‘What just happened?’ Scottie Scheffler makes unreal par from penalty area

Scottie Scheffler hasn’t had his best stuff this week at the 2025 Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club, but that didn’t stop the three-time major winner from pulling off the incredible on Saturday.

After barely making the cut, Scheffler went out early on Moving Day and started zooming up the leaderboard. He made birdies on three of his first six holes before appearing to run into trouble on the par-4 seventh hole.

Scheffler hit his tee shot way left into the penalty area. His ball bounded into a wooded area, which appeared to leave him only one option: pitch out into the fairway. But after observing his lie and finding a small window, Scheffler opted to go for the green. In typical Scheffler fashion, he pulled it off, leaving himself an easy two-putt for par.

 “It was kind of an interesting one because the lie at first looked bad, and the more we got in there and looked at it, the kind of more options that came about,” Scheffler said after shooting six-under on Saturday to move into the top 10. “The grass was more airy than it was thick. For me to go back to the fairway, there was kind of a bush behind my ball and on that side of the ball, so I felt like it was actually safest to go to the green.

“Originally when you get up to a lie like that, I think the first thought in your head is the safest place is to try to get it back out in the fairway, but the areas where I was going to chip it out seemed like a pretty hard shot. It looked like I had something through the trees. The penalty for not pulling it off wasn’t too bad. So just figured I would try something.”

Scheffler has won in each of his previous two starts. He ran away with the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, and then lapped the field last week at the 2025 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow to grab his third major title. All of that has Scheffler feeling a little drained this week in Fort Worth, Texas, but he still found a way to put himself in the mix and hopes to engineer some Sunday fireworks at Colonial.

“I would say mentally I definitely am a bit tired,” Scheffler said. “I’m definitely taking a lighter schedule this week than I normally would at a tournament, but overall, my game, it feels like it’s in a good spot. I felt like I was able to get some good rest to start this week. I’m just out here battling. I had a good day today. The first two days definitely could have been a bit better, but we’ll see how things shake out during the course of the afternoon and see what I can do tomorrow.”

Scheffler will tee it up next week as the defending champion at the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village before likely taking a one-week break before the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club.