'It Was Actually Safest To Go For The Green' - Scottie Scheffler Pulls Off World-Class Par Save During Charles Schwab Challenge Round-Three Charge

At times, it really feels like there is nothing Scottie Scheffler cannot do. And the World No.1 reinforced that theory thanks to a simply stunning par save during round three of the Charles Schwab Challenge on Saturday.

Well back of the leaders to begin Moving Day, Scheffler birdied his first two holes and then added another at the sixth to make steady upwards progress. However, an uncharacteristically-wayward tee shot at Colonial Country Club's par-4 seventh hole appeared to be on its way to undoing all of his early momentum.

Having pulled his drive, Scheffler's golf ball bounded into the tall grass below a small gathering of trees and came to rest in a position that seemingly required a safe pitch back out on the fairway - if the three-time Major winner could get club on ball at all.

It turns out he could, and then some. Scheffler thumped his ball through a small window between branches and landed it just on the front edge of the green before it rolled out to the middle of the putting surface.

On the PGA Tour broadcast, commentators called it "the shot of the tournament" and noted that even Scheffler's playing partners, Lee Hodges and Gary Woodland could not help but laugh.

Explaining how he saw the incident after his round, Scheffler insisted it made more sense to go for the green than attempting to find the fairway again.

He said: “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 more options that came about. 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.”

Despite saving par at seven and carding four further birdies - plus an eagle - during the remainder of his round, Scheffler began to run out of gas on the back nine and made three bogeys inside his final seven holes - errors that, had he avoided, would have left him just three strokes back of Ben Griffin and Matti Schmid at the top.

The recent PGA Championship and CJ Cup Byron Nelson winner admitted after round three that he was slightly drained following his third Major triumph but vowed to continue fighting for his latest PGA Tour title, no matter what.

Scheffler said: “I would say mentally I definitely am a bit tired. 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'm going to try to get the two shots back as quickly as possible, and then we'll go from there. We'll see what happens this afternoon.

"Right now things are out of my control, but we'll see. I think the conditions will be pretty challenging again tomorrow, so there's always an outside chance."

Whatever happens to the adopted Texan on Sunday, Scheffler is scheduled to defend his crown at the Memorial Tournament at Murifield Village next week before likely skipping the RBC Canadian Open in order to ensure freshness for the US Open at Oakmont Country Club days later.