Scottie Scheffler leads by 5 at RBC Heritage with play halted

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — Seems solely the rain can cease Masters champion Scottie Scheffler.

Scheffler holed a tough pitch for eagle on his second gap Sunday to construct some separation within the RBC Heritage and regarded so flawless that it was solely a matter of time.

After which he ran out of time. A storm system with heavy rain stopped play for 2½ hours, and Scheffler was capable of get via solely 15 holes when darkness compelled a Monday end. He led by 5 photographs with nobody significantly difficult him.

“Everyone seems to be making an attempt to chase Scottie, and he is making it actually robust as a result of he retains successful,” U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark stated after giving it his finest effort.

Clark, who began the ultimate spherical 7 photographs behind, opened birdie-eagle-birdie and at one level bought to inside 1 shot of Scheffler. He was 8 beneath via 11 holes till an journey into the bushes proper of the twelfth fairway led to double-bogey.

Clark already has completed runner-up to Scheffler twice on this wonderful run, at Bay Hill and The Gamers Championship in consecutive weeks in March. He a minimum of managed to complete his spherical at 6-under 65 and posted at 15-under 269.

Patrick Cantlay and J.T. Poston joined him at 15 beneath and have been simply off the 18th inexperienced. Sahith Theegala additionally was 15 beneath and in the precise tough on the sixteenth gap.

The ultimate spherical is about to renew at 8 a.m. ET Monday. Scheffler has three holes separating him from a fourth victory in his previous 5 tournaments, a degree of dominance not seen on the PGA Tour because the prime of Tiger Woods.

The exception in his streak was a runner-up end within the Houston Open, when he misinterpret a birdie putt from 5 toes that will have compelled a playoff.

Now he’s on the verge of turning into the primary participant since Bernhard Langer in 1985 to win the week after slipping on the Masters inexperienced jacket.

Scheffler was relentless as ever Sunday, particularly on the finish.

On the par-5 fifteenth, he hit his second shot into the water fronting the inexperienced, which he assumes was on account of mud on the underside of his ball. Dealing with a fourth shot with bushes blocking a direct path to the flag, he hit a shot with sufficient spin to experience the slope right down to 12 toes.

The horn to cease play had already sounded. Scheffler selected to complete and flippantly pumped his fist when he made it for par. That prolonged his streak to 66 straight holes at par or higher.

Scheffler confirmed extra emotion for that par than for his eagle on the second gap or the 2 birdies that adopted.

“I felt just like the par was fairly essential tonight, simply having the ability to fall asleep and nonetheless conserving a clear card,” he stated. “I felt like I bought a foul break there within the fairway. I have not needed to hit a shot like that in a very long time, so I figured there will need to have been mud on the underside of the ball. Simply good to maintain the cardboard clear.”

If it is a battle for second place — identical to it was on the Masters final week when Scheffler gained by 4 photographs — there was cause for Cantlay and Poston to attend.

Second place alone is value $2.16 million, some $800,000 greater than a four-way tie for second.

Cantlay marked his ball subsequent to the collar of tough left of the inexperienced. Poston was wanting the inexperienced, some 30 yards from the again left pin.

Nobody has an opportunity of catching Scheffler until the world’s No. 1 golfer makes a collection of blunders within the morning, and that regarded inconceivable.

Scheffler has not made worse than par since a double-bogey on the third gap Thursday. He had a streak of 53 holes — relationship to the fifteenth gap of the opening spherical — with out something larger than a 4 on his scorecard.

He started the ultimate spherical with a 1-shot lead over Sepp Straka and asserted himself on the par-5 second gap. His second shot caught the again slope of a entrance bunker and shot it over the inexperienced, leaving him a pitch up towards mounds, short-sided given the inexperienced ran away from him.

It got here off completely, bouncing quick and proper, crawling up the slope and feeding down into the cup. Scheffler simply checked out his caddie, Ted Scott, his backside lip barely jutted as if to say, “Not dangerous.”

After which each gap besides No. 8, he was placing for birdie. He missed two possibilities inside 10 toes however dealt with the par-5 fifth with ease and holed a 6-foot birdie putt on the thirteenth, when his strategy narrowly cleared the steep railroad ties framing the entrance bunker.

All he has to do now could be end to gather one other $3.6 million test earlier than he heads house, the place his spouse is due with the couple’s first baby the next week.

9 gamers have to complete, a gaggle that doesn’t embody Tom Hoge.

Hoge elected to complete the 18th after the horn sounded. His tee shot sailed out of bounds. His fourth shot went into the native space, and Hoge chopped his option to a quintuple-bogey 9. That gave him a 74, dropping him from a tie for sixth to a tie for 18th.