CROMWELL, Conn. — Entering Saturday, world No. 15 Xander Schauffele had a five-stroke lead over the next closest competitor — his friend, world No. 6 Patrick Cantlay. Five strokes — tied with Tommy Bolt and Gene Littler, who did it in 1954 and 1959, respectively, for the largest lead through 36 rounds at Connecticut’s PGA event.
The pair played together to win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in April, and looked forward to challenging each other on the TPC River Highlands course at the Travelers Championship this weekend.
Cantlay got hot and shot a third-round 7-under-par 63, which made up four strokes on the lead as Schauffele cooled off. He stands at 16-under, one behind Schauffele.
“I thought I played really well today,” Cantlay said. “No real mistakes. I could have made a few more putts, but all in all it was a great round.”
Cantlay, who holds Travelers’ records of his own, registered four birdies on the back nine. His fairway shots consistently left him with several relatively easy putts on a green that was baked by the 90-degree weather. The surrounding crowd following the top group held its collective breath on the par-3, 158-yard hole 11 when Cantlay’s tee shot rolled inches left of the tournament’s first hole-in-one this year.
Schauffele’s first bogey of the tournament came 49 holes in after he landed his first tee shot in the water on 13. He finished the third round 3-under 67 with his lead diminished.
“I would love to have that tee ball back on 13. For the most part I knew it wasn’t going to be easy to protect a lead, especially when it’s five shots and it’s easy to get comfortable. It’s easy to hit it to 30 feet out here with a wedge. But that’s just not going to be enough to win. So, I’ve got to make a few more birdies [Sunday],” he said.
Schauffele made four birdies — including two in his last three holes — to finish at 17-under.
“(Schauffele’s) very consistent,” Cantlay said. “I think you saw that today. Even when he hit a loose shot or something he didn’t let that affect him.”
Cantlay wasn’t the only competitor who made up ground on the leader. After what was once a five-shot separation, there are now five contenders within five of the lead.
One of them, Sahith Theegala, had been working on a “little squeeze draw” for the last three months that had been doing well off the tee, so he tried it on the 10th hole Saturday. With his driver, the shot went 203 yards into the left rough.
If he made par after that, he’d be ready to attack the rest of the back nine and make a run toward the top of the Travelers leaderboard. And he did exactly that.
“I hit a great recovery shot just short left of the green there and I caught a nice lie in the rough,” Theegala recalled.
He birdied 11 and made even-par on 12 before crushing his second shot iron 209 yards to set up an eagle on 13. Theegala then birdied 15 and 17 — taking the top-spot on the leaderboard for a quick stretch before finishing 6-under par 64 and in third place, three strokes behind the lead.
The Pepperdine alum has had four top-10 finishes in his rookie year on the tour.
“I’m definitely going to be nervous, definitely going to be excited (entering Sunday). It’s so nice having prior experience kind of being near the top, I know exactly what to expect,” he said. “And every single week I’m out here I feel like I’m getting more and more comfortable.”
In addition to Cantlay and Theegala, Kevin Kisner is just four strokes behind. Martin Laird and K.H. Lee each shot 4-under 66 on Saturday to tie in fifth place, five strokes off the lead.
“Hopefully I can hit it just a little bit better [Sunday] and shoot something low 60s to have a chance,” Kisner said.
“I just love beating people,” he added. “And if you got a chance to beat ‘em, you got to really focus.”
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler had been relatively quiet lurking around the middle of the pack with a 68 and a 67 in the first two rounds, respectively. With help from three birdies on the back nine, he shot 5-under 65 Saturday, jolting him to 10 under through three days.
“I haven’t made as many putts I want to the past few days, but I feel like I’m hitting the ball good and rolling it well. Just going to wait and they will start going in,” Scheffler said.
Rory McIlroy, ranked No. 2 in the world coming into Travelers, shot 2-over 72 on Saturday after a tough even-par round Friday. McIlroy made his second double-bogey 6 in as many days on hole 2 and bogeyed three more times to find himself 11 shots back entering Sunday.
The top two, Schauffele and Cantlay, will tee-off at 1:55 p.m. Sunday.
“I expect a great challenge out there,” Cantlay said.
