CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — For a brief minute, it seemed Bryson DeChambeau was beginning to lock in on a third major championship.
The notorious long-ball hitter had just made birdie on the 15th hole Saturday to get to 8-under-par, giving him sole possession of the lead at the PGA Championship. And then Quail Hollow’s famous three closing holes known as the Green Mile — and a few untimely gusts of win — changed everything.
The two-time U.S. Open champion made bogey on No. 16 and double bogey on 17.
In a span about about 90 minutes, DeChambeau went from first place to tied for eighth and six shots behind leader Scottie Scheffler with a round left.
While DeChambeau struggled down the stretch, Scheffler seized the moment. The world’s No. 1 player played the final five holes in 5 under to take command of the tournament at 11-under 202. Scheffler led by three shots over Alex Noren.
DeChambeau’s decline started on the par-4 16th hole, the same hole that Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele and Scheffler all double-bogeyed Thursday.
He missed a makeable par putt, taking his first bogey of the day.
Then he found the water on the par-3 17th, forcing him to take a stroke and drop. The LIV Golf player finished with a 5, sending him spiraling down the leaderboard.
“I hit a great 9-iron exactly the way I wanted to. The wind just pumped it. Nothing I can do,” DeChambeau said. “Wind flipped from being neutral off the right and it just was almost straight in. We misjudged that, considering on (hole) 16 we thought it was playing almost a little downwind.”
On the 18th, DeChambeau again misjudged the wind and left his approach shot from the fairway bunker short of the flag. He had to settle for par.
“The wind cost me three shots — and that’s what happens here at Quail Hollow,” DeChambeau said.
It was a tough break considering he had played the first 15 holes so masterfully in 5-under par and was looking at one of his best rounds at a major.
“That’s why golf is the worst four-letter word in the world,” he said.
DeChambeau said he wouldn’t change anything about he played his round.
“I can’t complain too much,” said DeChambeau, who shot 2-under 69. “You can always ask for more. You can always try to be a little greedier out there.”
DeChambeau has been in the mix on the final day in three of his last four majors.
He won the U.S. Open last summer at Pinehurst and briefly led on the final day at the Masters before shooting 3-over-par 75 and losing to McIlroy.
A 6-shot deficit to Scheffler might seem insurmountable, but DeChambeau said he won’t go down without a fight.
“I’m behind the 8-ball now. I’ve got to get my guns a-blazing tomorrow,” DeChambeau said. “All I can do is control what I can control and if I go out and shoot 6-, 7-under, that’s what I’m focused on doing. Not that that’s what’s going to do it, but you never know. But I’m going to shoot as low as I possibly can.”
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