At one point Saturday, before the final groups teed off for the third round, 11 players were tied for the lead at the Wells Fargo Championship. When the final round gets underway Sunday, that will very much not be the case.
Wyndham Clark, behind a 63, and Xander Schauffele, with a 64, distanced themselves from the rest of the field during the third round, finishing at 16 under and 14 under, respectively. No one else is better than 11 under.
Here are three storylines to watch for Sunday’s final round:
Wyndham Clark’s mindset
After his second-lowest round in relation to par in his PGA Tour career, Clark credited his play to renewed focus on his mental game. One of his strategies includes reading the book, Energy Bus.
“Energy Bus. It sounds kind of lame, but actually, it’s a really good book,” Clark said. “[It] was all about self-talk, positive self-talk and what that can do to your life and just perspective. I had a lot of other books that I’ve read thus far.”
Self-help books aside, Clark, a seventh-year pro from the University of Oregon, said he’s tried to focus on his mental approach before, but this time he went “all in.”
“You know what, all right, I was very frustrated with playing good golf but not getting the results,” he said. “I said, ‘Alright, this is kind of the last straw for me.'”
His strategic approach to Quail Hollow has been on display this week.
Despite having prodigious length off the tee, Clark laid up with an iron on the drivable par-4 14th Saturday, as he did the previous two rounds. While CBS analyst Trevor Immelman initially questioned the move — Clark was one of just six players to lay up Saturday — the play resulted in his second birdie of the week on the hole.
He missed just one green Saturday. On 18, he was just a few inches left of the putting surface.
Should Clark go on to win, he would become just the latest player to make the Wells Fargo Championship his first win on Tour. Max Homa, Rickie Fowler, Derek Ernst, Rory McIlroy and Anthony Kim all won for the first time at Quail Hollow.
Xander Schauffele drafts off Clark
‘You have to have a very developed game’: Xander Schauffele’s plan to get the major monkey off his back
Not since McIlroy’s dramatic 62 to win in 2010 has someone made six-straight 3s on Quail Hollow’s final six holes. Schauffele was just a few inches from repeating the feat after he eagled the 15th and birdied the opener of the Green Mile on 16.
His birdie putt on the difficult 18th just slid past the cup.
Scoring was nearly a shot under par Saturday, nothing absurd, but you’d have to go all the way back to Adam Svensson in a tie for ninth to find a player on the leaderboard who didn’t break 70 Saturday (And he made a quad on 18).
Justin Thomas started the round just one back at seven under, shot 70 and lost seven strokes on the lead.
Yet, Schauffele was among a group of players who were surprised to see himself and Clark able to go so low.
“It’s just one of those things out here, I feel like I’ve said it before in interviews, you just see someone doing it,” he said. “Fortunately it was the guy next to me that I played all day. Once these guys out here see someone do it, they just end up doing it. Like when it’s really cold and rainy, you feel like, man, I feel like three under would be a good score, then some shoots seven under and then all of a sudden three under’s in like 30th. So guys are really good out here. Monkey see, monkey do is definitely a thing that happens out here.”
Clark agreed the two players were able to draft off each other’s hot rounds.
“I birdied 13 and I was kind of steady Eddie and I hit it in there and made about an eight-, 10-footer on 14,” Clark said. “I think that kind of got him to where he’s like, all right, I’m now three, four back, I’ve got to put the pedal down. I think that’s kind of what happened, I think he got maybe a little more aggressive.”
Adam Scott seeks first win in three years
Adam Scott, legendary ex-Tiger Woods caddie Stevie Williams reunite
Adam Scott has not won on the PGA Tour since just before the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic in February 2020. On Saturday, he admitted the global disruption and later restart was a bit of a setback to his game.
“[It] is a shame, but that’s what it is,” he said. “I was in charge of all those decisions that I made.
“I feel like last year I really worked hard to kind of climb myself back into a good spot and this year has been slow to get going, calendar year-wise certainly.”
He may be five back heading into the final round, but with just two players ahead him, he said this was his best performance through three rounds in a tournament this year. His last close call at a tournament came in the six-way playoff for the 2021 Wyndham Championship.
“It’s been hard not to be frustrated because there isn’t one thing that I can really put my finger on why I’m not getting better results,” he said. “I play OK every week and OK kind of sucks on the PGA Tour, so I’m nowhere with anything.”
He’ll be in the penultimate pairing with Tyrrell Hatton and he still believes someone could come from outside of the final group to win Sunday given how tough the final three holes are.
