned to see his ball find the water on the 17th that led to double bogey. He had to scramble for par on the 18th and a 69.

DeChambeau was three behind when he finished, six behind when Scheffler got done with his masterful performance.

“I’m behind the 8-ball now. I’ve got to get my guns a-blazing tomorrow,” he said.

The third round was delayed by morning storms, forcing a change in tee times to threesomes off both tees that didn't start until shortly before noon. And then it became a game of musical chairs for the lead. Nine players had at least a share of the lead at one point.

One of them was Rahm, the two-time major champion and former No. 1 who has not seriously contended in the four majors he has played since joining LIV Golf.

“Hard to express how hungry I may be for a major, about as hungry as anybody can be in this situation,” Rahm said. “Very happy to be in this position.”

He finished nearly two hours before Scheffler and figured he would be at least one shot behind going into the final round. “This golf course is tricky and one shot is nothing on 18 holes,” Rahm said. He now faces a five-shot deficit, but armed with growing confidence in his game.

Scheffler, remarkably, for the first time posted the low score of any round in a major with his 65, which moved him to 11-under 202.

The 3-wood on the 14th was what got it started. The up-and-down for birdie on the par-5 15th gave him the lead for the first time in the championship. His best shot was his only par in that stretch, a 7-iron off a slight hill to a back pin with a nasty wind direction.

He missed a 12-foot birdie putt. But Scheffler then made an 18-foot birdie putt for one of only six birdies on the day at the 17th, and then finished it with his seventh birdie of the day.

Masters champion Rory McIlroy and defending PGA champion Xander Schauffele had a long day, nothing to do with each posting a 72. They were supposed to tee off at 8:25 a.m. and likely would be finished in time for lunch.

With the change to threesomes of both tees, they didn't start until 1:38 p.m. and were on the other side of Quail Hollow as all the action was on the closing stretch.

Davis Riley, whose game has been rounding into form since he battled a two-way miss at the start of the year, made three straight birdies around the turn and two more on the scorable 14th and 15th holes for a 67. He was at 7—under 206 along with North Carolina native J.T. Poston, who birdied his last hole for a 68.

Rahm was tied for fifth with Si Woo Kim and Jhonattan Vegas, who had two-shot leads after 18 holes and 36 holes and began Saturday with two straight bogeys. But he steadied himself and was still in the mix until driving into the water on the 15th for bogey and finishing out his 73 with a three-putt going on the 18th.

DeChambeau played in the final group at the Masters with McIlroy, and he played bogey-free through 15 holes until a finish that did more damage than he realized.

“It cost me three shots and that's what happens here at Quail Hollow,” he said.

It left DeChambeau, Rahm and everyone else in a tough spot trying to make up ground on Scheffler, whose last tournament was an eight-shot victory in the CJ Cup Byron Nelson.

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Bryson DeChambeau reacts after hitting his tee shot into the water on the 17th hole during the third round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at the Quail Hollow Club, Saturday, May 17, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Jon Rahm, of Spain, waves after making a putt on the first hole during the third round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at the Quail Hollow Club, Saturday, May 17, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Bryson DeChambeau waves on the 18th hole during the third round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at the Quail Hollow Club, Saturday, May 17, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Alex Noren, of Sweden, hits from the fairway on the 18th hole during the third round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at the Quail Hollow Club, Saturday, May 17, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Scottie Scheffler hits his tee shot on the 15th hole during the third round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at the Quail Hollow Club, Saturday, May 17, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Scottie Scheffler smiles on the seventh hole during the third round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at the Quail Hollow Club, Saturday, May 17, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Rory McIlroy, of Northern Ireland, hits his tee shot on the 11th hole during the second round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at the Quail Hollow Club, Friday, May 16, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Scottie Scheffler reacts after missing a putt on the 10th hole during the second round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at the Quail Hollow Club, Friday, May 16, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Twenty-three men have died by court-ordered execution so far this year in the U.S., and seven other people are scheduled to be put to death in five states during the remainder of 2025.

A South Carolina man's execution on Friday evening was the state's sixth in the past nine months. Stephen Stanko was put to death after a federal judge ruled that the man’s lawyers didn’t have evidence there were problems with the state’s lethal injection process.

A day earlier, an Oklahoma man was put to death after an appeals court lifted a temporary stay of execution issued by a district court. That followed the execution Tuesday of two men in Florida and in Alabama.

So far this year, executions have been carried out in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

States with scheduled executions this year are Florida, Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas, though Ohio’s governor has routinely postponed the actions as the dates near.

All of 2024 saw 25 executions, matching the number for 2018. Those were the highest totals since 28 executions in 2015.

Here's a look at recent executions and those scheduled for the rest of the year, by state:

Anthony Wainwright, 54, died by lethal injection Tuesday for the kidnapping, rape and murder of Carmen Gayheart in 1994. Gayheart was abducted from a grocery store parking lot with another man in Lake City, Florida.

Thomas Lee Gudinas, 51, is set to die by lethal injection June 24. Gudinas was convicted in 1995 and sentenced to death for raping and killing Michelle McGrath near a bar. He would be the seventh person to be executed in Florida this year.

Gregory Hunt, 65, died by nitrogen gas Tuesday for the 1988 beating death of Karen Lane. She was found dead in an apartment in Cordova. Hunt had been dating Lane for about a month.

Alabama last year became the first state to carry out an execution with nitrogen gas. Nitrogen has now been used in five executions — four in Alabama and one in Louisiana. The method involves using a gas mask to force a person to breathe pure nitrogen gas, depriving them of the oxygen needed to stay alive.

John Fitzgerald Hanson, 61, died by lethal injection Thursday after he was convicted of carjacking, kidnapping and killing a Tulsa woman in 1999.

A judge temporarily delayed the execution on Monday after Hanson’s lawyers argued that he did not receive a fair clemency hearing last month before the state’s Pardon and Parole Board. They claimed board member Sean Malloy was biased because he worked for the district attorney’s office when Hanson was being prosecuted.

Malloy has said he never worked on Hanson’s case at the time and was unfamiliar with it before the clemency hearing. Malloy was one of three members who voted 3-2 to deny Hanson a clemency recommendation.

On Wednesday, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals lifted the stay. The court wrote that the district judge didn’t have the authority to issue the stay.

Hanson was transferred to Oklahoma custody in March by federal officials following through on President Donald Trump’s sweeping executive order to more actively support the death penalty.

Stanko was executed for killing his 74-year-old friend Henry Turner in April 2006.

Stanko, 57, was also on death row for killing a woman he was living with and raping her teenage daughter.

Stanko chose to die by lethal injection instead of in the electric chair or by firing squad.

Mikal Mahdi was executed by firing squad in South Carolina on April 11. Mahdi’s lawyers released autopsy results that show the shots that killed him barely hit his heart and suggested he was in agonizing pain for three or four times longer than experts say he would have been if his heart had been hit directly.

The state Supreme Court rejected a request from Stanko’s lawyers to delay his execution so they could get more information about the death of Mahdi. A doctor hired by the defense said Mahdi suffered a lingering death of about 45 seconds to a minute because his heart was not destroyed as planned.

On Wednesday, a federal judge allowed the execution to go on despite arguments from Stanko's lawyers that inmates in the past three lethal injection executions died a lingering death — still conscious as they felt like they were drowning when fluid rushed into their lungs.

Mississippi’s longest-serving death row inmate is set to be executed on June 25.

Richard Gerald Jordan, 78, was sentenced to death in 1976 for kidnapping and killing a woman in a forest. Jordan has filed multiple death sentence appeals, which have been denied.

Mississippi allows death sentences to be carried out using lethal injection, nitrogen gas, electrocution or firing squad.

Byron Black, 69, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Aug. 5. Black was convicted in 1989 of three counts of first-degree murder for the shooting deaths of his girlfriend, Angela Clay, and her two daughters.

Harold Nichols, 64, is also scheduled to die by lethal injection on Dec. 11. Nichols was convicted of rape and first-degree felony murder in the 1988 death of Karen Pulley in Hamilton County.

Blaine Milam, 35, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Sept. 25. Milam was convicted of killing his girlfriend’s 13-month-old daughter during what the couple had said was part of an “exorcism” in Rusk County in East Texas in December 2008.

Milam’s girlfriend, Jesseca Carson, was also convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Ohio has two executions set for later this year, with Timothy Coleman scheduled to die on Oct. 30 and Kareem Jackson scheduled to be executed on Dec. 10.

However, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine already has postponed into 2028 three executions that were scheduled for June, July and August of this year. DeWine has said that he does not anticipate any further executions will happen during his term, which runs through 2026.

Associated Press reporters Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, and Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City contributed.

FILE - A guard stands in a tower at Indiana State Prison on Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, in Michigan City, Ind. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley, File)

This photo provided by Florida Department of Corrections shows death row inmate Glen Rogers. (Florida Department of Corrections via AP)